Another Poor Man's Lift Solution?
 

So after being underneath the car on jackstands all weekend I got to thinking about a solution to get more room onder there and be safer at the same time, cause I am always scared bieng underneath a car on jackstands, lol.
Ok, so the idea is to make a piece like a wheel spacer, and then weld two pieces of 2" x 2" steel to it at 45* angles. These will point down towards the ground, and then weld another piece down at the bottom as a base for it to stand on. Here is a VERY rough sketch of what I'm talking about. The only flaw that I see with this plan is that you would have to have brakes engaged in order to hold the car still. I think that pulling the E-brake would suffice. Do you guys see any flaws in my logic? Speak up if you do cause I'm thinking about trying this and don't feel like dying, lol.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...ormanslift.jpg

jackstands are your best option in my opion, get ones with the pin locks f your that scared. but the safest way to do anything is a pit in the floor

There are stands like that out there already, wish I could remember where I saw the pics so I could post them, alot of them are used at car shows to show off the suspension etc but also used to work on the car.

The best thing for being under a car is putting wheels laying down under the wheels or putting all four up on ramps.

I'd be less likely to work under your design than some decent jack stands.

Your design needs side-to-side support as well. You've got the fore-aft covered, but shake it hard enough side to side and you may break welds or lug nuts and the car falls sideways.

Also, add a straight vertical piece directly under the wheel for support. The 2 45 degree angle pieces are good for stability, but I'd still put a vertical piece for load support.

I always stick a tire underneath the car in case for some reason it falls off the jack stands, that way it would land on the tire and not you.

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Nobody has a lower car than me. It is a pain in the butt, but just get the big truck stands & put it up in 3 steps.
Mine do have the extra pin, but too be honest, I have never used them. I have started & ran it like that many times.
Rock solid, even at 1000+ HP. If someone is that worried, than use 6 stands.
There is very little chance that 2 stands will collapse at the same time.
Especially those monster truck stands, those things are frigging heavy duty. Good luck.

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Hrm, that is a very good point camarohaolic. I'll think on it and see what I come up with.

00pooterSS, was this just strictly a show piece that you saw, or did it look like it actually had a practical use to it? Was the design any differenet than mine at all?

i have 4 i-beam 12" tall. i put them under the tires. so i am rasing the car 12". it works great. put it up with ramps and jacks.

Honestly to me it looked to be more for show and it also looked like it was possibly made by that person, sorry its been a very long time since I have seen it, but to be honest I still would not want to be under the car with those supporting it, I always felt most comfortable putting my wheels and tires under the frame while on jackstands, one time here at work a truck fell of the jack of a drive on lift and the tech had the wheels laying on the lift, thats the only thing that saved the truck and the technician.

I'm with 00pooterSS...lay some old wheels under the car (make sure they're thicker than you are)...I try to always keep cars on ramps when I can.

Well, just because the car is up on these doesn't mean that I can't lay the tires underneath it as well. I'm wondering if maybe these costs might be more than the other poor mans lift ( the step by boards underneath the tire. Anyone know how much ~ 20ft of 2" x 2" steel tubing would cost?

I have made stands like that in the past. Heck, if you do it right and like to show your car make them nice and you can have a dual purpose stand.

did you just pull the ebrake to unsure that the car would not rock back and forth?

I used the stands on my drag bug. It was a 10:20 car ran a 128MPH 1/4 mile. It was alcohol injected 3 liter. This thing was fun to run but broke quite a bit. They don't like to revv 9-10,000 rpm's for long.
Anyways, there wasnt' a good place for the jackstands so I made the same syle stands this thread is talking about. I made them very nice and had them powder coated. They looked great at the car shows too.

Here are some pics of the car.

my formula is on big semi truck jackstands right now. enough room to put the tranny in and plenty of room other wise. just removed the k member today

how would the car rock back and forth if the stands your are talking about are flat on the bottom? they will not let the car roll so no need for the brake being on.

ive seen them in body shops. the car wont roll, it would be the same as if you had wheels on the ground, with the weight being on the stands

I'd actually like to see a poor man's lift powered by the drive wheels.

like these?
http://motownmuscle.com/forums/files...9584ddbe33.jpg

where does one find a jack that big for those stands :secret2: