Axle Stands.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Messages
5,569
Location
New Zealand
In the US they call them jack stands for some reason. We call them axles stands, because after you have jacked the vehicle up, you put the stands under the axles....when cars had axles that is.

There could be another reason they are called axles stands - when they are made from axles ! this was a pretty common thing in days gone by. These aren't used often now, but I had one propping up a machine the other day, and took a photo before putting it away. And another one too...we have half a dozen.

[Linked Image]
 
Maybe called jack stands because they're adjustable although you really can't jack them up. Most guys not in the trade wouldn't have access to old axles to make them or a way to get a vehicle as high as the one on the right. Great idea.
[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Nice old stands but in today's world its a lawsuit waiting to happen if some numbskull used them wrong and dropped the vehicle.


True that. Many of the China made stands I see these days scare me … and I don't use them enough to justify pro grade … so I wind up load sharing with a stand and a jack (or two) …
I'll use my ramps if the wheels can stay on.
 
Part of the reason they are called "jack stands" is due to thier resemblance to the old style bumper jacks used on most cars in the past.
[Linked Image]

One also used them on the jacking point of newer cars to hold the car up.
 
Originally Posted by Silk
[Linked Image]



Those round bases seem very unstable. Like you could lean on the car and it would tip over. A proper jack stand has 4 spread-out legs to support the load steadily.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Those round bases seem very unstable. Like you could lean on the car and it would tip over. A proper jack stand has 4 spread-out legs to support the load steadily.

Agree with that!

Scott
 
Actually, the more round a base is, the more stable it is. Circles spread the load better (consistent) than polygons, which have weak/strong spots. My guess is that square bases are easier to construct (cheaper), and over engineer, which is probably why they're so common with jackstands. They're not necessarily better, though.
 
Last edited:
Round base has one contact point with the floor. Common square stands have four. Square stand is much more stable especially if the load isn't centered exactly. Or you can use a hybrid like this.

[Linked Image from fototime.com]
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
...Square stand is much more stable especially if the load isn't centered exactly. ...


That is not accurate. The instability of a load is the exact reason why a round base is a better choice.

A square is more stable than a triangle. A pentagon is more stable than a square. A hexagon is more stable than a pentagon. A heptagon is more stable than a hexagon. An octagon is more stable than a heptagon. ...and so forth. Keeping adding sides and what you're essentially creating is a circle.

A polygon's edges and vertices create weak and strong points. A circle is evenly stable.
 
Tilt that round base stand just slightly, and only a half inch wide section of the base is touching the ground. Tilt the square base stand with legs 6 inches apart, and you effectively have 6 inches touching the ground, plus no tendency to roll like the round base style.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Tilt that round base stand just slightly, and only a half inch wide section of the base is touching the ground. Tilt the square base stand with legs 6 inches apart, and you effectively have 6 inches touching the ground, plus no tendency to roll like the round base style.


The whole point is to prevent tilt. Once you've reached the point of tilting, all bets are off, as you've exceeded the limits your device was designed for. A circular base prevents tilting better than any polygonal base. That's the use case of a jackstand.
 
I've had one side firmly on a stand, started to jack the other side when I see the stand start to tilt a good bit before I realized it, and stopped. If it was on a round base, I could imagine the car would have fallen over to that side before I knew what happened. Just my observation, right or wrong.
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
There are some combo rigs … I had a bigger version of these but seems someone else needs them more than me …

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Powerbuilt-640912-3-Ton-All-In-One-Bottle-Jack-and-Jack-Stand/21079147

This seems like a fantastic idea if you have the clearance to get the stand under the area where you want to jack up and it has enough lift range. I usually jack up, put a stand and leave the jack as a backup. This device accomplishes it all. I like it.
 
Thanks for the post. Definitely from a day when there was tons of junk lying around and welders wages were nothing. The other home made stands I've come across are those stands they use at self serve Pick and Pulls that are basically two steel rims, one at 90 degrees to the other welded with a few beads. They hold up the cars at each corner. Seems to work but probably is not ASTM certified. I've been under a few.
lol.gif
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Propflux01
Part of the reason they are called "jack stands" is due to thier resemblance to the old style bumper jacks used on most cars in the past.
[Linked Image]

One also used them on the jacking point of newer cars to hold the car up.

Picture of an accident waiting to happen.
 
This ^^^!!

I remember how easy it was for these things to tip over!

A friend almost got nailed but the tire caught in the wheel well so the car didn't fully hit him.
 
The weak point of any stand is the adjustment mechanism, whatever it is. No adjustment on these, and in their intended use, on a concrete floor, under a round axle housing, are very stable.

A lot of equipment in this shop is homemade. Like the press, even the oil tank, they have welded ends on a tube, brackets, hose fitting etc. It all works, and have been doing their job for many decades.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Nice old stands but in today's world its a lawsuit waiting to happen if some numbskull used them wrong and dropped the vehicle.

^ this right here! Silk those are killers man! Throw them dammed things in the iron pile. And buy something decent. Our local bobcat dealer recently had a death in their shop from one of those exact stands. He had split a tractor and the front half was being supported by a very similar stand and some how it tipped into the back half and knocked them both over. I know a guy that was working there at the time and he says it took that event to finally get the tightass owners to start buying decent shop equipment. This guy I know and 2 others drug up the following day. Be safe man!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top