Safe use of jacks

[Quackers]

Many years ago I was quite used to doing odd jobs on my cars.
I had an Injection Capri and it was time to change the front pads. I chocked the rear wheels with a brick for each and jacked the front up under the engine cross member - all on the tarmac pathway at the house.
Sadly it had been warm and the sun was beating down.
I changed one side and moved over to the other side and placed my feet on the ground either side of the disc to take out the old pads.
Sadly the foot of the jack had bitten into the heat-softened tarmac of the drive and must have been leaning.
The car gave a forward lurch and toppled off the jack.
Fortunately my feet weren't under very far and the disc backing plate just rested on my leg above the ankle - just effectively holding it but not trapping it.
I've never taken any chances since!

 

[Mob17]

Quite scary the amount of people that don’t follow the correct procedure

 

[DT220]

This information is a must for anybody wanting to carry out work underneath their car.

 

[toolman1954]

As a reminder for those just using a jack and scrabbling under their cars / vans.

Man killed while working under car in Belfast


Please always use axle stands, if you have not got one then at least push the wheel and tyre under the body, just in case.
Please, use ramps if you are pulling a gearbox out, do not just rely on axle stands, when you start wiggling the box to get it out or in, and the car starts swaying, then be afraid, it only needs one axle stand to give way, and its goodnight nurse.

Steve.

 

[Yugguy]

I use axle stands but I also stick a wheel under sills as well.

 

[renault12ts]

As a reminder for those just using a jack and scrabbling under their cars / vans.

Man killed while working under car in Belfast


Please always use axle stands, if you have not got one then at least push the wheel and tyre under the body, just in case.
Please, use ramps if you are pulling a gearbox out, do not just rely on axle stands, when you start wiggling the box to get it out or in, and the car starts swaying, then be afraid, it only needs one axle stand to give way, and its goodnight nurse.

Steve.

Sad for two reasons.

A The average price of houses in that street is about £800k so strange he's doing it himself.

B The house is only 100 yards from the Fire Station...but they rang for an ambulance.

 

[Samuk1]

what a good post. Thank you again for posting this

 

[thesewellguy]

Following on from a thread on another forum where a member was asking about servicing an old trolley jack , I thought it would be worth copying the following over here for the benefit of newer members who perhaps have less experience of working on cars and have not heard some of the safety rules which may be obvious to others . My contribution to the thread was the following :

"For safety , NEVER get under a car supported only by a jack .

Use the jack ONLY to raise the car ; ALWAYS support the car with something else - like axle stands or ramps placed in such a way that there is no possibility of the car falling . By all means use the jack as a back-up support but never as the sole or primary means of support if you or anyone else is going to be underneath .

People are killed every year due to not following this rule ; I lost one of my best mates ( who ought to have known better ) when a Ford Anglia he was working on fell on him - so I make no apology for going on about this .

The jack that comes with your car is for changing wheels at the roadside only and is not meant to support the car for more than a few minutes . While a proper trolley jack is safer , I would still never get under a car supported only by one of these either - the very most I might do with only a trolley jack , apart from changing wheels , might be changing brake pads - but only if there is no risk of the car coming down on my hands and trapping them - otherwise I will ALWAYS put in at least one axle stand ."

Not long after I posted that , another member came along with the following :

" +1

I have lost 3 friends to date and one is severely disabled due to jacks failing, im only 25 so its obviously
still a poorly communicated message. I'd never be entirely happy with a rebuilt jack. "

I had a E250 cab and used the jack to get the wheel off. The design of the jack is terrible. I was on flags so solid ground but the jack kept sliding on the stone surface. I had to put a piece of wood under the jack to stop it shifting sideways. So your advise is absolutely spot on.

 

[brucemillar]

I jacked up the rear of my Wife's BMW X5 using its own flimsy (read made of toffee) car jack.. This after I had loosened the rear wheel studs on the puncture wheel/tyre. So I now have an X5 on level tarmac, jacked up at the rear with the rear passenger side wheel off the car.

I then proceeded to pull back on the spare wheel carrier. This is designed to eject the spare wheel from the boot floor wheel well. Being a man who knows about such things. I never bothered to read the book. Why would I want o do that? Well as I pulled backwards on the eject handle, it puled back on the entire car dropping the entire 2.5ton mass of of the jack, which promptly crumpled under the weight. Luckily the one bit of sense I had that day, had seen me put the punctured wheel under the passenger side sill, so the cr did not drop to far. Just far enough to crumple the brake disc back plate and almost cause another rear end accident in my under-crackers.

