I have never used these things, nor have i seen them....

How do they work? Are they expensive? What kind would you use to have a car sit on them for long periods of time, like several months? Is there any risk of the jackstand letting the car fall?

Also, can these things hold the car up high enough to be able to do just about all suspension work and replace a rear end, torque arm, control arms, panhard arms... and other things that are under there?


Thanks for the help

 

If you're gonna do any kind of work, get a set or two. For how good it is to have them, they're dirt cheap. They are just a steel tripod with an adjustable platform on top. Simple stuff. Get 'em, get 'em, get 'em!


MikeS
President, Jackstand Fan Club

 

AS long as i dont have to worry about the car falling down i am set on getting 4 individual ones... How adjustable are they? Will there be enough room to swap rear ends, control arms, torque arm, springs, shocks/struts and so on?

Would you recommend getting them from a local auto store? Or do the ones provided by summit and other online places offer better/stronger ones?

 

as long as they are set up properly they will not let the car fall. And yes you can do struts/shocks, bushings, etc with jackstands. You can get jackstands at your local place just make sure that they're AT LEAST 2 ton rated, if you're worried you could always get 3 ton rated jackstands and have that piece of mind.

 

I use two sets of 2 ton jackstands from the local parts stores. They are adjustable in height from 10 1/8" to 16 1/4" in almost a dozen increments. So, depending on where they are placed under the car, you can get it a good bit higher. Just make sure they are in a secure place and the car won't slip off.

 

i got a set from harbor freight tools, there 3 ton and have a max height of 20 inchs, seems stable and look very strong, go quite well with my 3 ton jack

 

I have 3 sets of jack stands. For major work, I have 2 pair of 6 ton stands, plenty of room to crawl under and remove a tranny, etc. It allows me to get max height on my floor jack, and it has a nice wide base so I don't have to worry about it tipping over. The 3 ton stands I have (only 1 pair) are used for smaller things, like brake work, or tune-ups, support of miscellaneous components. They also get in good on the axle shafts. I also have a pair of ramps I use when I need to load the suspension or just feel like driving up instead of jacking up the front...ramps on the front, 3 ton stands on the axle shaft.

They aren't expensive at all.

 

As long as your jackstands are well placed, the car will sit quite happy for as long as you need it up in the air. My Z-28 was on jackstands for a year while I worked on the engine replacement. My jeep was in storage and on 4 jackstands for 9 years while I was stationed at Pearl Harbor. Personally, I like the ratchet type adjustment , since you can fine tune the height of each jackstand better than you can the type with u-bolt and hole arrangement. Have both and have used both types.