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Need a Floor Jack and Jack Stands

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15 comments

  • Sam06
    Look for an old one on Clist.

    Get the best jack stands you can afford because you are going to betting your life on them ;)
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  • WearyTraveler
    I looked at HF one. Then found one at Sears. Bought the Sears set as I don?t buy anything from HF that my life could depend on.

    Probably made in the same factory. But I went with Sears vs. HF.
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  • Smitty500mag
    No matter what brand of floor jack you buy just make sure you get some jack stands that are of good quality. Never ever get under a vehicle without jack stands. Also push them under, don't crawl under the vehicle to place the jack stands. Never depend on the jack to hold up the vehicle even for one second.

    I pulled my neighbor out from under his car back in the early 80s dead as a door nail. I was out in the yard and heard his girl friend screaming to the top of her lungs. I went running to help but the car had already crushed him to death. He was a deaf person and so was she. It's hard telling how long he had been under it hollering for help. He had used bumper jacks and had a big truck rim underneath as a safety precaution in case the car fell that didn't help one bit.

    Another neighbor came running and we did CPR until the EMT got there. We knew the CPR wasn't working and at one point my neighbor said do you think we should quit. I said if it was you or I would we want someone quitting? So we kept at it just in case but like I said he was dead and cold.
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  • mac10
    if ya still have a sears get the 3 ton stands i haave my old 2 ton sears jack from the 80's still works ok i lifted my front porch with it to install a support headder a couple inches over worked but did not faili do have a pair HF heavy stands as a 2nd pair look like the sears only differnt paint
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  • drobs
    There's a Sears hometown store down in Mountain Home, AR.
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  • Mark G
    Christmas before last I bought myself some Craftsman jackstands. They were high height and I got 4 so I could fully roll around under the car. I found out later that these stands could be lowered while there was still weight on the stand. If you lift the handle it will come crashing down. All of the ones I have owned before required that you remove the weight and lift the stand to release the lock. I went to return them and was told I had waited longer than 30 days after purchase so I was SOL. Avoid the Sears ones at all costs.
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  • spasmcreek
    got the biggest stand from HF and have used them at way under the limit...no problem....everything is made in china...we forgot how to do it in the USA
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  • montanajoe
    • Community moderator
    NAPA auto parts house,,,,
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  • Hessian
    After laying trapped under my Vette from 6 PM Friday to 10 AM Sunday I bought four 3 ton and two five-ton stands. I even had quarter-inch steel base plates made extra for them. One of my jack stand legs sank into the asphalt and the whole works toppled over, I was lucky to survive with a few stitches and bruises.
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  • drobs
    Looking at these 3 ton jack stands:

    https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/OTC5372?partTypeName=Jack+Stand&keywordInput=jack

    I can get a pair of them for $40 ($20 each) from multiple online sources.

    I don't trust amazon (too many counterfeits) but using this for an example:
    https://tinyurl.com/y6b5yhrm
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  • Smitty500mag
    I have so many jack stands underneath my vehicles when I work on them that it's difficult sometimes to get to the area that I'm wanting to work on. It only takes seeing someone dead lying underneath their car to make an imprint in your mind that will last forever.

    I don't just put them under there and hope they'll catch the car when it falls. I put them under there and then let the jack down to put the weight onto them to see if they hold and then barely jack it back up just to put tension on the jack.

    Another thing as mentioned in a post above about jack stands on pavement. Jack stands on concrete good, jack stands on pavement BAD. My neighbor had his make-shift jack stand on a gravel driveway that sunk into the ground when his car came down on him and killed him.

    Mike my neighbor that died he was a good guy but he had no common sense what so ever. Poor guy the car didn't just fall on him. He was lying under there as the bumper jacks leaned over and it slowly came down on him. That has to be the worse way to go knowing it's coming and there's nothing you can do about it. His arm was lying across that truck rim he was using as a jack stand and it crushed it on the rim and broke his arm near the shoulder and at the wrist and then the engine crushed his chest and broke his rib cage to pieces. I just wish I had been outside the house at that time because I would probably have heard him screaming for his life and maybe I could have saved him.
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  • bambihunter
    I just used HF jack stands with my truck. But, I raise it high enough for comfort to work, which means the tires are off the ground ~6". So, I stick a 2x6 nailed to a 4x6 under each tire (so 5" tall and maybe 2' long). If it fell off the stand, it couldn't crush me unless it rolled clear off everything.
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  • spasmcreek
    one of the BEST things i bought for my shop 20+ years ago was a carlift......two post 9K#...bolted down.. and SAFE.....had a 10K# one in a shop at stepsons place near my lake house and when he moved i brought it home and it is set up in other stepsons shop in town..he made a big steel base and bracing to hold without drilling into floor...no chance of damage to floor heat and he can move it inside shop if need be.... i also had a friend many years ago working under a school bus killed when it slipped off jacks......SAFETY FIRST
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  • buschmaster
    used a bigass 3' diameter section of a tree (vertical) for 100% support under the rear end when I changed a broken leaf spring on my 3/4 ton Chevy. didn't budge a fraction of an inch in any direction.

    I wouldn't have gotten all the way under it, but it sure did work
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  • us55840
    This type of jack stand will never drop under pressure.

    https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200365421_200365421

    You don't have to buy there at NT but the style/type is a "sure lock" design.

    Also, screw type house jacks work well.... like this: https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200641781_200641781 and can be found used at rummage/garage sales for cheap.
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