always back up jack stands by leaving a hydraulic floor jack engaged under the car near where you are working. Jack stands plus floor jack makes Jack a safe boy.

an additional note. I was always taught, if you remove a tire, especially if you are using a jack with no jack stand, place the tire you took off, under the vehicle. This gives you an extra layer of protection.

To anyone reading this : Get a Jack stand with the extra safety pin (that's on a little ring chain) the pin slips through as a backup. Also don't forget to bend the jack stand safety pin. Also putting a tire, block of wood or something in other areas might be a extra safety measure, Don't forget wheel Chalks to block off the wheels.

After 40 years of working on everything from heavy equipment to cars. I’ve never had a jack fail that way. I’ve bent stands and had welds break. I’ve even had hydraulics leak , blow apart but never have I had a jack stand fall because I hit the lever. The most dangerous thing that scares me is bumper jacks. My dad used to worry about killer wheels somebody he worked with got hurt by one of those. I’ve been around a shop since I could stand.

I think it's important to know that the pin is probably not a shear pin, but a steel roll pin. The steel roll pin is designed to hold components im alignment, not to act as a safety device. I have jack stands that are substantially similar and the pins are steel roll pins, not shear pins.

Just put your tires under the car as an extra safety measure

I always back it up with a floor jack slightly pumped to share the load. Chances of both failing at once is next to impossible, unless there is a hit-man out for you. Place in gear, park and parking brake and of course wheel chocks. Be safe guys...

My husband always puts blocks under the axles or somewhere. Seeing this just reinforces how grateful I am for his wisdom.

I always use a jack stand with my floor jacks. If I have to get under the car, i use two or more. There is nothing wrong with over doing safety, when your own car can crush you.

Always put the jack stand handle on the outside of the car. For one thing, you'll be working under the car & want to avoid the accidental impact. For another thing, it'll be easier to drop the arm from the outside once you lift the car off the stands to lower it with the floor jack.

FYI... They just put out a recall for those HF jack stands you got! Stay safe!

The Daytona Stands from Harbor Freight have a locking pin for added safety. Great feature.

Aim the release handle of the jack stand away from your work area. Problem solved. CAUTION: Avoid violent psycho tantrums and tool slinging while under a car on jack stands. Second, rare problem solved.

That's why you don't buy them with relief handles.i get the thick pin set with cotter pin.

Someone may have suggested this already, but I reckon to test/measure the shear load of the handle pin, you should put it under the hydraulic jack like you had at first, then use another hydraulic jack under the handle, or a winch and cable over it, in combination with a force gauge to test at what load does the pin actually shear off.

Curious, did you confirm the ram would support at least 500 lbs? For those wondering how Mike could lift his car off himself, consider the other jack stands were still in place. I was checking my stands under the car one time and noted one was completely loose! Issue was one spot in the jack surface was a little lower (about 1/2") and I forgot to account for that. I could tip the car back and forth with one hand!

I'm a freak under cars so here a good way to be super safe. I usually work with either the car on 4 stands or only 2 (front/rear). After placing the stands, I keep my jack under and I will then use the wheels as another safety put them under the car.

thats why you always slide the/a tire under the car where you are working.

Good experiment. One set of jack stands I have are made by excello where the lever actually has to move upward in a curved slot to release. I’ve complained about them, but this video tells me that feature is a very nice one to have. The base of these stands is solid plate on all 4 sides. They’re quite heavy too, but I think they are well-built. I’ve had them for about 30 years.

Pro tip, use more than 4 jackstands. I like to use at least 6 preferably 8 if they can fit. This way you are not totally reliant on the 4 corners alone. In the event of a failure if you have 2 in the middle you could more than likely teeter the car one way or the other or at least keep it from totally crushing your body, saving your life.

I liked this video. There is one point that I would like to make, human's head not completely in the game. When I was 24 years old I had a 1960 Olds that I used to go back and forth to work. My job at the time was a heavy equipment mechanic, so I knew about safety. I wanted to check my carrier bearing because I had a vibration. I drove the car up on blocks, ( a 60 Olds is low), I blocked it so that it could not go any further forward. I did NOTHING to prevent it from going backward! The only thing holding the car up on the blocks was the transmission that was in park. I then crawled under the car and popped the driveline off of the diff! The car immediately started to roll of the ramps. At least I had the presence of mind to turn over on to my back. The frame went across my stomach. I could just barely breathe. If the frame had went across my chest, it would have killed me. There are so many things that I did wrong. No blocks to prevent rearward movement. Did not apply the emergency brake. Did not take the transmission out of park. I worked on things every day that could easily kill me, but I always made it safe. What was I thinking? My mind was definitely not on what I was doing. I guess that the point that I am trying to make is, stop and take a look at what you are doing. Look at everything. It should only take you a couple of minutes, but I always do it now. I am 70 years old now, and every time I get under ANYTHING I remember that day long ago. It is NOT a pleasant memory.

Sooooo.... I shouldn't hit the jack stand release while I'm under the vehicle. Got it. I'll add this knowledge to the previous bits such as: coffee=hot and no hairdryer in the bathtub.

Awesome video. Harbor Freight recalled their jack stands and replaced them with new and improved ones. They then recalled the new and improved replacement jack stands. I received an email from them in regards to this. Just wanted to share.

It seems to me that you first want to know the force it takes on the lever to shear the pin. For that, there should be no vertical movement. You just have to apply a measured force at the end of the lever until the pin shears. Then you can just calculate the threshold weight on the jack from its mechanical design.

no way you can accidentally hit it that hard with a hammer.

There is NO WAY he " Bumped" into the handle and caused a failure ! There is much more to this story that's not being told !

Thank you very much! I love working on my car but sometimes you make mental mistakes and videos like these are good reminders.

First Garage Geek video I ever saw. Great great video. Clean, clear, precise info. Great detail and no fluff. I am now subscribed

This was just like a mythbusters style of experiment. You really covered the details. Good video!

I always do a shake test before I get under any vehicle on any kind of stands

Thank you for discussing a very critical safety issue . It's very reassuring to learn that we can count on the safety of a jack stand.

I have been using those type of jack stands for about 20 years. Never encountered an issue like that. I do find that it rare cases if you're not careful, the handle may not be in its full locking position, meaning that the ratchet type gear would rest the weight on the end of the tooth with the handle in a slightly raised position. In which the slightest movement of the car such as undoing a tight bolt will slide the tooth off causing the failure. That's my theory on what may have happened if it was a ratcheting type stand.

Be like chrisfix he has jack stands with more jack stands and tire under. Safety first and then if all else fails it was meant to be.

I'm thinking the car wasn't on the stands level, it rocked relieving weight off one side then fell.

Never smack your Jack stand with a hammer when working on your car. Or shove a tyre iron under the handle. You have been warned lol

There are jack stands that have pins to prevent this type of accident

This scenario is obviously not going to happen while working on a car in the real world,but I will tell you that I had a jackstand fail in a scary way at my old job. We used various shop jackstands all of the time for vehicles with no problems,until one day a certain little red one fell to the last stop while it was under a vehicle. My boss thought I was nuts,but the other mechanic seen it too. I reset it and it was fine for the duration of that repair (I used a tire under the vehicle after I reset it just in case). Well days,or weeks later it happened again and that was it for using that. I told my boss to scrap it and put it aside. It looked identical to 3 other ones,so I didn't want it getting mixed up with good ones. He puts it back with the four one day and I refused to use any of those after that. I have no clue why it randomally failed to this day.

My cheap jack stands have a triangular bar that is chained to the stand. After setting the jack, the intention is to slide in the bar which also locks the jack. In order for them to collapse, you have to both knock out the bar and lift the dog. As long as you remember to insert the bar, you have essentially zero chance of failure. I suspect that there were lawsuits over this in the past which caused them to add the lock bar.

Great test. I had a similar issue in designing a latch for an infant incubator porthole door - odd analogy I know - but ... most latches can get 'hung up' in an intermediate position where it engages, looks locked, but isn't fully locked. This allows far less force to open it. This scenario may be what happened to the guy in the story. I'm about to buy jack stands, I'm gonna make sure they are good quality and don't get 'hung up'. A few extra bucks life insurance in these tools should be worth it. Thx.

