JackStands

[patrick_g]

Always properly secure your elevated vehicle when performing inspections and maintenance. A good "ROCK SOLID" arrangement will ensure your safety.

Pat

 

[Soundguy]

He's probably under there brazing up the gas tank too!

soundguy

 

[dmccarty]

At least they are solid rocks.

Back when we lived in town the idiot neighbors used cinder blocks, aka CMUs, to hold up their Jeeps while they worked under the vehicle. Ya think they would have figured out this was a no no with all of the broken CMUs they had in the driveway.

Or that one of them was an EMT.

Figured one day I would go out and find one squeeshed under a Jeep.

Later,
Dan

 

[bigshovel]

Why is it everything I do when no one is looking end up on some discussion board on the internet with critic's lurking everwhere. There's nothing wrong with this procedure obviously the guy is still alive the rocks are still there. I guess my osha speech and lecturing needs modified.

Brad

 

[KennK]

Back in the late 60's, when I was a boy, our Boy Scout troop sort of "adopted" two boys whose father had died when the car he was working under dropped down and crushed him. Jose and Albert. Albert was the older one. Jose was real shy. They were a relatively poor family from Mexico and didn't speak much English at first. The troop did a lot to help get them gear and make them feel welcome. Scouting did a lot to show them that they could take care of themselves and grow. It was my first real exposure to helping others. A VERY sad story with somewhat of a happy ending.

Now I won't go under any vehicle - or even under my FEL - without some kind of jack stand or safety device. Life is too precious.

 

[QRTRHRS]

It has been many years but I still remember loosing a good friend during my high school years.

He had scored a major coo so to speak having picked up a really cherry 57' Chevy even by 1960's standards.

I think he was putting duel exhaust on it when it fell on him, killing him instantly.

To this day, I get comments about overkill when it comes to securing a vehicle when I work on one.

 

[Soundguy]

In the neighborhood I used to live in a father was killed when his car collapsed on him.. it was held up by hollow cell cinder blocks standing on end...

soundguy

 

[Bedlam]

And jack stands are just so cheap ..No reason not to have them.

like these. Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

and another link to something I havent seen
Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices



they say:Now you can easily lift low-profile, lifted and unibody vehicles without accessible jack points.

id say also good when you have the rotted frame , where the jack saddle 'goes up through' the body LOL

 

[wedge40]

I agree. Jack stands are so cheap these days. I have 3 sets and need to get a couple more, cause I use them to hold my 3pt attachments when not in use. Harbor Freight has them on sale for 10 bucks a pair quite often.

But I must say.. The guy in the OP will probably out live us all.

Wedge

 

[Bird]

Way back about 1961-62, a friend I worked with had his car fall on him. His wife came home and found him under the car, but alive. He was in the hospital a good while, off work a month or so, and when he came back to work, he looked like a walking corpse. Yep, I'm among those who won't get under a car without plenty of jack stands.

 

[wh22366]

I liked Soundguy's tank brazing comment. I once knew a junkyard owner who welded up gas tanks by first piping the exhaust from a running car into the tank. I used to go away before he started. Another time a fella in Calais, Maine soldered hole in a tank of tank of mine using a flattened penny and an electric soldering iron. Both of these guys were blessed.

 

[Bedlam]

thats why I like the 'new' high density plastic gas tanks..

 

[brandoro]

Since the truck on the rocks is a Dodge it will have a plastic tank. They started using them in the early 70's. The rest of the truck is steel though and way more than he would want sitting on him if the rocks decide it's time to leave.
I also have a nice collection of jack stands and often use them along with solid timbers under the wheels, just in case. I like that wheel lift though. I had to buy another floor jack the was low enough to get under my car, my regular floor jack won't fit under.

 

[Bedlam]

OOPS HMM Maybe the 'he' is a 'she' we could blame the opposite *** LOL

 

[texasjohn]

Looks to me like he's in Mexico... and, if you've ever been in a 3rd world country, you know that he's actually practicing safe mechanic procedures...for the area..... it may or may not be a US licence plate... but i bet it's one of those hundreds of auction vehicles I see all the time on I35 headed to Mexico.

That said, I have at least 4 jack stands and one really wonderful, long throw, 2.5 ton hydraulic jack from HF.

 

[Egon]

Just remember Jack stands also need a firm base to sit on and be sized correctly to hold the load.

Take a cool Texas day of 90 F. or so and put a heavy load on a jack stand sitting on pavement and it may just may sink in and tilt!

 

[patrick_g]

Take a cool Texas day of 90 F. or so and put a heavy load on a jack stand sitting on pavement and it may just may sink in and tilt!

Funny you should comment on hot pavement (not cement, probably black top.) I stopped at a rest stop which was black top pavement on highway 95 I think it was (loneliest highway in northern Nevada near Great Basin???) and while standing still for just a brief period I sank into the pavement and nearly was stuck. As I walked back to the truck I ended up a couple inches taller. Luckily we had some plastic bags to put our shoes in before getting into the nice clean truck. Later, at camp that night I used a toothbrush and several pans of diesel to try to get the goo off the shoe.

Jack stands in a situation like the that wold make for interesting times.

Pat

 

[Egon]

That is why I have some three quarter in. plywood squares cut out to fit under my jack stands.

The next problem is trying to find an almost level spot on the driveways where I can set up. For the front of the truck I almost always use wooden blocks as I do not trust my jack stands!

 

[patrick_g]

That is why I have some three quarter in. plywood squares cut out to fit under my jack stands.

I almost always use wooden blocks as I do not trust my jack stands!

Egon, with your wide experience with wood, hopefully you are careful in selecting your wood blocks and keep an eye on the grain. I have seen wood blocks split under load and let the vehicle down. I have through bolted blocks before to stabilize them.

I glued and screwed half sheets of 3/4 ply together to make 1 1/2 inch ply 2x4 feet in size. I installed rope handles at one end. Originally they were for driving my 1 ton Dodge over soft sand to deliver an RV to a rec site in the Baja desert but they were used a few more times for such things as a stable base for a jack and jack stands and for self rescue when I drove into too soft of sand.

I carried a piece of ply about 12x16 inches in my VW dune buggy so if I ever had to use the little hydraulic jack I carried I would jack up the vehicle instead of burying the jack in the soft sand. I also carried a small folding entrenchment tool because if yo are down in the sand there is no place to put the jack or the 12x16 plywood until yoiu dig out a spot to deploy them. Luckily I didn't have to use them but a few times.

Pat

 

[Egon]

My blocks are used with the grain at 90 degrees to the load.

Have you tried strips of expanded metal in soft sand?