Axle stands & safety

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Fri 18 Jan 2008 13:40
Axle stands & safety - piston power
Just been reading some other car forums yes i do!! & there is loads of folk jacking cars up to replace pads,shoes,cv joints etc without using AXLE STANDS!!
Please for the sake of £15.00 and two extra minutes please use this, a few years ago my stupid mate jacked up the escort to replace his pads & got comfy with legs under car, the jack slipped and nearly lost his private bits!! the disc was an inch away luckly just a few bruises but those legs can get squashed.. take care.

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 18/01/2008 at 13:41

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Fri 18 Jan 2008 15:43
Axle stands & safety - doctorchris
I agree with you and in the days when cars had straightforward axles, axle stands were straightforward to use. Problem these days is knowing which suspension component is strong enough to carry the weight of the car. You're lucky if the car handbook tells you jacking points and Haynes guides for more modern cars are getting rarer and rarer.
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Fri 18 Jan 2008 20:25
Axle stands & safety - piggy
Axle stands can slip too,you know. My own favoured method is to use the removed wheel as a belt and braces approach.A stout piece of timber about a foot long can be used if extra height is needed. As Drchris has pointed out, caution should be excercised as to where the stands or jack is placed on modern cars. My Grande Punto has arrows on the sills pointing to the correct jacking points.
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Fri 18 Jan 2008 21:24
Axle stands & safety - Hamsafar
Sometimes I don't bother, but make damn sure I don't reach under the car, and stay in a postition where I can move. But I agree, I have also seen them using trolley jacks like this at tyre places and then putting their legs under while they do pads!
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Fri 18 Jan 2008 21:42
Axle stands & safety - stuartl
I too use the 'removed wheel under the car' method as a belt and braces safeguard.

It saved me from serious injury a few years back when I was working on my Carlton Estate and the jack slipped and I was stupid enough not to have bothered to get the axle stands from the shed beforehand.

Even now that I have learned my axle stands lesson I always put a removed wheel under the car as an extra safeguard.
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Sat 19 Jan 2008 10:34
Axle stands & safety - piston power
The front subframe on my astra as a place where the stand goes no problem most cars do have a safe place or on the chassis, i do find on some cars that seem to be lower you have to lift the wing up and kick the jack under to clear.
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