Jacking method safety opinons
 

What do you guys think of this idea for lifting the Box.

1. Jack the car up and use 4 heavy duty ramps under all four wheels instead of jack stands. Seems more stable to me.

2. Use two jack stands and two ramps?

Using 4 jack stands just seems too unstable to me?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

It depends on what your doing.
If your going to be removing rims you can't use ramps, but if your going to be doing something to your exhaust for example I would use ramps over the jack stands.

I thought that was a great idea too, but at its maximum lift, my Jack did not get the tires high enough to slide the ramps under the tires. It's a great idea if you can get the car high enough to begin with.

It really depends what you are trying to do, as someone mentioned. Can't put the car on ramps when you are changing brake pads for instance.

If you get "good" jack stands and a quality, heavy duty, low sitting, high rising jack you will be fine. I've got all kinds of stuf.. Ramps, Jack stands, a couple different jacks, 4x4 blocks of wood. You can't be sure what will work until you do it, right?

If you have quality jack stands (not the cheap punched metal one from China) and you place them in the right place - the jacling points, these are more than safe.

Figure you're placing 700-800 lbs. on each one (mine are rated to 3,000 lbs.) and that is more than enough to really anchor the car down.

An old wrencher's habit that I always use too is to place the road wheels on their side and place these under the sides of the car. That way, if by some unforseen event (earthquake or such) occur and the car fall, it would likely pin you under the car, but not crush you.

I've worked under jack stands for years and have never worried about them being safe... but I always place them carefully and make sure that I use little of any lateral force on the car as this is where they can become unstable.

Jack stands are fine, in fact our cars are so rigid you can usually pull one of the four when you are done without lifting the car first.

Thanks. All good advice. I've been using my SUV ramps rated at about 6,000 lbs each. One under each wheel. I can do just about everything except remove wheels with them. Only problem is that I need more height to work comfortably.

I bought some Dura last aluminum jack stands rated at 2 tons each. But they are made in China. I can't find any that are not made in china. My Rhino ramps are made in the USA. What height do you set your jack stands to and feel safe?

I wish the jack stands had a top that was better shaped or larger to fit the jacking points better. You know more stable.

My fav method is my mechanics lift.

He lets me use it while he is under it also.

Twofer.

:D