what are good jack stands made out of?
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
what are good jack stands made out of? so i just bought some craftsman jackstands and they came out of the box with a fat chip right out of one of the pads so im not about to crawl under my car with them. and i took it to work and tested the metal and its just plain old carbon steel and that just doesnt seem right to me so if you know of any jack stands that are made out of anything stronger than carbon steel please let me know. also what do u guys put under the car for extra support (blocks of wood, etc?)
whenever i have to get under my car, i always use a cinder block under every tire as well as jack stands under the frame on all four corners......i got 4 cinder blocks plus i cut a 2x8" board into 4 pieces, each about 12 inches long and they sit on top of the cinder blocks.....it's solid as a rock and i have no worries about crawling under it.....one of these days i'll just buy a lift.
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 374
Likes: 1
ARG... NEVER use cinder blocks, they do not have a high compressive strength, they will eventually crumble on you.
Mild steel is a good material to make jack stands out of. it has good compressive strength, and isn't likely to get hard/brittle areas around welds... You're better off with them bending with mild steel then breaking if made out of higher grade steels...
Mild steel is a good material to make jack stands out of. it has good compressive strength, and isn't likely to get hard/brittle areas around welds... You're better off with them bending with mild steel then breaking if made out of higher grade steels...
whenever i have to get under my car, i always use a cinder block under every tire as well as jack stands under the frame on all four corners......i got 4 cinder blocks plus i cut a 2x8" board into 4 pieces, each about 12 inches long and they sit on top of the cinder blocks.....it's solid as a rock and i have no worries about crawling under it.....one of these days i'll just buy a lift.
the cinber blocks i have are new and the board on top of it distributes the weight from the tires evenly, but they are the last thing to go under the car, the jack stands go under first and sit against the frame.......all of the weight is on "jack stands", the blocks are just a backup, it works for me.
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 24,241
Likes: 89
From: Turnin' Wrenches Infractions: 005
I love back ups....I shove rims or ramps under the subframe connectors. I figure if something falls and my rim gets scratch well it probably saved my life so the hell with the rim.
As far as the jackstand, you have about 900 pounds at each corner of the car. I use 6 ton jack stands at each corner. I'm not remotely worried about breaking one. Why you would think carbon steel is inferior is beyond me....
As far as the jackstand, you have about 900 pounds at each corner of the car. I use 6 ton jack stands at each corner. I'm not remotely worried about breaking one. Why you would think carbon steel is inferior is beyond me....
Trending Topics
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 374
Likes: 1
as far as the cinder blocks go, that still stupid, so you're saying that if the weight shifts it will land on the block- smack one with a hammer and see what happens to it, then multiply that by the say 1000x or so (say comparing the weight of a hammer to the corner weight of the car)...
LS1 Tech Stories
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
Gas Monkey Built a 6-Wheel Ferrari Testarossa With a Corvette LT4 Engine
Verdad Gallardo
7 Most Reliable High-Performance Engines GM Has Ever Built
Verdad Gallardo
Amazing '71 Camaro Restomod Is Modern Muscle Car Under the Skin
Verdad Gallardo
6 Common C5 Corvette Failures and What's Involved In Repairing Them
Pouria Savadkouei
Retro Modern Bandit Pontiac Trans AM Comes With Burt Reynolds' Autograph
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Greatest Cadillac V Series Performance Models Ever, Ranked
Pouria Savadkouei
Top 10 Most Powerful Chevy Trucks Ever Made!
Hennessey's New Supercharged Silverado ZR2 Has 700 HP
Verdad Gallardo
Coachbuilt N2A Anteros Is an LS2-Powered C6 Corvette In Italian Clothes
Verdad Gallardo i use two 4 ton stands in the front, the back pair are 3 ton.....it's not going anywhere unless someone decides to go all running back into the side of my car while i'm under it....sometimes i put a couple of hydralic jacks under there too, as well as the jack stands and blocks......believe me, i wouldn't crawl under a car if i wasn't sure about it being safe, having one fall on you would be a f*cking nightmare........the blocks have just been there as an extra layer, but i'll grab a set of metal ramps since i'm about to swap out mufflers on my true duals
I use blocks of wood, they are built out of 2x6's 14 inches long, paired side by side then the next layer is 90deg from the first, all nailed together at each layer. Now, for anybody questioning these, I repair forklifts for a living. Some weigh 30,000 lbs. We jack up the truck and put one block under each wheel. you cannot compress the wood because its a solid piece and it cannot slip out from under the unit. Metal on metal can slip out.
They look like this
They look like this
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 374
Likes: 1
wood cribbing is a great approach as long as you make sure you have it put together in a way that it can't slide. I have some nailed together pieces that are somewhere around 5" tall that lock together so I can stack them under the tires at any height I want...
On The Tree
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 137
Likes: 0
From: Maryland
Whenever I get under my car, this is what I do:
1. I have jackstands on all 4 jacking puck locations
2. I leave the floor jack on the rear crossmember with a block of wood to widen support
3. I also have a set of race ramps that I put under the car with me on both sides
4. I also place the wheels/tires under with me as well if I take those off.
I am a safety freak
... Those horror stories have scared me lol 
1. I have jackstands on all 4 jacking puck locations
2. I leave the floor jack on the rear crossmember with a block of wood to widen support
3. I also have a set of race ramps that I put under the car with me on both sides
4. I also place the wheels/tires under with me as well if I take those off.
I am a safety freak
... Those horror stories have scared me lol 
ARG... NEVER use cinder blocks, they do not have a high compressive strength, they will eventually crumble on you.
Mild steel is a good material to make jack stands out of. it has good compressive strength, and isn't likely to get hard/brittle areas around welds... You're better off with them bending with mild steel then breaking if made out of higher grade steels...
Mild steel is a good material to make jack stands out of. it has good compressive strength, and isn't likely to get hard/brittle areas around welds... You're better off with them bending with mild steel then breaking if made out of higher grade steels...
That being said, because you dont know how they have been abused, its not worth the risk. Harbor freight 12 ton stands are cheap, and strong as can be. Or spend $250 on almost the same ones from snap on.
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 374
Likes: 1
They only have compressive strength of a cinder block is only high in one direction (cells facing up) and even that can be as low as barely over 1000psi for an undamaged block, a fraction that of concrete. When used in a load bearing application the cells are filled with rebar and concrete, which are many times stronger than the cinder block itself.
Unreenforced they are used to build walls for the same reason that 2x lumber and OSB is... it's faster and cheaper than using other materials and it's strong enough...
Without some way to guarantee that it won't see any side loads it is not a safe material to use to support any significant load.
Unreenforced they are used to build walls for the same reason that 2x lumber and OSB is... it's faster and cheaper than using other materials and it's strong enough...
Without some way to guarantee that it won't see any side loads it is not a safe material to use to support any significant load.
