![]() ![]() It is always advised to give you car a little shake before climbing under to verify the stability of your setup. Jack stands allow you to have multiple points of contact when supporting your car so you avoid tipping issues, even if you aren’t under the car. ![]() In some cases this can be stable, but if you are lifting from the middle of a car, such as from the rear differential, this can leave your car wobbly and prone to tipping to one side or the other, whether it is apparent or not. ![]() Second, if you raise your car with just a floor jack, you only have one point of contact. A jack stand is a fail safe against this type of event. This can cause damage to you or your car. If you are solely relying on a jack to support your car, your car is prone to falling. The reasons you should use jack stands religiously are as follows:įirst, as mentioned previously, hydraulic jacks can and will occasionally fail, particularly cheap ones. When/Why Do You Use a Jack Stand?Īs a general rule of thumb, you use a jack stand any time even a single wheel of your car comes off the ground, but particularly when you plan on having your body between your car and the ground. It is nearly impossible to release the ratchet by accident once a car is resting on the stand, because to do so would require you to lift the weight of the car using only your hand strength. Most jackstands allow you to pull the platform upward freely, but to lower the jack stand you must disengage the ratchet mechanism. The typical jack stand consists of an A-shaped base frame, a ratcheting post attached to a platform upon which you rest your car, and a ratchet handle mechanism. Unlike a floor jack, a jack stand has very few potential points of failure. It provides a solid mechanical stop to prevent your car from falling, which means you don’t have to rely solely on the hydraulics of your floor jack (which you should never do). The jack stand is an adjustable height mechanical structure or frame that is used to support your car once lifted. NameĪ jack stand is a critical safety item when it comes to working underneath your car. However, if you are just looking for a quick recommendation, this table is for you. If you want a more in depth look feel free to skip ahead. The table consists of the makes and models of some of our favorites, as well as relative price and average rating. Jack Stand Comparisonīelow is a quick reference table designed to give you quick and easy comparison before we dive too deep into the article. So what should you do to make a raised car safe to climb under? Enter the jack stand. This is why it’s never a good idea to climb underneath your car when it is only supported by a floor jack. As such, they have been known to slowly let a car down on top of someone as the hydraulics lose pressure and the problem is often noticed only after it’s too late to escape. The particularly scary part about floor jack failures is that they often come in the form of a slow leak. Floor jacks have moving parts that are prone to wear, and they can become weak or outright fail with use and time. However, a floor jack alone is not enough. The most obvious way to keep yourself safe when lifting your car is to make sure you have a good high quality floor jack. Fortunately for all of the shade tree mechanics out there, this type of injury is one of the easiest to avoid as it merely requires a little bit of common sense and good sturdy equipment. This is a more common occurrence than one might expect, and one that results in more trips to the emergency room and more trips to the morgue each year than any other automotive wrenching related injury. While it doesn’t take a genius to imagine that the result of a car falling on top of a human would be uncomfortable at best and fatal at worst, most would agree that the car is going to win…every time. Two such times when you are at particularly high risk are when jacking up your car and when working under your car. Sure there are more minor injuries such as busted knuckles, a pinched finger, or the occasional burn when working on a motor that’s still warm, however more serious injuries can also result from carelessness or even so much as a momentary lapse in judgement. It’s often easy to overlook the many perils and pitfalls that lurk just around the corner when working on your car. ![]()
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