Axle stand warning

[TerryG]

Just because your vehicle is on axle stands doesn't mean its safe to work under it.
I was bleeding brakes yesterday, the NSR on a stand and the other 3 corners on their wheels the front 2 chocked. As I got to the front of the car and started adding brake fluid the car slid sideways off the stand. Mr fortunate not having been sitting next to the car 30 seconds later or I would have had flat legs! I now need a new dust shield and brake disc (and to bleed the brakes again after replacing them). Jacking the car up to see what had happened, the 3 tonne Halfords axle stand the car had been resting on has bent. I think in future I will have an axle stand and the jack under the car as I don't fancy being squashed under 2+ tons of steel.

[kevin]

Although i do use them, I hate Axle stands.
When I do use them, I have a few short lengths of railway sleeper that I use to prop under the chassis and make things safer should the inevitable happen.

glad you are ok and just a few parts are needed

kev

[Luxobarge]

Agreed.

You're probably only going to get fully and comprehensively crushed if one or more of the wheels are off the car at the time, so when I take the wheels off I place one or more of them flat on the floor under the car, so if it slips off it's going to sit on the wheel, hopefully leaving enough space for my legs to be able to be retrieved. Not foolproof, but a lot better than allowing the whole car to come down flat on the ground.

We've heard these stories many times before, but well worth reminding ourselves now and again, as it's so easy to get complacent.

Glad you're OK mate!

[Mitsuru]

Glad your okay Terry, IF I use an axle stand the trolley jack stays under for the reason you just posted!
And the Jack and stand are always a good foot+ apart so as to spread the weight in case a box section
or sill collapses. (which happened with a square shaped rover 213 rot box)

I also place any wheels under the car which is the wheel that just came off and the spare.

[Minxy]

I do exactly as Luxo does - slide the wheels under the car. That said the two pair of stands I have are seriously heavy duty with a wide ' foot print' . I look at some stands on offer in shops and seriously doubt their durability.

[TerryG]

I am still rather peeved so apologies if I come across as being stroppy today (or rather more stroppy than normal).
These stands looked pretty tough. With the pair rated at 3 tons and the car weighing 2.5 I assumed (wrongly) that they could take the load. It's quite annoying, They aren't rusty and have been used hundreds of times over the 3 or so years I have had them.
Good idea on putting wheels under the car. I'll do that in future. I would much rather scratch an alloy than break a leg.

[Luxobarge]

I would much rather scratch an alloy than break a leg.

Exactly. I don't blame you for being peeved by the way, I would be too. But there again I spend most of my life being peeved by something or other......

I've never actually had a car fall off the stands while I've been under it, but I did have the Midget roll off the stands backwards once, while I wasn't under it. The front of the car was on the ground but the back was on stands and for some reason that I can't recall the stands tipped over backwards, and the rear corner of the car crunched into the side of the garage door, bending the bumper and damaging the paintwork. Bearing in mind that this was long after the restoration, so the bumper and paintwork were immaculate and I was more than a little peeved! I had to replace the bumper (and repro ones are nothing like as good as originals) and respray the rear quarter, and the paint still doesn't match properly.

I should have chocked the front wheels and used better stands - I have some super-heavy duty ones like Minxy does, with a huge footprint, but on this occasion I wasn't using them. Every day's a school day - Caveat Emptor! At least I wasn't hurt, not physically anyway.

Cheers all.

[ecurie]

I use axle stands quite often, but always make sure to have a second pair as back-up.
This second pair is placed under the car (ususally somewhere between suspension components so they can't fall over) but slightly lower as not to support the car. In the event of the car sliding of the first set of axle stands the second set will catch it.

[Mitsuru]

I have had a car drop on me while I was underneath it doing the pipe run on it for my first lpg kit!
My now ex was supposed to be watching and listen in case I needed something or help! Did they
heck as like! They had their headphones on and were playing computer games on my PC.

What happened to me was the trolley jack just decided to let go and let the car down(bought a new
after that) But as there were no wheels off the car and I was a fair bit thinner and fitter I wasn't
injured only pinned till my next door neighbour heard and used the spare mechanical jack kept with
the spare.

Looking back what happened that day should have been a wakeup call that relation ship was all give
from me and use by them.

If working on a car be it when it's up in the air or not make sure you have someone you trust keeping
one eye on you in-case something goes wrong!

[zipgun]

Maybe she twisted the handle , when you wasn't looking , and just pretended to be playing games on the pc ? Like attempted murder?