I would have liked to have seen how much pressure it actually takes to sheer the pin.

I think I'd rather have it set with weights instead of compressed air.

The danger isn't necessarily from accidentally knocking the ratchet lever, but the pawl edge wears away from many years of the teeth riding against it when its being extended over and over gradually filing it down over years of use. So when uncle Joe with his 15 year old jack stands is smacking on a brake drum or trying to wobble something free it might just be enough weight and enough play to sheer the remaining lip off the pawl and come crashing down.

Thanks to this video, I learned to place the jack stands side with the handle away from my work area.

Great info! I take it is essential to be aware of possibility of incidental hits on that handle. Rush, hang over and such and falling in sleep under the car are things that come to mind. Children playing in immediate vicinity. Be sure the good weight really is on all stands to avoid flip chance.

I thought you would increase the load to 1000lbs to see if the pin failed.

Something no manufacturer would ever even attempt to demonstrate. Thanks for sharing this. I am very cautious generally. Your video was oddly chilling while also being reassuring. Yes, these can fail, but seem to do OK unless a lot of force is applied. Safety always comes first because we never realize when we are making a mistake (all accidents are accidental, so take steps to add extra layers of protection to you as you work hard, fight with parts, and get mentally exhausted).

They stopped selling this type in UK now ours all have lock pins and holes up the stem! Totally reliable👍🏻

I am going to check my jack stands. For now I am really glad I've always both left the jack in place (not holding weight, just touching) and I usually slide the fullsized spare under with me

Extremely interesting subject matter, I watched the whole thing. As a consumer, I totally appreciate this. This is an old design, and I don't think a lot of manufacturers have given this much thought. There's QA for a reason, I'm sure they took your experiment into consideration. There is no flaw in your scenario, it shows these things pose a potential for an injury.

There's no way you can accidentally push up against 500 lbs so I deem these stands safe.

thank you for this video ! I never thought that it could release with weight on it. will be mindful from now on.

Thank you for puting my mind at ease whilst under my low Honda accord!

Excellent experiment you made. I totally agree with you. Safety first.

I use lots of old bubble wrap I have laying around instead of jack stands. It is unlikely all bubbles would ever fail simultaneously. YMMV.

Great experiment. I never thought of a jack stand doing that. 👍🏾. Knowledge is a great thing. Great job. 👍🏾

The best of backyard engineering! Subscribed!

Theres a better chance that the falling porsche was caused by a jack stand poorly placed, work being done on an incline, a secondary trolly jack placed parallel to the car rather than perpendicular or wheels not secured with blocks. with that said, i enjoyed the video, it was well thought out. cheers sir

That's why I let my wife do the oil changes :D

I'm an OEM Automotive Engineer with 42 years of experience. The biggest issue I see in these DIY videos is people not picking a vehicle up by the approved lift points. This is a huge mistake and can cause damage and or injury. I have a heavy duty floor jack to pick up my car and always use two sets of jack stands as well. Very unlikely this jack stand failed by hitting the lever.

I was working on a Volvo V70 estate a few years ago. Good set of pinned axle stands, Jack underneath and the wheel I’d taken off. The concrete on my driveway actually gave way which shifted the axle stand and the car came towards me pinning me against my neighbours wall. I couldn’t shift it at all due to the car being wedged now with the rubber of the tyre! I couldn’t take a breath and don’t remember much after that but luckily a neighbour heard my “last” breath and jacked the car off me sideways! Lucky. I redid the drive after that but have never gone underneath a jacked up car again. If your time is up something will get you.

I've used those same Harbor Freight jackstands for years now and the handle won't budge if there's any weight on the stand. You put a ridiculous amount of leverage on it during that 'experiment' and I seriously doubt there's any way you could achieve the same result by accident. I would guess the guy from the article didn't have his car supported properly like 99.9% of people who get crushed by cars.

