Safe jacking proceedures

[Ed Jennings]

About 35+ years ago, I managed to drop a Corvair off a jack while working on a wheel. I wasn't under the car, but I could have been. I didn't know what jack stands were in those days, but I did use a concrete block on occasion. No damage , but the incident has stuck in my subconscious ever since. To put it bluntly, I'm a bit chicken about getting under a car, even when it's "properly" supported by jack stands in the approved spots.


I need to pull the transmissions in both my solid axle (oil leak), and my midyear (noisy throw out bearing). I have two pairs of real good jack stands, but I still am not real comfortable getting under the car, especially when tugging, shoving pushing, cussing, etc. Joe Lucia recommended concrete blocks and wood cribbing in an earlier post. I'm not sure I don't agree with this idea, as it seems the car would be more stable with this arrangement.


Has anyone tried the ramps I see advertised that are the full length of the car, and the back then raises up and some legs drop down? "Kwiklift" is the tradename. I'm interested in whether they are worth the $1000+ they cost, and wonder just how safe they are. I'm sure they are perfectly stable fore and aft, but I wonder about lateral stability. Alternately, has anyone tried the four post hydraulic lifts that are usually advertised as a means of vertically stacking cars? My garage only has an 8' ceiling, so the regular 4 point lifts seem to be out, as they all seem to require a 9'+ overhead.


Somebody make me feel better about this so I'll quit procrastinating!!! The 67 has had the noisy bearing for about 4 years now. I need to get on with it.

[Gary Schisler]

Re: Safe jacking proceedures

Ed, as a corvette owner who had his pride and joy fall on him, I can attest to your concern. My saving grace was that the wheels were still on the car. I had it up on a floor jack, jack stands placed strategically under the frame (but not touching it) and I was working a very difficult bolt in the rear sus*****ion. I will finish it by saying you can generate a lot of torque from a 24" breaker bar! The car got pulled off of the floor jack, started to roll backwards (the E brake was disconnected) and pushed the jack stands over. Fortunately I had the spare tire carrier out of the car, but I got pinned under it. My partner in crime was standing beside the car and he jacked it back up and helped me repair my bruised ego.


Now I use a set of high quality floor jack stands, a back up set of jack stands, positioned in a different spot, a good set of wheel chocks to prevent rolling, E brake is always set, and I put my heavy duty floor jack under and lightly touching the frame. I NEVER rest any of my body under the brake or suspension assemblies, and I always double check the stands. I learned my lesson the hard way. I always used jack stands ever since a friend was killed in high school ages ago. I just failed to always have the weight of the car on them.


Don't know about the device you are talking about, but I did tell my wife that I was designing my next garage big enough for a hydraulic lift and with a pit, if building code permits it.

[Gene M.]

Re: NCRS jacking proceedures

Ed, As part of the jacking team for national bow tie judging at nationals we put on a presentation on safe jacking of cars. Scott Sinclair heads the team and presents some do and do-nots when raising cars (solid, mid & shark) for safe examination by chassis teams. One thing I will point out is that jack stands MAY dig into new or very hot asphalt. Old highway type asphalt or concrete is much safer. On my set of jack stands at home I welded on a thick steel plates to form a base so the legs of the stands would not dig into the asphalt. This also saves the garage floor from digs by the stand legs. I would suggest talking to Scott (a great guy) about jack stand positions for each year. If I remember correctly the corvette manuals specify jacking positions but, that is for only taking off one wheel.

[John H.]

Re: Safe jacking proceedures

Ed -


Your 8' garage ceiling may not necessarily preclude use of a 4-post lift; most of them on the market now have columns about 86" high, and can be fabricated lower by special order. Your ceiling height would probably preclude stacking two cars, but you could certainly use the lift for service. One of the many car-nut magazines I read had an article this month evaluating the Kwiklift - can't remember which one it was, but they liked it and had nothing negative to say about it (except they didn't have one of their own).


John

[JAT]

Re: Safe jacking proceedures

Ed I have two of the drive on ramp style lifts in my two car garage. My ceiling is 9 feet high. I purchased my first one from Auto Lifters so I could get all three Corvettes in the garage. With the purchase of another Corvette I also bought another lift. The most difficult thing about having these lifts is backing the car in to raise it. The ramps are plenty wide enough so I almost always my wife to help be back on to avoid a accident. The reason I back inis that I have to put the lowest end facing out so that my garage door stops just short of the crest of the rise in the 68's and 70's front fenders. I adjusted my door so that it doesn't go up all the way to make this work and have plenty of room to drive my other two in and out of the garage. Just have to remember to turn the radio off on the 85 and 96 to lower the antenna and when the 68 or the 70 are being driven, I just remove the antenna. These lifts are really the safe way to work under a car and I also like being able to polish and wax a car at a convienent level. I looked at my purhase as really worth the money, I use lifts every day to keep my cars secure and out of the weather. The Corvette is a low enough car that you could probably use one in your garage even with your 8 foot ceiling. I don't know the exact measurement of the ceiling to the top of my raised cars, but I know I can raise them higher and store it but them I would not be able to raise the garage door. At the level they are at now, there are two more upper levels to lock in the lift. When I was going exhause replacement on the 68, raising the car one slot up was all I needed to work comfortably and I am 6'2".