Practically Classics Forum

I'd have ditched someone for that! Some people are such a bloody liability that it doesn't matter how inventive they are in the bedroom, they'll never be worth the grief in the garage.

But using an axle stand by itself is never the best thing to do if there's an alternative as whatever you put on it, the car can't be level with three wheels in contact with the floor and some other area on the stand. We've all done similar things, usually we only do them the once! Main thing is, Terry, that you're still around to advise others not to do likewise.

Luxobarge wrote: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.

Exactly what I do

I found my ex messing with my diabetic and pain medication a year or so later so I wouldn't have put
it past him! However I had full view of the jack and nobody went near it and the valve was tight
shut, so equipment failure. It must have just been the jacks time to quit!

It bent? That's something worrying, have you taken it up with Halfords? No matter how long you've had them, they shouldn't bend..... One of my sets is probably 35 odd years old and still functional. I've had them slowly sink into hot tarmac, but never bend.... If anything I'd expect maybe aweld to go on one of my older ones, but bend? That's worrying!

Mitsuru wrote: They had their headphones on and were playing computer games on my PC.

they?? you invited all your exes over to help?? thats a recipe for disaster/attempted murder mate..

I always thought axle stands had to be used in pairs anyway? so if I'm using them they go on both sides of the car. and removed wheels always go under the car. Reading this I think I will carry on this way...even though I'm MUCH fatter than my herald wheels!

Fatbloke wrote:I think I will carry on this way...even though I'm MUCH fatter than my herald wheels!

Double the wheels up! 2 wheels one on top of the other should do the trick.

I use 3 ton axle stands heavy duty type. i will also where possible leave trolley jack in place ..though weight is on stands. other thing I do where possible is place something under chase e.g. wheel I have removed or spare. sooner buy a new wheel and have damage to chassis fixed than try and get new legs or worse .. cars can be replaced ..( mostly) but your body parts are much harder to source and fit if at all possible.

Glad you're ok Terry.

I do what others here do also. I put a wheel under the car and also lower the jack enough that the load is off it, but still high enough to catch the car should something happen.

Here's another warning.

If you haven't located your trolley jack properly under the front crossmember of a Scimitar GTE, here's what happens...

1: The jack pad slides out forward, crashing along the bottom face of the radiator tunnel as the car comes down.

2: The end of the tubular steel jack handle smashes into the wall nearby, amputating the last half inch of your left little finger.

3: As you sit on your MIG welder in the garage panting with shock, your mate appears, phone's his dad and faints on your behalf.

4: Mate's dad appears, say's you need to go to hospital...and takes you to the one with no casualty dept.

5: You end up in the correct hospital, having an X-ray on the machine on which you were a trainee years earlier.

6: The docs do the trim and stitch job under local anaesthetic (at your request).

7: After a night in male surgical, mate shows up in the offending car.

8: You eventually scrap said car by way of revenge.

9: You never play the violin again.

Don't ask ne how I know