![]() Ideally, the hydraulic jack should be positioned on the frame of your car. Placing a jack at a thin point will bend the metal. Many car floors are made from relatively thin sheet metal. In your owner’s manual will be instructions on the best place to lift your car. If it is a manual, it should be in first gear. In this case, chock two wheels that are not currently having the brakes changed, and move the chocks from wheel to wheel as you work your way around the car. When changing the brakes, you cannot set the emergency brake. When jacking the front wheels, the rear wheels should have the chocks placed under them and vice versa. Additionally, it would help if you used wheel chocks to block your tires. Setting the parking brake helps eliminate play from your wheels and eliminates deadly shifts from your tires. The parking brake keeps your car locked in place. Working on a flat driveway or inside your garage is your best bet. Keep your car on a level surface for the safest working condition. Parking on a hill increases the risk of a car sliding off a jack. It might be smarter to park it in a flat spot in your yard. You need to find a flat surface to park your car. Most of us work on our driveways with a natural slant built into them to keep water from settling. See Related: How to reach the backside of your engine Avoid this fate by investing a few extra minutes to properly secure your vehicle with jack stands before working on it.Ī jack is used to raise a vehicle, but a jack stand helps safely hold the vehicle during an auto repair. Only a few deaths are more painful than being slowly crushed by a car. Many home mechanics are impatient and will not “waste their time” with Jack stands. When you are finished with your project, you jack the car up, remove the jack stands, and you are good to go. The stands will be placed at a marked pinch weld on smaller vehicles that use a “unibody” construction, such as cars and minivans.Īfter they are locked into place, the car is lowered down onto them. On larger vehicles like pickup trucks or SUVs, Jack stands should be placed under the vehicle’s frame. ![]() However, anytime you are going beneath a vehicle, you should use jack stands to provide additional safety. This is a simple task where you are not going underneath your vehicle. It is possible to change a flat tire with only a floor jack, and no jack stands. With their sturdier base and locking mechanism, they provide additional safety before you go underneath your car. Jack stands protect you in the event of a car jack failure. If you’ve worked on cars, you know how common it is for a car to slide off of a jack. Generally, you will place them near the floor jack that you are using to raise your vehicle. You may need to reference the owner’s manual. Always check the user guides for all of your equipment before use and follow all workplace safety guidelines.Jack stands should be placed on either the frame of your car, on a solid through-axle, or on the specified pinch rail. Just because your jack hasn’t failed before doesn’t mean that it never will. While it may seem inefficient or even inconvenient in the moment, it is important to remember that jack stands are just as important as the jacks themselves. ![]() In fact, there are multiple fatalities reported every year that are clearly linked to the failure to use a jack stands. However, the cost of damage caused by one vehicle hitting the ground, or worse, a workplace injury would immediately negate any perceived benefit. They say that it is a waste of time (and therefore money) to properly set a load on a stand. The most common reason given for neglecting the use of jack stands is efficiency. Users that fail to utilize jack stands are risking financial and bodily harm by doing so. Jack stands, on the other hand, are purpose-built to reliably hold static loads during routine maintenance. The idea that you can leave a heavy truck on a jack for an extended period of time with no repercussions is a myth and one that could cost the user dearly. All it takes is one blown seal for the entire system to lose pressure causing the load to drop. They use hydraulics to lift and are susceptible to failure if left under constant pressure, especially if not properly maintained. Jacks are designed to raise a load not hold it. Jack stands are an essential part of vehicle lifting. That could not be further from the truth. They assume that nothing can go wrong and that doing something as simple as using a jack stand is just a waste of time. However, because of how reliable modern jacks have become, users frequently disregard basic safety precautions. They are powerful tools that make the task of lifting thousands of pounds seem mundane. Jacks are a staple of any workshop or garage.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |