Use your jack stands

confuZion3 wrote: I just bought an awesome set of stands from Home Depot yesterday for like $30. They are 3 ton stands with a sturdy base, a nice look, and my favorite feature: a thick steel pin that acts as a failsafe double-locking mechanism. That would have completely solved the Mustang's problem.

I need to check those out. My 2-ton stands have the pins, but my 3-ton don't. Oldopelguy, I had forgotten about shoving the wheels up underneath, too. Strange..I used to do that when I was young, but stopped somewhere along the way. I think I'll go back to that. Thanks for the heads-up.

I have never had an issue using decent jack stands... but there is a lot of crap out there. You don't need to spend much but things I look for:

• A wide square base with 4 legs instead of solid bottom to conform to irregularities in the floor, rather than just wobble on any slight bump. If jacking causes a lift, the sqare base won't spin either.

• A tight fit on the slide so when extended a bit it does not wobble if you grab the car and shake it... like say pulling on a 28" strong arm.

• Heft. This really isn't a place where anodized aluminum is needed. Heavy steel is your friend. It keeps 'em cheap and strong.

• A mechanical set/release, using teeth. I don't like the ones that use a hole and pins simply because sometimes due to placement you have to actually crawl partially under the car to put the pin in with 2 hands where as the toothed model you reach in with one hand and pull up.

As a general rule, if I am doing anything under a car and there are no "real" stands handy I try to find something solid (wood, old engine block, etc) and jam it under a non-flexible part, and lower the jack so just to provide secondary support. I never, ever use a jack as a primary support unless I am letting my 18 month old crawl around under my 'stang for pics :)

I've had good luck with these style, I prefer the 6 ton models because I can get the car up higher to clear my fat body and it make sliding big bits in and out easier. I also cut some 12 inch squares of 3/4 inch plywood so I can use them in dirt.

I also inherited a set of what could be the most dangerous stands ever made. A stamped round base, about 10 in across, with a 1 1/4 inch tube welded upright, with a smaller tube inside filled with sand. Pull the saddle up to the frame, and let the sand drain from the small tube to the big tube to hold the car. turn them over and the sand drains back into the small tube to collapse them.

My dad chewed me out once pretty good for not using stands, god I was dumb, but somehow I managed to survive. I love my nice wide stable rhino ramps, I probably use them more than the jack and stands.

Wally wrote: I also inherited a set of what could be the most dangerous stands ever made. A stamped round base, about 10 in across, with a 1 1/4 inch tube welded upright, with a smaller tube inside filled with sand. Pull the saddle up to the frame, and let the sand drain from the small tube to the big tube to hold the car. turn them over and the sand drains back into the small tube to collapse them.

There is a company building those now with ball bearings instead of sand, and they are pretty darn nice stuff if you can afford them. The upper tube has a washer with a small center hole on it's bottom end, so when the sand/balls drain into the bigger lower tube they create a solid mass for the upper tube to rest on. Incompressible and infinitely adjustable, perfect for a jackstand.

Jensenman wrote: After reading that VW Vortex thread, I immediately got some 2x8s and 6x6s and buit a pair of no-E36 M3 wood blocks. I screwed handles to them so they can easily be slid/carried. I feel a good bit better with those ready to catch the car if I do something really stupid, I'll probably build 2 more soon.

Having used these at J-mans shop, they rock! Cars on jack stands still seem to wiggle a little. On the wood blocks the car doesn't move at all no mater how much you have to push, pull, or pound on it.

Here's what the anti squasher looks like:

I plan to build 2 more. The first setup was 12" talI which wasn't tall enough so I put 2x6's on the top and bottom to make them 15" tall, they could be made 18' tall by lag bolting 2 more chunks of 6x6 to the underside in place of the 2x6's, run 90 degrees to the original blocks.

BTW, the Rhino Ramps are good stuff, strong and no wobbles. I do have 2 complaints about them: 1) they need to be longer so a low car like the Accord doesn't scrape when going up and 2) they should be about 3" taller.

Jensenman, thanks for the pic... I now understand.

next on the to-do project list.

I have a spare rail-road tie that may work perfectly

Grtechguy wrote: Jensenman, thanks for the pic... I now understand.

+1

A construction question...what purpose do the 2x4's (I think that's what they are) on the bottom serve? Are they just to add a little height to the equation?

cement blocks holding up my brother's F150 broke and it nearly fell on him... don't use cement blocks!

I like that jack/jackstand combo that sears sells. anyone have any experience?

I had a close call last week. I had to drive out to change the future M-I-L's flat. She has an XL-7 with a factory bottle jack. Get it up in the air and the lugnuts off, the wheel had rust welded to the hub. I was scared to hit the wheel hard enough to break it lose with out tipping things over. In the end I "Donkey Kicked" it and it came lose with out toppling over.

I get the new wheel on and as I install the third lugnut, I used enough TQ to rock it forward and off the jack. Thankfully everything was tight enough for stuff to not break and that I was out of the way

oldopelguy wrote:

Wally wrote: I also inherited a set of what could be the most dangerous stands ever made. A stamped round base, about 10 in across, with a 1 1/4 inch tube welded upright, with a smaller tube inside filled with sand. Pull the saddle up to the frame, and let the sand drain from the small tube to the big tube to hold the car. turn them over and the sand drains back into the small tube to collapse them.

There is a company building those now with ball bearings instead of sand, and they are pretty darn nice stuff if you can afford them. The upper tube has a washer with a small center hole on it's bottom end, so when the sand/balls drain into the bigger lower tube they create a solid mass for the upper tube to rest on. Incompressible and infinitely adjustable, perfect for a jackstand.

The sand is quite stable, but the pieces are so small that it's had to believe they were built to hold up 1950's land yachts

andrave wrote: I like that jack/jackstand combo that sears sells. anyone have any experience?

I bought a 2-1/4 or 2-1/2 ton jack with two stands of similar capacity years ago for $99 or so. I also bought two more stands of the same type for something pretty cheap ($19 or $29, maybe?). It was some kind of sale that seemed pretty good at the time.

Some people seem to have problems with the Craftsman jacks crapping out, but I've had no issues. The jack is compact, which is nice if you're taking it afield, but somewhat heavy, which is less nice if you're taking it afield.

dyintorace wrote:

Grtechguy wrote: Jensenman, thanks for the pic... I now understand.

+1 A construction question...what purpose do the 2x4's (I think that's what they are) on the bottom serve? Are they just to add a little height to the equation?

Those are 2x6's and they are there for a little extra height. There's one across the top as well. The original setup without those was 12", the 2x6's added 3" for a total of 15". 15" is pretty good, but 18" would be better (don't want to scratch the beer belly! ). That's why I'm going to take off the 2x6's and run some more 6x6's across the bottom, that will make them 18" tall.

The whole thing is lag bolted together, better figure on predrilling the holes and using an air impact to assemble them.

mad_machine wrote: I have never had good luck with jackstands. The best pair I had came from my Grandfather and they never came back from an ex-friend when he borrowed them. I tend to use cement blocks with wood on top now. Seem a LOT more sturdy than a small footprint stand

This is how the OP's buddy died. Just FYI.

I have a craftsman that my wife bought me about 8 years ago. They called it an SUV jack. Its a bit long and narrow for my liking with a small pad but it lifts very high. If I don't use it for long periods of time I need to bleed it which is where a lot of people think they've crapped out. Two co-workers had the same problem, but if you pull the rubber plug out and pump it a few times it works fine again.

these are the ones I was talking about:

craftsman lift and secure

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/07/26/craftsman-lift-n-secure-jack-system/

Ok. That's a different animal than what I was talking about. I've got no experience with those, but it looks a little too clever to me.

I have a set of ramps my father made me out of marine grade ply wood. They are about 12" high and 3" long just cut the bords to progressively shorter lengths. I would say they have no weight maximum. The length and height could be increased simply by addind lengths to the bottom. I need to do that as they are a bit short at times.

I have a couple pieces of 3/8" thick angle iron about 5" long I use as chocks.

My jack is a $40.00 special 3 1/2 ton Allied that was bought at Costco 8 years ago. It weighs a ton but is stable and strong

Harbor Freight 6 ton stands go under any thing up in the air unless it is on the ramps.

The biggest car I jack up is a 96 Ranger and all the lifting equipment is over kill but my safety margin is high. I dont skimp when it comes to things that could potentially crush me.

Mojo thanks for the photo.

Rhino ramps: the plastic ramps can crack and shatter on you. iirc it was an imitation brand that lost strength due to UV exposure. Also I worry about wooden blocks, especially multi-piece wooden blocks. Wood gets old and rotted and weak. Get some moisture between the pieces and you may not see the rot until its too late.

Unrelated but since I'm on the subject of things that go bad due to exposure over time who here has checked the date on your air tanks? My cheapo wal-mart tire tank has a date stamp on it that says its toast after 2011. With no moisture drain I guess that does make sense...when is the last time you drained your compressor? Nothing like a crack in a pressurized steel vessel to ruin your day.

I'd love to see a shop maintenance article in the magazine.

The anti squashers stay in the shop (out of the rain) and are made of treated wood. I have gotten to the point where I trust them more than I do jackstands.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Unrelated but since I'm on the subject of things that go bad due to exposure over time who here has checked the date on your air tanks? My cheapo wal-mart tire tank has a date stamp on it that says its toast after 2011. With no moisture drain I guess that does make sense...when is the last time you drained your compressor? Nothing like a crack in a pressurized steel vessel to ruin your day. I'd love to see a shop maintenance article in the magazine.

That's a good point. I was changing a cut off switch on our compressor and didn't wait for the air to drain. I ended up getting a good sting with bits of rust embeded in my hands. Compressed air can do alot of harm, and most of us never check the dates on anything. I'm sure I'm not the only one who figures if milk isn't lumpy it's still good.

Lumpy milk isn't any good? I knew that about beer but not milk. No wonder the kid gives me 'that look' some mornings.

It's becoming cheese, put it in the back of the fridge a little longer