Need Input on Jack Stands

If you're going to buy some, these are the hot ticket: ESCO Jack Stand — 3-Ton Capacity, Model# 10498 | Jack Stands| Northern Tool + Equipment. Those are what S111 used to sell.

The normal stands will work, they're just a bit sketchy with the hockey pucks.

Yeah, but that's $70 per or $280! For a set of stands I'll probably use once.

Ouch. Really hoping to be able to leverage the HF ones I already have...

SwingLo said:

Yeah, but that's $70 per or $280! For a set of stands I'll probably use once.

Ouch. Really hoping to be able to leverage the HF ones I already have...

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You could sell them after use... I've used some just like your picture, they worked fine. Try to avoid hard pulling or pushing on stuck parts.

I use the ones from HF and they work great. I don't believe I have ever seen a real hockey puck, except on TV and they look slick there. It took 5 minutes with the power miter saw to make some octagonal wood blocks out of 2 x 4's that fit the top of my stands. The work very well.

I have some knockoff auto parts store jack stands that look exactly like the HF ones, and they're fine with pucks on them. The pucks compress just enough to stay in place very, very solidly despite the reduced contact area, and I've never seen or heard of a puck ripping or failing in any way especially with a car as light as ours.

Don't forget to chock your wheels, especially since you're using the helper which lifts both rears at once.

I did my oil pan (pretty high amounts of hammering/pulling/pushing to free the RTV on the old one) after using the jack helper to put the car on two of those stands with pucks and the car was rock solid. I always put wheels under the car around where I'm working as a last-ditch "maybe it'll save me" measure, too. Never needed them but can't hurt.

With the helper and even a low-rise Harbor Freight "racing jack" you can get those stands up to their second adjustment notch or so, so they're plenty short as well.

Caution! The first pair with the lever are dangerous! While working on the car you can possibly bump the lever causing the stand to collapse. There is a great danger of personal injury. I know someone who did inadvertently hot the lever while working under his car causing personal injury.

sturgeongeneral said:

Caution! The first pair with the lever are dangerous! While working on the car you can possibly bump the lever causing the stand to collapse. There is a great danger of personal injury. I know someone who did inadvertently hot the lever while working under his car causing personal injury.

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How hard do you have to hit that lever when there is weight on it for it to collapse? I know the pin should be safer, but I've struggled to collapse my stands with no weight on them before using the lever.

sturgeongeneral said:

Caution! The first pair with the lever are dangerous! While working on the car you can possibly bump the lever causing the stand to collapse. There is a great danger of personal injury. I know someone who did inadvertently hot the lever while working under his car causing personal injury.

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Mine have a lever and I wondered about this issue. The way they are designed, the weight bearing portion actually has to move up in order to release the lever. It cannot be done with weight on it. I wonder if there was an older version that had flats instead of notches maybe? Anyway, you can bang the levers with a hammer now and they will not release....although I do not recommend it. I guess you could hit the lever hard enough to lift the car.

jefrac said:

Mine have a lever and I wondered about this issue. The way they are designed, the weight bearing portion actually has to move up in order to release the lever. It cannot be done with weight on it. I wonder if there was an older version that had flats instead of notches maybe? Anyway, you can bang the levers with a hammer now and they will not release....although I do not recommend it. I guess you could hit the lever hard enough to lift the car.

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I too own the lever kind and have an awful lot of trouble understanding how they could possibly be collapsed by hitting the lever provided it's in the "down" position to start. I do see how you could "jam" the lever in a partially up position, put weight on it, and then hit it, but there's an easy solution to that - check that the lever is down before using it.

The levers on these stands have a shear pin in them - if the lever takes enough force to lift the load and disengage the latch, the pin is supposed to break before the latch can disengage.

They're engineered pretty well and I wouldn't worry too much about them provided they're used correctly.

Definitely agree that the pin-through kind is safer, but I don't think the ratchet kind are dangerous enough to be horribly afraid of.

jefrac said:

I use the ones from HF and they work great. I don't believe I have ever seen a real hockey puck, except on TV and they look slick there. It took 5 minutes with the power miter saw to make some octagonal wood blocks out of 2 x 4's that fit the top of my stands. The work very well.

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Yes.

Am told there are rubber, softer (street use) pucks, but beware that the normal, harder pucks are too slippery. Reported on a post or two here.

Wood is great: Cheap and gives a little bit.

glb said:

Yes.

Am told there are rubber, softer (street use) pucks, but beware that the normal, harder pucks are too slippery. Reported on a post or two here.

Wood is great: Cheap and gives a little bit.

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+1

Wood is great: Cheap and gives a little bit.

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That's what my wife said!

Gunpilot said:

Wood is great: Cheap and gives a little bit.

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That's what my wife said!

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GP is always ready with the best quote :clap:

Sorry, I guess im just immature. She slapped the **** out of me for that one! Ha!

On the jack stands in my opinion. Don't waste the money. Get a floor jack and do one side at a time. Just be careful............

When I did my brakes I tried to jack up one side high enough to put chassis stands underneath... but because the car is so low it was just about on its side and I still couldn't get the jack stands in!!

I couldn't figure out a way to easily jack up one end of the car because there are no jack points on the car centre line...

In the end I jacked up one side, did two brakes, then did the other side. Simples

In other words don't waste money on something that you'll find you can't use even if you want to!

KISS - Keep it Simple SwingLo

I've already GOT the HF stands (first pic) that a neighbor gave me so not a matter of wasting $. Question is, do they work well?

I've jacked up/removed wheels before (to put new wheels on and to route wires to the battery).

That certainly is in an option but could take forever. If you think about the G2 Caliper paint instructions, you are supposed to:

- Clean caliper
- 2 coats - 15 min apart
- Wait 2 hours to put wheel back on (cure time)
- Once paint and reactor are mixed, you have 4-6 hours working time.

So, that working time thing is a problem. In a perfect world, I'd do one wheel at a time, take my time (clean the wheels) etc, but the 4-6 hour window exists...

Simple method, good video:



Roger is a great guy and has an awesome Exige.

Use the stands you have and some blocks of wood. If the stands are too high, you can remove the center adjustable support and place the wood block on between the base of the stand and the car.

Gunpilot said:

That's what my wife said!

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Gunpilot said:

Sorry, I guess im just immature. She slapped the **** out of me for that one! Ha!

On the jack stands in my opinion. Don't waste the money. Get a floor jack and do one side at a time. Just be careful............

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"We are young only once, but we can be immature forever." glb

And, this behavior is ingrained. (apologies)