Why you should use Jack stands
 

Okay, some of you may not know, but you should NEVER get under a car that is held up only by a jack. You should chock the rear wheels, put the car in gear, put the e-brake on, and use JACK STANDS. If you want proof of why you should, just read below.

When I jacked this car up to install my ladder bar, I left the jack snug up against the car as a back up to the jackstand, just out of paranoia. Well five minutes into the install, in the back of the below picture, you can see the jack has slowly leaked down to a couple inches lower than the jackstand. If that car was only held up by a jack, I would have been slowly crushed.

http://www.the370z.com/members/equin...-jackstand.jpg

Just FYI. Lol.

extra precautions FTW

looks clean under there :tup:

time to buy a better hydraulic too... lol


modshack wanting to show off his lift....

Second. If your jack is dropping with NO LOAD, then that jack needs to be serviced, or thrown out.

Big snaps for using jack stands. top notch....TOP NOTCH!!

someone just died on my campus because he didnt use stands

here

^thats horrible

Holy crap, thank goodness you are alright. Good thinking by the way. Now about that jack.... lol

Jack stands and chock blocks don't even cost too much; it's always good to be extra careful.

I try to use lifts as much as possible to avoid even the potential occurrence.

Tall ramps go along way :)

Even with ramps, I'd always suggest chocking the rear tires too. Can never be too careful.

For jack stands, I own Husky stands that are sold at Home Depot. They are the only ones I saw which had the 2nd locking slide-through pin, and it gives me that much more piece of mind when I'm under there.

I was under a full size truck (Nissan Titan, my last vehicle) installing something suspension related and had the truck on jackstands. I had to raise the truck a little to make something fit and the jackstands were already at their full extension so the truck was an inch or two above the jackstands with the weight of the truck supported by the jack. The jack slipped and the truck fell onto the jackstands. The sound of 5000+ lbs. of truck coming down onto the jackstands is something I will never forget.

1st Morale of the story is have the right jackstands for the job (mine were not tall enough). I was a dumbass for not following this rule at the time.

2nd Morale of the story echoes the OP - use jackstands if you or any of your body parts are going under the vehicle, even for just a moment. As someone else mentioned ramps are also a good option if the job allows.

If I hadn't used jack stands that day I would probably be dead. It's sad to hear about the guy that wasn't so lucky above.

Always give the car a good shake to make sure it's secure on the stands, too!

race ramps ftw.

or lots of 2x4's


http://www.c5racer.com/catalog/images/race-ramp-10a.jpg