HUH? What do your jack stands do better than my lift? I can get all four wheels of my car 21" off the floor in about 2 minutes (including pulling it into the garage). Putting jack stands under just the front of my '91 was at least a 10 minute job. Hell, my floor jack wouldn't even fit under my '91 unless I drove it up on some wood blocks. You must not understand how my lift works.

Quick, pull the wheels off your Miata while it is on jack stands (without firing up the compressor and using a impact wrench). Hmmm, guess you are going to have to let that thing back down. I'll never have to go through that **** again. I can say that I have only lifted a car with jack stands one time since buying my lift. Just the thought of going under there wrenching on stuff scared me so badly that I'll never do it again. Once you get a car under something really solid and safe you don't ever want to mess with jack stands again. I can find a lot of people who don't own a kwiklift who talk out their *** about it being junk or not being able to handle jobs. The two other people I know (both are in my local Miata club) who have one swear by them and recommend them to their friends. We do two tech days a year at my house and work on probably 10-15 Miatas each time using my lift. I've never heard one complaint and never had anyone ask where my jack stands were.

 

This is a complete thread drift, but I'm just not of the opinion that your "lift" is worth $1500. Yes you can lift it up 21" in minutes, but you can't get the wheels off. With my electric impact gun (hand me down from my dad), a $20 jack and a $20 set of jack stands I changed all four wheels in 15 minutes, and that was a snail's pace.

I apologize for:
A. The thread drift, and,
B. Making my response sound like such an insult. Merely a difference in opinion. Carry on with the RIPs and what not.

 

Again, it is amazing what people come up with who do not own and who have not ever seen my lift. Do you honestly think that something I called "the best $1400 you will ever spend" can not be used to remove the wheels? If the car were on the ground could you pull the wheels off? Doesn't the car sit on steel beams when on the lift? Same thing. I pull the wheels with a small hydraulic jack and a 6 x 6 block of wood. The only difference is that I can then crawl under the car and safely remove the tranny after I am done. I am not trying to insult you, just showing that your opinion is unfounded. If you used my lift for a day you would never go back to using jack stands again. I used a friend's kwik lift to change my clutch and bought my own two weeks later. A friend came over and used the lift to flush his brake lines and had his wife buy him one for his birthday a month later. It is that nice (just hard to describe in a thread)...

 

Whenever these threads pop up, I post the following that happened a few years ago as a warning...
A coworker of mine had his neighbor die while wrenching on his CRX. He was a certified Honda mechanic doing an axle swap in the driveway. He was using his brand new Snap On jackstands that have a round base and the theory is that they tilted and rotated. Here's a pic:


I agree with all those tips everyone else mentioned. Be careful out there guys!

Here's the e-mail from my coworker who was present just after:
My friends who work on "low to the ground" cars.

We had a very unfortunate event yesterday afternoon.
Our neighbor Mark across the street was a mechanic at Tipton Honda. He was out on his driveway working on his Honda CRX front suspension and changing axles. At some point the car came off the jack stands and landed on Mark's chest. We're not sure how long it was before he was discovered but we got word last night that it killed him, likely right away (massive internal damage - upper thorax).

I went over after the emergency response folks were gone to see if I could figure out what went wrong and take some photos. Mark had just purchased some new Blue Point jack stands and floor jack - very well built equipment. I noticed the base on the jack stands were made of a thick, circular steel plate unlike the usual 3 or 4 legged jack stands he'd been using for years and that most of us use.

It occurred to me that if he had been torquing on a large suspension bolt and got the jack stands to tip a little, their base would become a wheel and roll out from under their intended point of support with very little side load. Witness marks on the concrete support this theory. 2 arcing scribe marks in the driveway ending at the now tipped over jack stands (one had been moved before I got there - passenger side).

If you've heard of any problems with these stands (or had them yourself) be careful

 

Seems to me this argument is remotely similar to the "two post vs. four post lift" debate. When some see the car being raised by the tires vs. the frame, they see an obstacle. There was a group-buy going on at the garagejournal forum for a low ceiling two post lift at $1500 delivered. That would be more useful to me.

 

that was funny. At least i had a bunch of you around to save me...

 

I do that too. have to admit though, I have worked under the car with only one end on jack stands and no wheel chocks. Won't anymore.

 

That's what I was lobbying for.

 

I can see the value of the Kwiklift.

Bless this kid's family. **** like this really sucks to hear.

One thing I discovered last week is that you should clean your rubberized jack saddles and jacking surfaces every now and again. I had my jack start to slip on the oily k-member and it scared me straight.

 

This is why I always put all for up if im getting under the car. And then I literally push my weight into the side of the car to nearly rock it to make sure its stable.

 

Damn, hard to hear about this happening to a fellow enthusiast.

I also put all four up. I not only do a "body check", but also take my rubber mallet and tap each jack stand on each side to make sure they are not loading one side of the legs. You will be very surprised sometimes how a stand that looks flat can still be almost an inch out of center.

I also jack up each side incrementally to make sure the car goes straight up instead of "arcing" up which will tilt the jack stands on one side. Yes it takes longer, but I have to be really really careful since my daughter likes to peek under the car and "help". I value the time with her, and taking extra caution is worth it all around, even if it means I won't get everything planned done that day.

 

If I ever build my garage I'll get one of those as well. After using my lift for all these years the 2 post looks like it has too much **** to get in the way but I never really have used one. One thing that has going for it is that you can stand up when looking under the car. Has to be better than laying down all the time feeling around for wrenches.

 

Seriously. Change a clutch in Evo or a EGR plate on a new TDi while on stands. You will discover new muscles never before used.