I remember one day back in 1984, I was working on my car (a 1975 vette)it was a very hot day and I was using frame jacks,and the car was very steady on the frame jacks,as I was working under the car I was not paying attention to the frame jacks,and I was busy working on the car,as I crawled out from under the car,to get a bigger socket that I needed to continue working,just as I got out from under the car,it CAME CRASHING down,what had happened was the asphalt had softened,and was very hot from the sun beating down on it,and when I jacked up the car and put 3200lbs of weight on the jacks,slowly but surely,the Frame jacks legs started sinking into the asphalt,and tilting,then to a point that the car fell off the jacks,I was VERY luckly that at The moment,I needed to crawl out to get something,as I would not have been able to crawl out to avoid the car from crushing me.THE point is if it is a very hot,sunny day,and you are going to jack your car on a paved driveway,PUT a STEEL plate under the frame jacks(make sure all the legs of the frame jacks are on the steel plate)(Or better yet bring them to a welder and have a steel plate WELDED to the bottom of the Frame jacks)This also applies if you use frame jacks on hard packed dirt.and chock the wheels. Claude 000570 --- In dmcnews@xxxx, "Nick Kemp" <nkemp@xxxx> wrote: > The message said ... The jack stand on the right front > kicked out and the truck fell... > > I almost always leave the floor jack under the vehicle just in case > something like this happens. I prefer a belt and suspender approach. Have > two methods to hold the vehicle up in case one fails. > > As I said in an earlier message, a floor jack is so easy to use that it make > jacking up the Delorean simple. So simple that you can raise the whole car > and have it supported at four points. Since the frame is so rigid, three > points will support the vehicle in the event that one failed. > > Use a 4x4 to spread the load and jack the car up in the middle on each side > to get it off the floor. I used this process repeatedly until I got the car > high enough to remove the body and roll the frame out from underneath it. > Yes, I used a long 4x4 to extend the stands out wide enough to roll the > frame out. > > I had two store bought jack stands ... and never liked how they looked. > They don't look like they should work even though they do. I built two more > out of 2x6 & 2x8 scraps. They are quite wide at the bottom and the boards > are nailed together on their flat (thin) sides. They look like they will > work and they do. They are wider than store bought and they cannot crumble > like concrete blocks. > > Just some thoughts. And I'm subject to being wrong without notice:- ) > > Nick Kemp