100% my fault and a stern lesson in my own stupidity. Read the book, it tells me to remove the spare before attempting to use the spare wheel ejection mechanism.

We are all idiots at heart. There is some great advice on this thread that I suspect to many of will ignore but escape through luck rather than any good judgement.

Stay safe folks. Better still stay alive.

 

[FIA99]

Following on from a thread on another forum where a member was asking about servicing an old trolley jack , I thought it would be worth copying the following over here for the benefit of newer members who perhaps have less experience of working on cars and have not heard some of the safety rules which may be obvious to others . My contribution to the thread was the following :

"For safety , NEVER get under a car supported only by a jack .

Use the jack ONLY to raise the car ; ALWAYS support the car with something else - like axle stands or ramps placed in such a way that there is no possibility of the car falling . By all means use the jack as a back-up support but never as the sole or primary means of support if you or anyone else is going to be underneath .

People are killed every year due to not following this rule ; I lost one of my best mates ( who ought to have known better ) when a Ford Anglia he was working on fell on him - so I make no apology for going on about this .

The jack that comes with your car is for changing wheels at the roadside only and is not meant to support the car for more than a few minutes . While a proper trolley jack is safer , I would still never get under a car supported only by one of these either - the very most I might do with only a trolley jack , apart from changing wheels , might be changing brake pads - but only if there is no risk of the car coming down on my hands and trapping them - otherwise I will ALWAYS put in at least one axle stand ."

Not long after I posted that , another member came along with the following :

" +1

I have lost 3 friends to date and one is severely disabled due to jacks failing, im only 25 so its obviously
still a poorly communicated message. I'd never be entirely happy with a rebuilt jack. "

Thanks for this info my son is due to take my wheels off to thoroughly clean & was only going to use a jack. I have just bought him 2 x 3 ton ratchet axle stands.. only problem I don’t know where they should go. On my SLC AMG43

 

[m80]

The diff can be a reasonable support, but then be aware of any possibity of left / right imbalance.
If the car has beams runing fore / aft they can be good.
Wehn lowering onto stands be aware that the car can shift position and cause the atnd to be in an unreliable position, that is not resting square.

TBH when setting a car up in a safe position on stands I'm not sure it possible to advise, i find it's an on site assessment, continual as the car is raised and more importantly lowered.

A point on ramps. I used to favour ramps until I drove Larisa's Gr Cherokee up a pair. Not immediate but after only a short time the uprights buckled and the car started to descend.
I hadn't started the work so drove the car off again.
There is no rating on the ramps but clearly not man enough for the beast of a Jeep.

 

[GeoffWestWales]

Just adding my 2p worth,
I always support on axle stands the ones were a pin goes through when working under the car, I needed 4 new ones to support my MX5 Hill Climb car I was building, so bought the ones with like a ratchet with cast iron head. I was doing some work on my Volvo and these were the closest so jacked up the car, went to get some extra hand tools fromm the barn, as I was walking back to the car, heard a crack and the cast iron top had sheared off, I did buy them off Ebay but it could of killed someone under the car, son the other 3 have joined the scrap pile in the recycling center, so old saying still tru, buy cheap buy twice

 

[NJSS]

I could do with a safe jack to carry in the boot of my 2011 SL350 (R230 Facelift) - recommendations please.

NJSS

 

[Dickster]

I use axle stands but I also stick a wheel under sills as well.

me too.

I have jacked up a lot of cars in my time (including a Stag shell almost on its side), and the SL55 is probably the worst equipped car I have come across (although 911s don’t even have jacking points as such). I do not like the round pads, and the jack supplied with the car is a piece of cr*p. Mine nearly rolled off the standard jack recently - that wasn’t fun.

 

[UrbanM]

Following on from a thread on another forum where a member was asking about servicing an old trolley jack , I thought it would be worth copying the following over here for the benefit of newer members who perhaps have less experience of working on cars and have not heard some of the safety rules which may be obvious to others . My contribution to the thread was the following :

"For safety , NEVER get under a car supported only by a jack .

Use the jack ONLY to raise the car ; ALWAYS support the car with something else - like axle stands or ramps placed in such a way that there is no possibility of the car falling . By all means use the jack as a back-up support but never as the sole or primary means of support if you or anyone else is going to be underneath .

