Can I put a car on four jack stands? In terms of safety, four jack stands should be able to support the weight of a vehicle.
Even if they are DIYer jack stands, there is a possibility that the vehicle might be unstable. If you want to prevent tipping, use a professional-grade jack stand with a double locking pin along with a wide base.
Use a quality jack to lift your car. You’ll need two jack stands if you’re lifting just one end of your car.
Use four jack stands if you’re lifting the entire car. Thin plywood should be used on soft ground, such as asphalt or grass, to prevent them from sinking.
Working underneath a car is never 100% safe. You are safe without a lift as long as you have four good jack stands and a jack as a backup.
Under certain circumstances, you can actually sleep under the car using double-locking jack stands.
As for risk vs. reward, if I were in your position, I would look for a coupon that offers a great deal on a lifetime warranty exhaust system and have it installed.
Additional Safety Tips When Putting A Car On Four Jack Stands
If you do this work yourself, you may avoid paying for labor, but you will have to do it again if you keep the vehicle for a long time. The cost of adding the parts will also be higher.
In such a case, you might have come out ahead financially, paying upfront for labor and getting a lifetime warranty on the product. Now that we’ve discussed that let’s move on to some other safety tips.
Assemble Your Gear
A wheel may only need to be lifted by itself, the front or rear of the car, or the entire vehicle. Gather your lifting gear and support equipment. With a quality jack, you can lift your car.
To lift your car from one end, you will need two jack stands. Whenever you are lifting an entire vehicle, use four jack stands. Thick plywood can prevent them from sinking into soft terrains, such as asphalt, grass, and dirt.
Chock The Wheels
When you plan to lift the car, take the transmission out of gear, park it, and lock the wheel opposite your lifting position. The car should be chocked in front and behind the wheel to prevent movement.
There are many different choices for chocks, including plastic, metal, rubber, and wooden ones. The risk of a crumbling or sliding foundation is high with rocks, blocks, and bricks.
Work With A Friend
Working on your car with a friend is the best way to maintain or repair it. It is a plus but not a necessity if they have automotive experience. They can remind you of what you’ve accomplished, keep you company, or hand you tool if you need them.
If you must bribe them with canned, bottled, or corked items, it is worth investing. You can ask your friend to call 911 in case of an emergency, saving you the trouble of dialing 911 yourself!
Support Your Car
Jack stands are needed to support the vehicle. If installing the jack stand under a corner of the vehicle, adjust the height and secure it with a pin or pawl, if applicable.
Jacks should be used in pairs to support the front or back of the vehicle, preferably set at equal heights. Buying taller jack stands is a better option than using wood blocks because woodblocks may slip or split. Once the car is fully resting on the jack stands, lower the jack slowly.
Check Each Jack Stand
Whenever lifting a car, start with lifting the front and supporting it until your jack and jack stand can lift the whole car. Using another pair of jack stands, support the rear of the vehicle.
You should be able to wiggle each jack stand without it moving. The corner can be jack-up again if there is movement, and the jack stand can be raised. Ensure that all jack stands are securely locked.
Shake Your Car
Be sure that your vehicle is securely fastened by shaking it gently. If the jack stands move when you shake the car, verify that they are all planted flat on the ground. Because it is not designed for holding loads at angles, a tilted jack stands may collapse. The shake test confirms that your car is safe to be worked on.
Start Working
For skipping this critical safety step, mechanics, DIYers, and people in a hurry have damaged vehicles, even injured or killed themselves or others! Every time you need to lift your car, regardless of how experienced you are or how quickly the job will be completed, do not forget to support the vehicle properly.
Personal Opinion
It is only okay to use two DIYer jack stands at once (one end at a time) according to the instructions that came with them. It is not recommended to use standard DIYer jack stands, as they might not hold the weight properly.
The base should be wide to prevent being tipped over. DIYer jack stands are the best for brake jobs. Also, it’s better to do it one side at a time if you don’t know of a central point to place the floor jack, whether it is to lift the whole front end or the whole back end.
On occasion, the jack stand on the other side will lean slightly as I jack up the second side. When that happens, it’s pretty scary, but as soon as I lower the car onto the other jack stand, it settles back down, and I always give the car a good shove from a few different angles to make sure the car is stable again.
If the front end is on jack stands while the back end is being jacked up, I can’t imagine what that would look like (or vice versa). Using heavy-duty ramps in front and jack stands in the back would be the right way to get all four wheels off the ground, or someone with a lift could do it.
If all four wheels were off the ground, I couldn’t imagine what I would do to my car. Perhaps if I were installing my own exhaust system, I could do it, but replacing brake lines or installing exhaust would likely require professional assistance.
Final Words
Even though using four good jack stands gives you a pretty good guarantee that you won’t crash the car, it isn’t 100% reliable. It is the law of universal gravitational attraction.
In shops, full-sized automotive lifts have also been known to malfunction, with cars falling off of them. For safety reasons, it’s wise to let a mechanic handle it if you’re hesitant to go under your car.
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