Where to place jack stands safely?

I own a good set of stands & a good set of ramps . Lose a friend under a car & you learn real fast.
STAY SAFE MY FRIENDS , WORK SAFE.

 

I have found it very important to always put the jack stands UNDER the car! Sorry.....just my feeble attempt at humor.

 

Beaner pulled it off better
Practice practice practice

 

This can be appreciated by those who live in any state that gets a few quakes. When the ground gets a rocking, the cars tires and suspension will sop up most of the vibrations without risk of it falling off a stand.

I prefer to make feet for the wheels to sit on. Usually made out of 2"x10" and 4"x4". Cut the 2x10 into four 2' sections, and the 4x4s into eight 10" sections. Nail em together an instant poor mans lift. I enjoy the ability to scurry under the car and not shoulder a stand. Also great for torquing down rubber suspension bushings with the suspension loaded.

Admittedly, I probably would not try to use these feed under anything that is heavy, such as a 50s Cadillac, COE, etc. without adding a center 4x4.

It gets the vehicle high enough into the air to pull a transmission, but still keeps the weight on the tires so you can hop in the car if need be and not worry about shifting anything.

As for stand placement, I keep the stands inside the axle centerlines. I never use the frame horns as a jacking or rest area.

 

I try to put some big blocks of wood under the car along with the jack stands. The wood blocks are 8x8x16. I try wedge the blocks so there is not an air gap.

 

I prefer putting jack stands (that are rated at waaay above the car I'm working on) under the frame or subframe in front and under the rear axle in the rear.

Ha! Porknbeaner, that was great.... 'bout the ramps on a cam...

Good call on the "arc" of lift/lowering Mike51Merc... seen a few weird angles from that before in people's garages.

 

Model A is a good place to start.



I actually have a set marketed by good year that I have been using for since about 90 or 91. The fella at supershops gave them to me when I bought some urathane front end bushings, that are real solid and have a rachet lift and lower device.

But model A axle bells are real stable and pretty much usless for anything else. My first set of jack stands were just like these only yellow, I got them right after the first time I got wallered by a car. A gift from the fella that jacked it up and got me out.

 

I fucken love you porknbeaner! You speak my language. Goodmorning Homie.

If not all, than most of my tools are "hand-me-downs" & if I dont got it, i'll improvise. Last resort - Go to the store.

 

I bought my jack stands at Sears. I am a sear sucker.

 

Well that suits me just fine.

 

Jesus, getting too punny in here. I have some wooden ramps that are 2 x 12's cut so you can drive up them. Easy Peasy.

 

and I think he means the car, not your ass.

 

Thanks for all the excellent advice!!
I have 2 sets of stands, one 2T AC Delco, and the other 2 T Harbor frieights. I do know a girl who's father was crushed by a car so that may be why I am xtra cautious.
I just wasn't sure where to place them? but I am thinking know maybe the ramps would be the best idea, because I am on gravel.
The IFS makes placement tough. My other projects are Jeeps with solid axles front and rear.

 

I weld 1/4" steel plates to the legs of the jackstands...Give them a bigger footprint.......

4TTRUK

 

How about keeping it "traditional" and dig yourself a lube pit., and screw OSHA

 

I am a scientist and it wouldn't be OSHA, it'd be the EPA crawling up your butt.

 

In this case there'll be no driving with no tranny....

 

chuck the harbor craps or sell them for scrap metal, not worth your life

 

Jack stands AND a block incase. That's what they dun teached us! 12 1 foot to 16 inch sections of 2x4. lay 3 down parallel, then 3 across the top 90 degrees to the bottom 3. make sure the corners meet up. Nail or screw then together so you get a good square. Repeat untill you have used up the wood. Add more if you want it taller.

Put the car on Jack stands, then shove the block under there somewhere out of the way, but where it can catch the car if the stand fails.

 

Those two ton models have a 6" base and go up 16"

Put any car you want on there and I can push it right over. Too small of a base.
Happen to use those with a jack that doesn't roll on the other end and you're going to have an issue. Pray its not an incident.

 

If you look around at harbor freight,..they sell some cheapo stands, as well as some which are a lot better made,....Spend the extra $$,..... Same goes, no matter where you buy things of that nature......

4TTRUK

 

I don't trust their chinese crap, I've seen the "good ones" with broken welds before

 

My butt is like a ducks, its water tight. Anything crawling up it no matter what the letters are just, OSHA, EPA, YOURWEENER, and ETC., brings tears to my eyes.

I don't think that OSHA has outlawed oil pits there are still plenty of shops around here that use them. If I dug a pit I may want to make sure it was shored up well, that would be well as in good not well as in water, which bringfs us back to our first statement.

 

This is what EVERYONE I know does.

 

Ours have saddles welded on the top rather than the radius cut in the model a axel, gives much more surface for the car to sit on. I think they are about 18" high and we only put them under the rear axel (custom made stands for the front axel). Haven't failed since 1962.

 

A lot of different reditions of axle bell jack stands over the years, these are about usless except for going under the axle because of the fish mouth. I guess if you had a tube frame. The channel makes them more versatile, for sure.

I had a set once that had the top from a pair of house jacks welded in them, I really loved them because you could get them under there and then used the house jacks portion to fine tune them. Perfect for getting one ready for welding in a cross brace or seting an engine or pinion angle. Pretty much anything that needed a precise setting or frame angle.

 

I was down on the reservation the other day. They removed the two small side windows on a picture window. They then put some planks in the removed window openings for car ramps. Cool?

 

I was under my buddys truck helping with a 4 link when an earthquake come. Dont think I ever moved that fast before. Scared the shit out of us. Now unless Im working on brakes or suspension, I use a set of old 10" wide wheels under the tires of the car. They are super sturdy and theres no way the vehicle can fall or role off when sitting on these with the cars weight.

 

If the car comes off of those the President is going to declare a disaster and a FEMA guy will get you out.

 

Earthquakes pose a problem that's quite unique. Building codes are quite different and I would suppose that supporting any elevated load should be specialized too.

Btw, I had to look several times at that avatar to figure out that it wasn't what I thought it was.