Jacking up a carrier

[chris vickery]

After reading through this posts, maybe I missed it but one should never, ever work on a vehicle that is supported on a jack or jackstands.
The blocks as described are the best, making sure that the load has been released from the jack and is bearing solely on the cribbing.
Another area that is often ignored is the substrate. While maybe not quite so worrysome in your garage, jacking loads outdoors often has its own challenges.
As was pointed out previous, make sure the fround you are working on is solid, preferably concrete. Soil, grass, gravel and even asphalt tend to give.
I have seen all too often where guys will lift a load with a jack and toss a block under the frame "just in case". Many times the load hovering above the block. This is foolhardy because if the jack slips, rolls, get nudged etc the "safety" block may fail to catch the load on the way down, get split, dislodged or otherwise be pushed aside.
The company I work for moves loads (mainly jack and slide) often in excess of 200-400t so I have a bit of an idea....

[Rob Dyba]

Have used both wood blocks and truck stands and to be honest prefer the stands for carriers, easier to set correctly etc I use 5T stands as a minimum ..... over 10T Armour go the wood blocks if you don't have specific hull frame stands. Most importantly however- do not support the weight on the floor plate. All stands/blocks should be on the corner's of the hull, where the side meets the floorplate, the weight bearing ability of the side plates is far better than the floorplate. I use a frame spot welded to this location to move hulls in the workshop, when the frame is cut off, it leaves a couple of weld dags that locate the stands nicely, and no slipping issue. Same locations should be used when jacking also FYI- sliding the jack under the floor is not the best way to go.

Rob