Use jack stands people!

Geez.... trying to sell some e30 parts and purge garage space, this guys been messaging a few days about grabbing some, asks if I want to see a pic of his car.
Sure guy, what ya got? "Been under there all day working on getting her back on the road" 

Holleee e30m3!

Man.  Like nothing.  Not even wheels under the car.  Dang.

The heebie-jeebies; I haz them now.

I hope he listens.

I can't tell what he's got supporting the rear.  Is it teetering on 2 jacks?!

I see his feet. Is he dead?

I had a coworker who found his neighbors 20-something daughter dead under her car, who had been following an online video to change her own oil but wasn't taught the importance of supporting the car with more than just the jack.

Even with the car supported by both the jack and stands, in addition to laying wheels under it if available, I have still never fully rid myself of that little nervous feeling crawling underneath to twist, push, and pull on things under there. 

Yikes. That is seriously sketch.

I mean, yeah. I've had cars on two jacks temporarily. I don't go anywhere near that high nor get under it. But it's not as bad as this:

In reply to bobzilla :

That gets worse the longer I look at it. 

When I think back to how I changed the starter on my X-11 using just the bumper jack...

Long before I was born, a relative died doing brake work on his car, with a bumper jack (parts of GRM have used them!) and a cinder block to hold it up. 
Been taught that one since I was knee high to a grasshopper. 
Neighbor dropped a car on himself in the '80s using a stack of wood blocks. 
 

I have two friends live through a car dropping, more by luck than by being careful 

To be fair it looks like he does have jack stands, they're just holding up the rear of the car.  Guess he didn't think to buy two sets....

A good friend died when his car fell on him, even with 4 jackstands under it. You have to think about weight/balance, too.

I always shove the car around when I put it on jackstands.  Like all of my weight / effort.  Me no wanna be under when I'm huffing on something and a stand teeters over.

Sister's elderly neighbor dropped a car on himself in the driveway and broke his back. He lived but had permanent injuries.

Ask for some contact info for his friends or family. Looks like you'll be able to buy a red E30 cheap from the estate....

One thing I've learned: Always, always, always keep jack stands together in a set of four, and always keep them accessible with the jack vs. buried behind stuff. This goes for the race track, too. If the jack leaves the trailer, so should the stands. People (yes, even you) are lazy, so make it as easy as possible to use them. 

It's amazing and terrifying how many people in this thread alone have personal experiences with someone getting killed or maimed by a jacked-up car. 

I like working on my cars on all 4 wheels whenever possible. And I still don't like it! Changing my oil on the JT today my brain goes, "what if this tire spontaneously popped?"

Tom Suddard said:

Ask for some contact info for his friends or family. Looks like you'll be able to buy a red E30 cheap from the estate....

One thing I've learned: Always, always, always keep jack stands together in a set of four, and always keep them accessible with the jack vs. buried behind stuff. This goes for the race track, too. If the jack leaves the trailer, so should the stands. People (yes, even you) are lazy, so make it as easy as possible to use them. 

I don't know how many people I have called out for jackstands at the racetrack.  I will be a pain in their ass until they get stands out.  Like...  wtf?  I don't want to walk past that and then know someone got squished.

The only time I don't use stands (I admit) is if I'm changing one wheel at a time, and immediately.  I'm lazy and paranoid, so there's a bit of a trade-off.

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

It's amazing and terrifying how many people in this thread alone have personal experiences with someone getting killed or maimed by a jacked-up car. 

I am another one. Girlfriend's brother, not using jacks had a car come down on him and broke multiple ribs. He was in the hospital for weeks.

Jerry said:

The only time I don't use stands (I admit) is if I'm changing one wheel at a time, and immediately.  I'm lazy and paranoid, so there's a bit of a trade-off.

If all I'm doing is changing wheels I also don't bother with stands.  I'm not putting any part of my body under the car and neither is anyone else.  Anything else, yes.

Jerry said:

The only time I don't use stands (I admit) is if I'm changing one wheel at a time, and immediately.  I'm lazy and paranoid, so there's a bit of a trade-off.

I do it that way all the time. If I'm not under the car I'm OK with it, but if I'm going under there will be jackstands , and wheels with blocks of wood on them. Oil changes were always done on a pair of ramps, so no jack or stands.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Jerry said:

The only time I don't use stands (I admit) is if I'm changing one wheel at a time, and immediately.  I'm lazy and paranoid, so there's a bit of a trade-off.

If all I'm doing is changing wheels I also don't bother with stands.  I'm not putting any part of my body under the car and neither is anyone else.  Anything else, yes.

 

 

For one wheel I put a jack stand under the car but I will leave it up on the jack. The jack stands in my van are right next to the jack.

This way if the car comes of the jack it will land on the stand and the likely hood of smashing rotors or whatever else is low.

I spend HALF of my time on a project figuring out how to safely get it jacked up high enough while positioning jackstands and moving the jack around. Seems like it's a two week project every time I get a new car figuring that sht out.