“Doing this to your jack stands will get you killed”: If by that you mean don’t apply a pry bar tto a jack stand handle and apply 1000lbs of pressure while lying under the car, then i would agree. Also don’t use a sledgehammer and swing directly at the jack stand while under the car either. Also don’t tie a chain to the jack stand and the other end of the chain to a moving vehicle. also....

Very informative. Thank you.

After I set jack stands, I like to place 2 small scissor jacks on the frame as backup. I also throw a wheel under the diff if there's room. Pretty much guarantees a safe working environment.

Realistically, did the Chinese maker of this jack stand actually calculate the shear point of the roll pin (spring pin) attaching the handle to the pawl? More likely they calculated how small a pin could be used to lower the cost.

But why the fuck would you be continuously hitting the jack handle with a tool????

Very frightening .Non-Compressable vs Compressable very well thought out. Logical. Thanks for that.

I agree with your comments at the 11:56 mark. Not only did it look like you had to put a *lot* of force on that pry-bar to get that jack to fail, but you can see the press flex just before it does so. Personally, I've been using that same model jack stand for quite a few years, and have never felt unsafe. When I jack my car up to work on it, I usually leave the scissor jack in place, then use a pair of these as a safety, lowering the scissor jack just enough to still be supporting some of the weight of the car, but also putting some of the weight onto the jack stands. Again, I've never felt uncomfortable crawling under my vehicle with these things in place.

I'm like NASA, I always double up. If I have a spare jackstand on a car job, it goes side by side with the other one.

Guy wasn't burly, it's called adrenaline. A car fell on my dad when my mom was 7 months pregnant with me. She raised the car enough off of him and simultaneously assisted with pulling him out with one foot.

THAT IS WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP THE JACK FOR EXTRA SUPPORT

Its most likly that Mike, jacked his car up slip the stand under the car, and lifted the jack-stand to the bottom of the vehicle, but the cleat wasn't fully set, but instead just barely catching. Need to jack you car up a couple inches higher than the height you want your stands, so you can check to make sure the cleat is set, by lift up on the top of the stand about an inch and see if it drop back down onto the cleat.

Thanks for all the effort you put into this test. I have the same jack stands and have wondered about this very thing. I didn't really look at how the little handle worked in relation to the 'pawl' that actually holds the weight but noticed the stand raised slightly when i lifted the handle to lower the stand for storage. I also did not realize the shear-pin in that little handle was intended to serve as a safety feature to work as your experiment intended to illustrate. So, to me your experiment was a success as it illustrated the failure of the shear pin to "shear" when lifting/upward pressure was applied to the little handle. Because the shear pin did not shear (as it should) the little handle could be lifted thereby releasing the pawl and the jack stand lowered creating a potential for catastrophe. Admittedly, the amount of force required to lift the handle is not insignificant, but a couple impacts gradually moved the handle until it no longer engaged the pawl and the jack failed. While in over 30 years of on/off wrenching on cars and trucks i've never seen a jack stand fail, it's a good reminder to be careful with the release handle on these things and (as always) use additional safety measures.

Great video. This is why when I jack the car and take the wheel (s) off, I put them under the car. Don't work under the car with a single point of failure :)

I think your setup was spot on. Good demonstration.

You're, set up was a good teaching and thank, you for you're video and you're time.

Thank you for doing this man. It's a common sense to stay away from the jacks and never even touch them while working under the car.

he might have had an old jack were the teeth was worn out and when it got hit it slipped just a thought

First time I recall hearing about this sort of incident. I'm 58. Thanks for the video!

Thanks for posting this video man, could be a life saver. I own the same exact Jacks by the way.

As a Mechanic myself since 1976 I've been under a car or two with stands, its not hard to see the mistakes lay people could make using them. Mike drives a Porsche so he is possibly a lawyer, if so he was bound to make up some story that lay the blame on the jack stand design instead of admitting he simply placed the stand wrongly, or on uneven ground, or under a part of the vehicle it could slip off. We can assume he wast not under his Porsche shampooing the gearbox. he was doing something that probably involved him swinging on a spanner, which was attached to the car, which was teetering on a badly place jack stand. And he's a strong man who can lift a car and I bet he can really swing hard on a spanner too. The only question here is, how wrong am I on this.

