How to Use Jack Stands

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Misusing these essential tools could cost you your life.

Whether it's upgrading shocks or simply swapping wheels, a lot of the work enthusiasts perform on their cars begins by getting the vehicle off of the ground. If you’re not fortunate enough to have access to a hydraulic lift, this means busting out a floor jack. That floor jack might get your ride off the ground with ease, but that’s only half of the equation. For the other half, you need jack stands.

We’ve all seen someone working on a car as it sits up on chunks of wood, concrete blocks, or on a floor jack alone. When it comes to safety, those are non-starters. I too have even been guilty of this lackadaisical approach before, particularly when a repair needed to happen immediately. Like the folks who continue to do this, I’m lucky nothing bad ever happened.

“A mistake a lot of people make is thinking that just using a floor jack alone is acceptable,” ASE Certified master technician Mia Bevacqua, who also serves as the chief mechanic and technical writer for CarParts.com, told R&T. “That’s a major safety risk you’re taking, and one that has dire consequences. It’s your life on the line. If you’re going to have more than one wheel off of the ground, it's very important to have more than one jack stand under there.”

Home mechanic David Carlson can back up Bevacqua’s words, having previously experienced an unfortunate jack-related accident in his garage. According to Carlson, he had purchased a set of new BBS wheels for his wife’s VW Jetta, and was excited to swap them over. Using solely the scissor jack from the trunk, Carlson cranked the car in the air and started to remove the wheels. After loosening the lugs on one particular wheel, the lack of jack stands created a dangerous situation.

“As I took the wheel off the hub, the car rolled off the jack and crushed my wrist between the fender and the wheel,” Carlson told R&T. “Luckily, my wife was in the garage with me and was able to get the car jacked back up after the longest 45 seconds of my life.”

Despite being fortunate enough to walk away with no permanent injuries, Carlson said the accident did cause severe numbness and a lack of strength in that hand for several weeks.

“I had had cars come off the jack before, but it wasn’t until I was injured by it that I became a staunch believer in doing it the right way every time.”

In addition to adding a set of jack stands to your tool kit, Bevacqua states that it is always best practice to leave your floor jack in place under the vehicle while working. That floor jack needs to be rated to hold at least 75 percent of the weight of your vehicle for it to be considered safe. Placement of the floor jack is equally as important for both lifting and later supporting the vehicle, with most car’s lift points located at the front and rear. Don’t use a floor jack on the emergency lift points that you’ll find along the pinch welds of the vehicle. While the scissor jack in your trunk is made for these locations, Bevacqua notes a proper floor jack might cause serious damage to the welds without an adapter. Always be wary of corrosion when lifting a vehicle, as a floor jack is more than capable of testing the limits of crusty components.

There are a few types of jack stands that a home mechanic might have at their disposal. The first is a tubular-style jack complete with a metal holding pin, which were quite popular a few decades back. These designs somewhat fell by the wayside when ratchet-style jack stands became available, but they’ve made a small comeback after the Harbor Freight recall from a few years ago. Some jack stands have also appeared as of late that combine the ratchet pawl with a metal pin for added peace of mind. If you’re using an older set of jack stands, it is important to make sure the metal around the saddle isn’t damaged or bent. Always inspect the base of a jack stand before use to ensure there is no damage to any of the welds.

When choosing a set of jack stands for a job, load capacity is the most important metric to understand. Jack stands manufactured after 2015 are rated by the American National Standards Institute and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The rating states that a pair of two-ton jacks are capable of safely supporting up to 4000 pounds when used together. It never hurts to clear your target weight by a good margin in this instance, which Bevacqua does also suggest.

The weight that a jack stand can hold isn’t the only thing you need to consider. A relatively small set of jack stands could technically be used to lift a large SUV, but that doesn’t mean the shape or size of the jack stand lends itself to a stable work environment. Having sets in a few different sizes of floor jacks and jack stands is a good idea for any home mechanic.

Speaking of stability, you always make sure that your jack stands are placed on a flat, level surface. A concrete floor is an ideal place to work, while an asphalt pad might prove too soft, possibly resulting in the jack stands digging into the surface. In another effort to prevent the vehicle from moving unpredictably, wheel chocks are a smart touch when the car vehicle is being jacked up or down.

As far as placing jack stands goes, there are a few things to always remember. The first is that you need to be looking for an area of the chassis with solid metal to stick the jacks under. Don’t try to support the vehicle from any of the suspension components, nor the engine or transmission. Bevacqua suggests always looking at the frame rails or the unibody structure first, but to be mindful of overly rusty areas.

“An undercarriage is always going to show some signs of surface rust, but you have to be careful when you have something that’s genuinely deteriorated away,” said Bevacqua. “If you’re looking at part of the car where the area around it has just withered away, your best option is to look for a different jack location.”

Once you’ve located a safe spot to set your jack stands, you want to slowly transfer the weight from the floor jack. As the weight of the vehicle loads up a jack stand, be sure to give it a push from each direction to ensure it is snug. Don’t try and really shake the vehicle however, as that’s asking for an accident to happen. Once you’ve got jack stands under the vehicle, be sure to check that the saddles are level, and that there is no air gap below the feet. A jack stand can shift as you place others around the vehicle, so be sure to verify their placement before getting to work. Remember to dust off the wheel chocks again when it's time to come back down again.

Whether you’re a long-time wrench or working on your first project, safety in the shop can’t be taken lightly. Something as simple as a set of jack stands have the chance to save your life if you use them properly. There are many reasons why folks work on cars, but we’d hope at least some of them do it for the enjoyment of driving afterwards. That’s something you can’t do if you don’t make it out from under the damn thing. So please, let’s stop underestimating the job of a jack stand.

Born and raised in Metro Detroit, associate editor Lucas Bell has spent his entire life surrounded by the automotive industry. He may daily drive an aging Mustang, but his Porsche 944 and NB Miata both take up most of his free time.

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