jacking points

[Diamond Hell]

Use your trolley jack on the point where your jack is, then use your axle stand under the square section, but turned 90 degrees.

[Conker]

Thanks for the help.

Sorry for being a spas, but whats the square section

[MarkS]

Before I crush myself to death...

I've never used axle stands before, so can someone just confirm that I'm doing it right.  I use my trolley jack to lift the car via the jacking points on the sill (under the trim flap), then I'm putting axle stands under the round bump shown below:



Is this safe. It feels sturdy, but doesn't look like the stands are designed to fit in the hole or anything???

Also, the trolley jack seems to deform the jacking point a bit.  Is this normal?

Personally mate, I put the axle stand where you have but I always make sure it lines up straight, flat and central. Which it doesn't seem to be in the pic.

I use the normal jack that comes with the car to lift the wheel off the ground, because using the trolley jack, as you've said, deforms the sill. I then lower the car onto that point on the axle stand as shown in your picture.

I then remove the spare tyre jack thing, and replace it with the trolley jack, so that the sill is resting on the jack, but not putting pressure on it, for added support, should the axle stand fail with me underneath 

I then repeat for the other side, but as I only have one trolley jack, I keep the spare wheel jack on there too, along with the axle stand as shown in the picture.

Not sure if this is technically correct, but its the way I do it 

I'm quite interested to get this cleared up too 

[Simpson]

what i usually do is use a brick and the standard jack to rais eit high enough for the axle stands, most axle stands have a smaller jacking point maybe if you turned them around it might look safer to put under the round jacking point, also if it is flattenign yuor sill you might want to take off your plastic sill cover just to make sure no rot is lurking, i know it might be obvious but there appears to be some rst forming there.  In fatc just read Mark s' post i do it exactly the same way only i use a brick under jack to make it higher

[Conker]

Quality. Cheers guys.

[Diamond Hell]

what i usually do is use a brick

Please don't.  Bricks can shatter and collapse without warning.  Wood is a much safer option.

[Agreeable Slick]

And wood can splinter and snap. Therefore, use neither and go and buy some proper axle stands. £20 if that isn't much to spend to save a hospital visit or worse.

[Conker]

Its all gone to plan and I've not been squashed. I used the circular protrusions for the stands and jacked it up off the box sectioney bit that the wishbone thingy attaches to. And I've left the trolley jack under the sub-frame for safety.

The axle stands feel really sturdy - I have tried to knock the car off very hard!

[Simpson]

looks more like it, i wont use a brick from now on  :embarassed:

[Diamond Hell]

And wood can splinter and snap.

It is far less likely that a good quality piece of wood will suffer a 'sudden and catastrophic failure' in comparison to a brick.

It will also cushion your metalwork and prevent damage to your car.  Also because wood has a certain amount of 'give' to it your car will sink in, ensuring it won't easily slide off.

Axle stands are OK to a point, but I've jacked up a lot of heavy things (like up to 12tonne tractors and heavy plant) and supported them safely with wooden sleeper sections.  I regularly use sleeper sections under axle stands to give better working space and would recommend them to anyone.  Wooden sleepers especially will take huge loads and remain completely inert, whereas concrete, or clay bricks will actually go off with an explosion quite easily when loaded up. Apply a bit of common sense and a jacked vehicle will be supported a lot safer with good solid chunks of wood under it than on axle stands, which don't spread the weight of the vehicle well at all.

Faced with a choice of buying a sleeper from a garden centre and cutting it up (a chainsaw is best), or buying 3t axle stands I'd buy the sleeper every time.  Obviously the best situation is to have both at your disposal.  Oh and I wouldn't touch a set of 2t stands with a bargepole - they really aren't suitable for much above a Mini.