NEVER USE A CONCRETE BLOCK. They are not made for this function and should never be used as such. They will break and your car will fall on you one day.
It's beyond stupid to use a jack as your only method of support for a cars weight.
You can't spend 3 dollars on a cinder-block or something for a measure of safety?
NEVER USE A CONCRETE BLOCK. They are not made for this function and should never be used as such. They will break and your car will fall on you one day.
Know of two people that have died from a jack failure. My grandfather died when my dad was about 8 from a car jack buckling and the same for an ex-worker who had his truck fall on him.
I have also witness my own car cause a jack to start buckling sideways (didn't know it was till my dad went to use it the next time) but that was my dad doing the breaks and was never under the car. It also probably had more to do with footing for the jack than anything else.
Don't know what kind or manufacturer any of these were though.
No offense taken. I wouldn't even do this type of work in the first place, which is probably a bad thing to admit in ATG, but I would assume everyone who gets under a car should be sensitive to the idea that a car could fall on them and take the needed precautions to avoid it.No offense, but that is darwin speaking right there. I always thought I was overly precarious by insisting on never working on a vehicle that did not have 3 redundant areas of support. Glad my hyper-sensitivity to vehicle support brings me here to comment on this thread of others who did poorly on my checklist.
Have worked under a few two-post lifts and even though they are more secure, can still be scary, and I always employ the mechanical stops.
It also probably had more to do with footing for the jack than anything else.
Do you guys ever use a jack stand on a slight-incline driveway or must it be flat? I will be using a chock of course. Also wouldn't a jack/stand leave an unsightly impression in blacktop? I saw it in a youtube video to use a sheet of metal to prevent this but I don't have that sort of thing handy.
Also, my vehicle has a jackpoint built into all 4 sides that is the shape of a rectangle with deep sides so it wouldn't slip out. So if I use that to jack up the car, how can I use a jackstand after that? Aren't they insecure if you just put it on the frame?
A jack failure should be uneventful because it should never be used alone to support a vehicle.