Next up: Starting your engine will cause wear

Great technical experiment. However, it appears that the pin might require more than 500 lb of load on the stand before it can shear. Some of those "roll pins" are not proper shear pins but are hardened steel.

Very interesting. Thank you.

So 500 pounds falling on his face didn't kill him, and he was still able to bench press a 2000 pound car!!... wow

cool experiment. But this is what i don't get. Even if the guy did bump it and make it drop....it's STILL ON jackstands...just lower. That jackstand would have to be knocked out from under the car too. In other words the car itself would have to completely fall off of the stands which tells me it wasn't put in the correct spot to begin with (or on a sturdy, level surface) So i don't get how he got crushed simply from this stand getting lowered a few inches (although i would crap my pants for sure) :D

I learned Alot through this video. I learned that u can't trust jackstands completely. Put something else solid under where the frames are so Incase the jacks fail, it won't do the worst thing imaginable

The bottom setting of the jack stand height is a fool proof safety measure. I have always kept that in mind and tried to avoid setting the height so low that I had to squeeze under the car. In other words, leave yourself some room in case the jack stand spontaneously drops to the bottom setting. I also try to always use both floor jack AND jack stand, or some type of backup. On a different note, I noticed that using four jack stands makes the vehicle much less stable than keeping one axle on the ground. Lastly, for DIY-ers, do let someone know you will be working under the car before you start, if possible. Physics and gravity are unforgiving.

From rallying I've learned to put the wheel under the car while the car is on jack stands. Even if the car falls without injuring anyone, it is still easier to get a jack under it if the car is sitting on a wheel and not the ground.

10:09 ..Me after a night of Taco Bell.

Harbor Freight sells a "Daytona" brand jack-stand that has an extra safety pin you insert that not only pins the next ratchet tooth up but prevents the release handle from moving. Twice as much tooth contact area and a locked handle. It has very good welds and works well.

I love how you diagnosed why the hydraulic press wouldn't work. Good reasoning skills

replace steel sheer pin with bamboo toothpick, problem solved...

Probably a good idea to clean the jack-stands off with some brake Cleaner every now and then to keep any residual grease and oil off of the safety mechanisms. I've used jack-stands for years and I do remember once seeing one fail somewhere but I don't remember the details. I remember well enough, however, that I always leave the jack in place after letting most of the pressure off. Leave just enough pressure to hold it firmly in place. Somebody here mentioned leaving the wheels under the frame as well, also a good idea.

good review. thank you.

I agree with all this world, for me I take the candles handle outside, blocks for the wheels one in front and the other behind the rear or front wheels depending on the work to be done, the jack in place but 1/2 in less, I balance the car to check and a curved bar that does not touch the underside of the car to lower the handle of the candle, I take 1 to 2 mins to listen to myself if I am ready and safe. I did the work and finished the disassembly of backwards. Thank you for your comments I am 58 years old I work on cars for 40 years my daughter has been doing these brakes for 3 years my guy even more. thank you to you I see that all of you have thought of your security for you and especially for your family. I have a friend who died at 23 years old for a simple fault and to crush under his surrender, a woman two children of 2 and 3 years old.

Im using the same jack stands and i accidentally hit one of the stands causing me to think what would have happened if the car came down on me, thus prompting me to get more information from youtube regarding the safety and proper use of the jack stands. I also use an additional jack in the event of an accident or failure of the stands. Great experiment and thank you for sharing.

This's definitely an eye-opener, I can only imagine a car weight crushing down on someone's face, can anyone even live to tell that story? Thanks for sharing, this is the type of informative video we need on YT.

Hi GaragrGeek! Many people have been using wooden jack stands because the thing you tried to show had happened. However, I am not sure how much weight the wooden stands can bear . Can you make another experimental videos using 2x4 wooden stands many people do?

NOTHING ABOUT A CAR IS WORTH LOSING YOUR LIFE BE SAFE AND DO IT THE RIGHT WAY