Floor Jack Extra Safety Bar
 

I have my other car up on my steel car ramps, and I needed to change my oil today, so I just used my floor jack. As an added safety to keep the pad in the air if the hydraulic jack failed, I blocked the lift with a 4 x 6 block of wood. The next time I go to the metal yard I will buy a length of thick wall rectangular aluminum tubing and notch each end to fit the jack axle and lifting pad.

Re: Floor Jack Extra Safety Bar
 

Tom that block of wood sure gives it the shade tree look lol .

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Use jack stands:)

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I'm definitely with Mitch.

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Doesn't look to safe to me. I'd use jack stands or borrow some ramps.

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Jack stands. I wouldn't recommend what you did to anyone.

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I think the oil could have waited for some jack stands.. yikes.

Not anyways as bad as what I saw the other day.

My wife and I were walking down our main street. This 20 year old had his car up and he was underneath working on something. He had 3 or 4 of his buddies sitting around talking with him. He did not have any jack stands. He had the car jacked up on one side with a little had cranked stand that looked 40 years old and really cheap looking. He had no wheel chocks and the car was tilted do to the road so the jack was barely grabbing anything.

So based on this , Toms little pine branch looks real good.:eek:

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Don't use cinder blocks either! Ed

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Everyone knows you need a second 4X4 for redundancy if you want to be safe!

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Lad in my neighborhood died doing that!

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47 yrs ago I had a car come off a jack, rear axle on the ground between my legs! I crawled out went in the house and dad immediately said what happened? Went and got some jack stands, I still have them :-) Yes I was using a Big Hammer!

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A couple years ago I passed by someone's house and there was a pickup scotched in front but was held up behind with two bumper jacks. And to top it off there were two little kids playing all around it. I backed up and told the woman there that she better keep those kids away from that mess and she told me that was her business. What do you do with people like that?

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not much you can do - police or DCFS cant be bothered by potentially dangerous situations - only after the fact when bruises and blood are present.

yea Tom W i would not get under that truck with wood like that - its gonna split of the jack suddenly failed - jack pieces are behaving like a log splitter.(you dont see log splitters work across the grain now do you...)

use good METAL ramps (not those stupid plastic ones or the one piece bent metal ones)

ive seen wood cribbing blow apart like a grenade at work while trying to remove a ballscrew on a positioner. The wood was holding for 3 minutes before someone heard cracking noises and everyone started backing away - never good when 8,000 steel arm falls a foot sending broken 4x4 posts around like toothpicks. Were still not sure why it broke but must have had knotty wood we think on top and just a chain reaction couldnt be stopped.

i use wood to support a car - stack on thier sides 4x4 posts 2 at a time criss crosed and get under the frame rails - will be sturdy as all can be - NO single stacks!

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Re: Floor Jack Extra Safety Bar
 

Reading that post reminded of when I was a kid. A kid I knew used a bumper jack on an 47 Plymouth. His Dad came home from work and found him lifeless with an old Plymouth on top of him. Something's you just never forget. I don't climb under a car without jack stands. Never

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Sounds like a good idea Tom.

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These jack stands were made 60+years ago from a plan in popular mechanics.I know they've only been used as storage stands since the late 60's,and are in use today for that.Still holding up the same truck it held up back then,trying to keep from flat spotting the same new tires that were put on back then.I don't think I would be concerned about using a piece of good hardwood to wedge a jack,as long as it is trigged good it isn't going anywhere.

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Hey that looks like Tom underneath.!!!

Well, if that isn't bad enough they are welding underneath the truck. Probably the gas tank.

Really, what are those guys thinking?