Oh, also, just a short drive from my office a guy has an S2000's rear end raised about 4ft. in the air with cinder blocks. It's been like that for months. The guy's obviously wealthy but I think the repair bill might scare him if those blocks crack. Just hope nobody's nearby when it happens.
I was driving to work and saw a Saturn resting on its brake rotors with two collapsed cinder blocks under it.
Ever see a jack stand bend and fail? I have.
Stupid NAPA jack stands.
I have some jack stands that someone gave me. I am pretty sure they are the ones from Wally World. I am trying to decide how much I trust them.
Does anyone make a good fixed height jackstand? I'd rather a flat top fixed height stand with an incredibly wide base.
I have some old craftsman jack stands, but the tops tend to bend things.
I have liked the "side a tire under" method also... although being that i'm fat i'd still be pinned... just no the full weight of the car would be on me...
I've got a set of 15+ y/o 3 ton walmart jackstands (well i'm pretty sure they are... got em from my dad along with a hydro jack) thick angle iron... my father-in-laws are some super cheap stamped steel (looks like whats at harborfreight) and one is bent up/crushed a bit (wouldn't be surprised if it was crushed by a car when it rolled off at some point based)... pretty sure up till about 5 years ago he only owned a few railroad ties (10x10 or so blocks of wood)
anyway if i'm jacking up high enough that I can get my 6 ton jackstands under I much prefer those vs the little guys super extended...
good reminder thread for garage safety though...
wonder how these would work?...
Oh I do have a serious question. What do you guys do about inclined surfaces?
donalson wrote: I have liked the "side a tire under" method also... although being that i'm fat i'd still be pinned... just no the full weight of the car would be on me... I've got a set of 15+ y/o 3 ton walmart jackstands (well i'm pretty sure they are... got em from my dad along with a hydro jack) thick angle iron... my father-in-laws are some super cheap stamped steel (looks like whats at harborfreight) and one is bent up/crushed a bit (wouldn't be surprised if it was crushed by a car when it rolled off at some point based)... pretty sure up till about 5 years ago he only owned a few railroad ties (10x10 or so blocks of wood) anyway if i'm jacking up high enough that I can get my 6 ton jackstands under I much prefer those vs the little guys super extended... good reminder thread for garage safety though... wonder how these would work?...
Is there a good way to do this that doesn't cost a bunch of money in the case of a car that doesn't have wheels on it? I would love to have my car that high up in the air when i re-assemble...
donalson wrote: wonder how these would work?...
Is that a heavy-ass American car sitting on 4 oversized Jenga towers? Because that's what it looks like 
I'm trying to figure out how you jack the car up high enough (given that the suspension droops obviously) to get those under the wheels!
I had a close friend/coworker, head of maintenance at the H.S. I work at, volunteer fireman, go figure he was working with jackstands but on GRAVEL... something shifted and it fell on him killing him instantly.... Safety is not a joke, these kind of stories make me sick to my stomach, literally nauseous when i think about my little girl either being hurt or not having me there as she grows up...
Taiden wrote: Oh I do have a serious question. What do you guys do about inclined surfaces?
Don't work on them. Period. there is no safe way to do this for a DIY @ home kind of rig, the lateral loads exceed any common jack, jackstand, or ramp, all the aforementioned are intended to be used on level surfaces only and their load rating assumes a level surface as well.
just. don't. do. it.
dyintorace wrote: I'm trying to figure out how you jack the car up high enough (given that the suspension droops obviously) to get those under the wheels!
The rear is pretty easy - jack it up by the pumpkin.
The front is trickier. You would need to jack it up enough to get the front in the air on stands with the suspension drooping. Then lift each front wheel by the LCA and set the tire on the stand. One has to be careful and account for the difference in width as the suspension moves.
I'm not so quick to dismiss home-made wooden stands. My g/f's father built her a set of wooden drive-on ramps that are much sturdier than the cheap metal ones. The only part that bothers me is the lack of a anti-roll-off feature. But that's not anything a good set of wheel-chocks won't cure.
The ones under than Camaro look fine provided there is some mechanism for locking the parts together.
We are super big on the jack stands but throw a tire or 2 under the side . When wrenching some shifting may occur
Jackstands for sure every time I'm under the car. I posted on another forum that I had changed the trans fluid and pan on the 750Li, which required that I lay under the car while it was running and being shifted through the gears to fill it. Someone posted back that I had big balls to do that, but the car was on 4 sturdy jackstands, and I shook the car every time before I got under it to make sure it was stable.
That being said, I need to be less lazy and use jackstands when I'm doing simple things like brakes - even though I'm not under the car, my head's in the wheelwell and if the car dropped I'd be hurting for sure.
I have 8 of these, I've put a car on them and tried to push it off and it didn't budge. I feel comfortabl enough that I'd sleep under one of my cars. Jack stands are worth every penny they cost.
pigeon wrote: That being said, I need to be less lazy and use jackstands when I'm doing simple things like brakes - even though I'm not under the car, my head's in the wheelwell and if the car dropped I'd be hurting for sure.
I am guilty of this as well, but I always toss the wheel under the control arm
When you are using a floor jack make sure it can roll easily on whatever surface you have it on.
My BIL was jacking up his 50 Ford in his driveway one hot summer day. He had the jack under the frame of the car and as he jacked it up the jack pad slid off the frame when he got it to full extention. The jack had sunk into the asphalt and couldn't roll.
Hal wrote: When you are using a floor jack make sure it can roll easily on whatever surface you have it on. My BIL was jacking up his 50 Ford in his driveway one hot summer day. He had the jack under the frame of the car and as he jacked it up the jack pad slid off the frame when he got it to full extention. The jack had sunk into the asphalt and couldn't roll.
I always wanted a jack that was on a track for this reason. But maybe that would be more dangerous. This is the only reason I don't have four jack stands yet. I'm too scared to put both ends up because the surface I work on doesn't allow for proper jack stand roll.
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Ever see a jack stand bend and fail? I have. Stupid NAPA jack stands.
bigbens6 wrote:Taiden wrote: Oh I do have a serious question. What do you guys do about inclined surfaces?Don't work on them. Period. there is no safe way to do this for a DIY @ home kind of rig, the lateral loads exceed any common jack, jackstand, or ramp, all the aforementioned are intended to be used on level surfaces only and their load rating assumes a level surface as well. just. don't. do. it.
well I don't have any choice but to work on a slope... not a bad one ... but a slope nonetheless... my solution ... I only jack one side at a time, put chocks in place on the off side tires.... do that sides work and reverse ... for anything that requires the entire car in the air I go somewhere else
GameboyRMH wrote:donalson wrote: wonder how these would work?...Is that a heavy-ass American car sitting on 4 oversized Jenga towers? Because that's what it looks like
I gotta look into making some of those. They look a LOT sturdier than jackstands
With the e30 I've been underneath ALOT with all four wheels off, doing diffs, driveshaft, exhaust, transmission, etc.....I have it "sitting" on four jackstands, but when I'm going to actually work under it I add another pair of jackstands on rear subframe and also put my floor jack under the front subframe "just in case. Plus there's always at least 2 wheels/tires hanging around under there since I don't have room to put all my wheels/tires on shelves, lol....
I will admit to lifting one side of the car on just a race jack when doing tire rotations. But I sure as hell don't actually get under any part of the car at any time for any reason. And I can do the rotation in about 30 seconds with the impact when I'm not stopping to take pictures of something, lol
don't be like me! 
If I don't have to take the wheels off, I use ramps.
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