Just a friendly reminder!
- Thread starter -Clayton-
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Thank You Clayton, i am glad nothing happened to you, i am sure we all have stories of near misses that could have had a serious impact on our lives.
again thank you for the reminder!
Duane
again thank you for the reminder!
Duane
Been there and have the mark to prove it... Got everything out but my thumb. A side note though jack stands aren't a cure all. I almost had another car fall on me also but I had jackstands under it. I guess I'm getting quicker as I age.
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- Sep 28, 2002
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Funny you should mention this Clayton. Saturday my neighbor and I went searching for a high pinion D60 front axle out of an 85 (or whatever) F350. Didn't find one at the U-Pull-it (plenty of stuff, but not the D60). We took a different way back and stumbled into some Germanic "Village of the Dam-med" type junkyard/newer-used car/farm truck lot (all the men were immaculate and white haired and blue eyed and had Pennsylvania Deutsch accents). Roy, the only non-alien (he had the accent), first took off the lug nuts of the front wheels ..then burned off the U-bolts (getting way under the donor truck). He didn't think nothing of it
He then brought in an old tow truck and lifted the truck off of the axle ..then he and my buddy rolled the axle out (on the barely on wheels - I think he got the order a bit wrong with the lug nut thing) and threw a couple of rims under the hulk.
I even said to the guy, "Roy, I'm sure you know what you're doing, but I gotta watch this process here to figure it out.".
I even said to the guy, "Roy, I'm sure you know what you're doing, but I gotta watch this process here to figure it out.".
Back in my "wrenching" days we used to always place the vehicles tires/wheels under the car after removing them. That way if a jackstand gave way the vehicle frame would land on the inflated tires...sort of an airbag for your under side.
Dan
Dan
I've never owned jackstands, I've always just threw the tire under it or whatever else I could grab. But after my van almost fell on me I'm going to pick some up this week. I've had very many close calls when I get out from under one of my vehicles then it falls afterwards.
At first I didn't use jack stands. After I read what can happen with jacks I won't go under a car without them at least in place to catch the car if it falls. Jacks have 3 problems.
They can tip, especially if you jack from the center to raise both sides at once. They can tip if your assistant trips over the handle.
They can collapse suddenly. It's just a tiny valve that is holding it up.
They can let themselves down so slowly that you don't notice until there's no room left to escape, no problem if someone is available to jack it back up.
Unless there's a good reason not to I leave the jack in place once the car is on stands. You can move things, get the car off the stands with less work, and it's a 3rd leg in case one of the other two fail.
They can tip, especially if you jack from the center to raise both sides at once. They can tip if your assistant trips over the handle.
They can collapse suddenly. It's just a tiny valve that is holding it up.
They can let themselves down so slowly that you don't notice until there's no room left to escape, no problem if someone is available to jack it back up.
Unless there's a good reason not to I leave the jack in place once the car is on stands. You can move things, get the car off the stands with less work, and it's a 3rd leg in case one of the other two fail.
I always use them. Takes only an extra 2 minutes to put them under the frame.
I always use jack stands with the jack, and I use ramps with them too when possible that way if one fails the others are there. On smooth concrete always put a rubber mat under the ramps because the small rubber feet on the ramps arent enough to keep them from sliding. I drove the van over a brand new set of ramps once that way since the torque from the wheels slid the ramps across the smooth concrete ruining them before I ever even got to use them.
Its my life and it only takes a couple minutes extra to set up the jack stands which is alot better than two months in the hospital or worse possibly if I dont use them and the extra protection is reassuring. Jack stands can tip too, mainly when the car slides over while jacking it up real high on smooth concrete so watch your stands on the other side while you jack it up to make sure the car isnt sliding and tipping them. I guess you could put rubber under them to keep them from sliding too if you wanted.
Its my life and it only takes a couple minutes extra to set up the jack stands which is alot better than two months in the hospital or worse possibly if I dont use them and the extra protection is reassuring. Jack stands can tip too, mainly when the car slides over while jacking it up real high on smooth concrete so watch your stands on the other side while you jack it up to make sure the car isnt sliding and tipping them. I guess you could put rubber under them to keep them from sliding too if you wanted.
I usually lower the vehicle onto the stands a bit so they along with the jack share the weight of the vehicle. I have 2 floor jacks and usually use both jacks and 2 stands.
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