People are killed every year due to not following this rule ; I lost one of my best mates ( who ought to have known better ) when a Ford Anglia he was working on fell on him - so I make no apology for going on about this .

The jack that comes with your car is for changing wheels at the roadside only and is not meant to support the car for more than a few minutes . While a proper trolley jack is safer , I would still never get under a car supported only by one of these either - the very most I might do with only a trolley jack , apart from changing wheels , might be changing brake pads - but only if there is no risk of the car coming down on my hands and trapping them - otherwise I will ALWAYS put in at least one axle stand ."

Not long after I posted that , another member came along with the following :

" +1

I have lost 3 friends to date and one is severely disabled due to jacks failing, im only 25 so its obviously
still a poorly communicated message. I'd never be entirely happy with a rebuilt jack. "

Good tips.

 

[MEMERC7]

I normally raise the car with the trolley jack , then push the axle stands in with a long handled brush , rather than reaching under myself . Any minor adjustments of the stands can be done with the broom as the car is slowly lowered down onto them .

I have been jacking cars for years & followed all the guidelines outlined in these postings BUT I don't recall the advice about not getting under the car to place axle stands & I have been doing just that - eek! Drive is rough tarmac so axle stands won't slide so thinking about placing them on a piece of flat (hard) wood & then sliding them into place. Thin steel might slide better & limit how high I have to jack the car before placing the stands. What you think? Thanks.

 

[jankennedy]

And never, ever do this:

Mods & OP - if this is not an appropriate place for this post/picture then please delete or move it, as I admit to being ambivalent about the content and it's place in this thread.

Peter

Is this for real? I feel sad seeing this. No one gave a hand at least. That is extremely dangerous for him.

 

[Merc220cls]

Over many years restoring classic cars, rather than use axle stands which I have 2 sets, I prefer to use wooden blocks which are actually cut offs of roofing joists. I can place them tothe desired height at approx 2” intervals and unlike axle stands will not damage the part of the car they are supporting. Also they will not slip which axle stand can do under certain circumstances.

As for my two Mercedes, both have different jacking points. The CLS has a rectangular jacking point whereas the SL has larger circular jacking points.
I have made up adaptors to suit both cars which allow me to use the trolley jack when carrying out any maintenance and yes I still use those wooden blocks which I set the car down onto before any work commences.

 

[DWK]

Following on from a thread on another forum where a member was asking about servicing an old trolley jack , I thought it would be worth copying the following over here for the benefit of newer members who perhaps have less experience of working on cars and have not heard some of the safety rules which may be obvious to others . My contribution to the thread was the following :

"For safety , NEVER get under a car supported only by a jack .

Use the jack ONLY to raise the car ; ALWAYS support the car with something else - like axle stands or ramps placed in such a way that there is no possibility of the car falling . By all means use the jack as a back-up support but never as the sole or primary means of support if you or anyone else is going to be underneath .

People are killed every year due to not following this rule ; I lost one of my best mates ( who ought to have known better ) when a Ford Anglia he was working on fell on him - so I make no apology for going on about this .

The jack that comes with your car is for changing wheels at the roadside only and is not meant to support the car for more than a few minutes . While a proper trolley jack is safer , I would still never get under a car supported only by one of these either - the very most I might do with only a trolley jack , apart from changing wheels , might be changing brake pads - but only if there is no risk of the car coming down on my hands and trapping them - otherwise I will ALWAYS put in at least one axle stand ."

Not long after I posted that , another member came along with the following :

" +1

I have lost 3 friends to date and one is severely disabled due to jacks failing, im only 25 so its obviously
still a poorly communicated message. I'd never be entirely happy with a rebuilt jack. "

Yes, very good advice indeed.

 

[DWK]

This thread has reminded me of one of those "tests" that can be used to prove you are of a certain age (like owning a Kaftan, etc.). You know you are old when:

You can still remember the unique "crumbling" sound of the sill slowly collapsing around the jacking point of the car you have just jacked up.

(I will never forget jacking up my 1976 Mini and then standing up to get a spanner and hearing the dreaded sound. I have never lowered a car back to the ground so quickly, but the jack had still gone straight through the sill leaving a massive hole that I - naturally - filled with Plastic Padding and painted over.)

Yes, I remember what you are talking about. 1972 Mk 3 Cortina in my case.