Best friend passed away doing a brake job..

[JHZR2]

My Dad had this old screw jack. Not sure what happened to it. Maybe it was just a jack stand that screwed up. You could put a rod through it to turn the screw up. But not sure how much leverage you had if you were trying to lift a car or truck. Kind of like the one in the picture.

View attachment 320775

I always thought that approach would be decent, as long as the forces didn’t mess up the undercarriage/frame coatings or the pavement. 1/4 plywood might fix both.

I don’t know the dimensions, but the screw jack shown, and many pin type stands strike me as having a smaller base, so you’re trading one issue for another.

I’m not a huge fan of any jack stands personally.

 

[Donald]

What about issues with a floor jack on gravel. The floor jack needs to roll a little when lifting a vehicle. If the floor jack is on gravel it probably cannot move, so the vehicle is pushed a little. That might not be best.

I would think if a floor jack is on gravel and cannot move much it might be better to have it inline with the vehicle vs perpendicular to the vehicle. Need to think about that some more.

I put plywood strips on asphalt so the jack can move and also not dent the asphalt.

 

[crashz]

I always felt safe but lately, and partly due to The motor guy's loss, I've been feeling a little sketchy. I had to replace a wheel bearing and tie rod end this weekend on my truck. I jacked up the front end, used jack stands under the axle, blocked the frame as a secondary support, left the jack under the axle, and only took the tire off of the passenger side for the work I was doing.

HF is now selling the new Daytona ratcheting jack stands with a safety lock pin. I picked up two, and will probably pick-up two more. I currently have two sets of the older jack stands with no lock pin. They weren't the models that slipped, but I still would rather have the extra lock pin.

 

[ls1mike]

I am very sorry to hear this. Something you never want to hear. It is something I think about all the time because my kid does dumb stuff when working on his trucks.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Sorry for you're loss -( ....Please extend my condolences. Happens too often !! Another was posted here not too long ago -(... I use the jack stands now, but not when I was " young & dumb". The things I use to do, just using floor jacks, back in the 70's & 80's, makes me cringe with fear now. I consider myself very lucky.