Lifting up our vehicles to perform repairs is something that is necessary for all of us on occasion. To make sure you are safe while doing this, make sure that you have a pair of jack stands ready to take the full weight of the vehicle.
It is important to use car jack stands and not just a simple jack, since jacks can and do fail every so often – and you don’t want to be under the car when that happens! Once you have seen an accident happen once, you will make sure that you take proper safety precautions from then on, but please take my word for it – you must use jack stands if you are going to be working under a car or similar vehicle.
They only take a few moments to slide underneath and securely support the vehicle, and you can then work on it in safety.
Here is how to utilize automobile jack stands correctly:
- Using a normal jack, lift the vehicle up. Once the chassis is off the ground, you can move onto the next task.
- Look under the car to see where the jacking points are located, or you can look at your owner’s manual. If you are not sure then the axles are normally a good place to start.
- Take a jack stand and position one under the jack point, make sure it is properly aligned.
- Now, using the single jack slowly let the vehicle down bit by bit, still checking to see if the stands are in the right
place.
- The stands should now be supporting all of the weight of the vehicle. You should now be able to remove the jack. Walk to the front of your automobile, and place your hands on the hood. Give it a gentle lateral push to make sure it there is no rocking.
You can now work under the vehicle without fear of it falling. To lower it, repeat the procedures in reverse. Remove the jack and stands once finished. That was easy, wasn’t it?
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Jack stands are great and useful items of garage equipment, but how do you tell a good make from a bad one?
A jack stand is used to hold an automobile above the ground for extended periods of time, after it has been initially lifted by a trolley or floor jack. It is placed on the frame rail or axle of the auto, or on any part of the car which has been designed to be load bearing. Through the use of jack stands you can be confident that the auto will be unlikely to collapse when working underneath it.
Just about every car shop sells their own brands, with different types of support and construction available. If you have never purchased one before, look for these safety features:
First, check the quality of the finish. A well made jack stand should have clean welds and appear solid. If there are any signs of rust or wear before it has even left the shelf then leave it there. Also check for rough edges – another sign of a poor stand.
The most stable auto jack stands have wide rubber feet that won’t sink in soft ground, and they also add more stability. Avoid stands that have no feet as these can only be used on concrete. Even then, these stands should be ditched in favour of feet based models or, even better, stands that have a continuous base.
The type of support mechanism normally used is either peg or ratchet based. Even though the least expensive stands are peg types, you should go for one that uses a ratchet for a greater amount of control over the stand. Plus peg based models can be quite awkward to use, since it is often difficult to get the correct height. If you really HAVE to use a peg based stand, make sure it has a safety catch and that all the pegs fit before first use.
Jack stands are so cheap in comparison with other automobile tools, so there is no excuse for using inferior models. As long as you check a stand for the proper safety features before buying or using, you should be always be safe when working underneath your vehicle.
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Before commencing any type of repair of fix under a car, you must first give it proper support before starting. There have been many accidents over the years where improper equipment was used to support a car, such as bricks and breeze blocks – and these materials have collapsed, injuring the person below the chassis.
There really is no need in this day and age for these kinds of unsafe projects. These days there are a wide variety of jacks and stands to full support any vehicle for any amount of time. While you would use a floor or trolley jack to initially lift an auto, to sustain the lift indefinitely you are going to need some jack stands. These are used to take all the weight of an auto without fear of the chassis collapsing.
Jacks stands have a cupped design at the top that support a jack point, frame rail or axle on the car, preventing the car from sliding laterally. You can be sure that once some stands have been utilized to support the chassis correctly, it’s never going to fall in a million years!
Traditional jacks have a problem in that their seals can on occasion fail, leading to a falling car -sometimes when an unfortunate soul is underneath!Now, I’m sure some of you people out there reading this will take objection to what I have said, since you have lifted up your automobile on a trolley jack plenty of times. But the statistics don’t lie – car jacks do fail more frequently that you would think. For the low cost of a set of jack stands, why risk the pain of breaking multiple bones at once?
Jacks are only really designed to temporarily lift a car off the ground just of long enough to change tyres, not for extended usage. In addition to this, a jack stand can support far greater weights in comparison, making them even more essential if you have a heavy auto such as a SUV.
Jack stands are designed for extended use; I’ve had some underneath cars for months on end to take the weight off the suspension. It’s pretty hard to find stories of jack stands failing, so don’t risk your own personal safety – think about investing in a set of jack stands!
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When a mechanic or car enthusiast works on an auto, his personal safety should be his number one concern. However, injuries in a car garage caused by collapsing cars happen every day in America, and the main cause of this is that the proper equipment is not used correctly.
The main tool used to support cars is called a jack stand. When positioned under a raised car at the jack points, axles or other load bearing places, it will support the car should it slip slip.
Jack stands are not infallible however, but having multiple sets to support the car is very safe, with each stand sharing a portion of the load each. If only one stand is supporting all the weight of a vehicle, then it only takes for it to be in the wrong place for the car to collapse. If multiple stands are in use, then if one is in the wrong place the other will take the strain.
Since stands are very inexpensive, why aren’t they used more often? Mechanics say that using stands is awkward and time consuming. However, spending time setting them up correctly is infinitely preferable to being crushed by a 3 ton vehicle. Trying to save time by balancing a car using one jack stand is equally crazy!
An alternative to using multiple stands is a hydraulic jack stand. With one of these models, the lifting post is prevented from ever accidently falling. The post features teeth that grip the casing should the hydraulic system fail. If time really is that important to you then the mechanic should buy one of these, but he should be aware that using multiple jack stands can be just as effective.
Safety should always come first when jacking up an automobile. Use as many stands as necessary to ensure redundancy should the car start to slip – the more the better! If a mechanic can afford it, and is looking to save as much time as possible then he should choose hydraulic jack stands. While correctly lifting a car can be awkward and time consuming, the amount of time spent doing it correctly will be time saved in hospital later on!
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