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Good quality jack stands...i need some

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ok, i've got a couple ancient jack stands that are a bit rusty and i only have two. along with all my other new shop tools, i'd like a set of four nice jack stands that i know will hold a lbc or a small american car, maybe even a truck. where would i look?

as a ME, i know the harbor freight ones would probably be just fine, but since it's going to hold a large piece of metal over my head, i want to make sure and get a brand name of some sort. am i just being rediculous? anyways, i'd love to hear what other people have or have seen...

p.s. why does the search engine stink so bad? i can never find anything with it...
 
i got mine from the local car parts store. they were about $30 for a pair and rated to 3500lbs each, and made somewhere foreign - probably china.
the car weighs 2400 with a tank of fuel, so i figured they would be ok. And they are...
 
I like the ones that have a solid foot on each corner rather than just an unbraced angle. But hard to find.

Always use a plywood block under the stand when using them outside on the ground.

And remember, 2400lbs will kill you.
 
Go beefy and over rated for the car, you just may use them again on something heavier. Saftey is king. Ask Tinster which ones he used ( car fell on David ) and don't buy those!!!
 
I think you'll have a hard time finding stands that aren't made in China, brand name or not. My favourites (I have a bunch - they're not that expensive) are some 6 ton stands (no brand name). Not because I need to hold up anything that heavy, but because of the height I can get. I can have the car low if I want, or high, depending on the job I'm doing. Even the lowest rated stands are around 2 ton capacity, which means the whole car (more or less) can be supported by one stand (if you could find the balance point). I figure that by the time I have the car up in the air on 4 two ton stands, each stand is only supporting 1/4 of it's rated capacity, so I'm probably pretty safe, even if the stand isn't NASA engineered.
 
I got tired of laying on the floor on my back, grease and road dirt dropping in my face, angling to get some space to wrench or lift. I bought a DirectLift 4 post lift. I love it. Fits nicely in my garage, allows me to store two Triumphs in one bay with a 9' ceiling (just), assembly quality is good enough for the hobbiest in my opinion. And with the casters I can move it in and out and around even with a car on the lift.

Okay, time for all the arguments for the lifts that collapse /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/hammer.gif
 
Sears has a variety of jack stands. Found some that worked for me.
 
I got mine at Sears. Square base. Stay away from triangular bases, I don't trust them, especially when one side of the car is in the air and you start working on the other side.
 
You guys haven't lived until you use bottle jacks and wood blocking. I grew up helping my dad work on cars in the 50's and early 60's. The first several years all we had was a gravel (not much gravel) pad. All he had to raise the car with was a couple of mismatched bottle jacks that seemed to leak more than they went up. We had to jack the car until the slack in the suspension and the tire would be taken up and then go the couple more inches the jack could go and place the blocking under the wheel and let the car back down. Then repeat the process on each corner we wanted to raise until there was room to work. Needless to say we never went higher than absolutely necessary. Even then I understood the danger and I hated it.

The first tools I bought were a quality pair of floor jacks and a half dozen good jack stands. The pair of floor jacks so I can lift the car without placing so much twist on the frame and the jack stands to keep it up there until I want it to come down.
 
tomshobby said:
You guys haven't lived until you use bottle jacks and wood blocking. I grew up helping my dad work on cars in the 50's and early 60's. The first several years all we had was a gravel (not much gravel) pad. All he had to raise the car with was a couple of mismatched bottle jacks that seemed to leak more than they went up. We had to jack the car until the slack in the suspension and the tire would be taken up and then go the couple more inches the jack could go and place the blocking under the wheel and let the car back down. Then repeat the process on each corner we wanted to raise until there was room to work. Needless to say we never went higher than absolutely necessary. Even then I understood the danger and I hated it.

The first tools I bought were a quality pair of floor jacks and a half dozen good jack stands. The pair of floor jacks so I can lift the car without placing so much twist on the frame and the jack stands to keep it up there until I want it to come down.
Click to expand...

My buddies and i built a set of wooden ramps back about '67...they weighed about 50 lbs each...they held up every Chevelle, GTO and '55 Ford in the neighborhood...
 
My 4 jack stands are old NAPA stands that are rated at 5000 lbs each. Overkill? The key word is kill. There is more than one time that I have had my TR6 end up on 3 stands for one reason or another (quickly corrected). My floor jack is as well an old NAPA. All American built. You will not easily find anything now that is not made in China, unfortunately.
Buy the best you can afford. You won't regret it.
 
YankeeTR said:
My buddies and i built a set of wooden ramps back about '67...they weighed about 50 lbs each...they held up every Chevelle, GTO and '55 Ford in the neighborhood...
Click to expand...

I seems we have a lot in common! My '65 GTO seemed to spend a lot of time in the air too. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
The AC Hydraulic DK20 is the only jack I would recommend, period. I bought one after the 3-ton Chinese jack I was using suddenly released as I was lowering my Audi and dented my rocker panel. Not safe!

The DK20 has a D-handle incorporating a dead man's valve. To lower the jack you turn the handle to the right and hold; if you let go, the jack stops at the current position. It is very smooth, controllable and safe. No worry about tightly gripping a tube handle and trying to release the jack to lower it just a little, without the jack going down further than you intended.

Made in Denmark, not China!

Bought mine here (also bought my 4-post Bend-Pak lift here too):
https://www.asedeals.com/hydraulicjacks2.html
 
After being in this business for too many years (40 but whose counting), my advice is, If you have a $10 brain buy a $10 jack. Now, what are you worth? Always buy the best cause your life means something to someone.
Dave
 
DougF said:
I got mine at Sears. Square base. Stay away from triangular bases, I don't trust them, especially when one side of the car is in the air and you start working on the other side.
Click to expand...


Hi DougF do you know we landed on the moon using a triangular set of legs? The triangle is the most stable platform to use. However, in addition to their ability to support weight whichever stands are choosen should have a large foot print which makes them stable when loaded.---Fwiw--Keoke
 
PeterK said:
I like the ones that have a solid foot on each corner rather than just an unbraced angle. But hard to find.
Click to expand...

I have a set (4) of these that I bought at Sam's club. They can be seen in the Baldrick Winter Makeover thread. One reason I got them is for the pads on the feet. And that they are large enough to support the trucks I've had without sinking into the asphalt driveway (BTDT - got yelled at).

The problem with using them under the Spitfire is getting them up there is a two-stage process. I have to lift one end of the car onto some smaller stands first, then lift the other end onto the big stands. Lowering requires the same thing in reverse. But it's worth the effort as even at their lowest setting, they raise the car up to a ncie working height.

I have 8 stands of various sizes and wouldn't mind having a couple more. Also have two floor jacks. A 3 ton Craftsman and an aluminum low-profile jack also purchased from Sam's.

USA-made jacks are available if you know where to look. Hein-Werner jacks (formerly Lincoln) are USA-made and available from thetoolwarehouse.net. The also sell a couple of OTC jacks that are made in the USA. Of course, expect to pay a premium (priced between $300 & $650). They sell a long-reach, low-profile jack (not USA) that looks perfect for the Spitfire and many of the modern cars I work on.

Someday we'll have a lift... some day...
 
I have a set of 4 Hydraulics jack stands with the rubber flat top:

https://www.asedeals.com/jack_stands.html

These are rated at 3.3 tons each, are super stable and the flat rubber tops allow you to place them under the frame without risk of slipping off. Not cheap, but well worth it.

Rob.
 
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