Jack stand substitute

A set of 6 ton jacck stands are only $40......Harbor Freight...LINK

I worry too much about cinder blocks collapsing to use them as supports.....great for cinder block wall

Short of jack stands I would use wood cribbing
But $40 for a set ($90 for 12 ton) I would splurge on them......they can be used for other projects.

Cinder blocks will crumble. They will not allow for odd surfaces to curve to match them. Trailers have flat smooth frames where the cinder blocks do not have to conform to odd shapes.
I use 8X8 timber blocks about 16 inches long.

When I did the rear brakes on our Class C with the E450 chassis a few months back, I used the wood ramps that the front wheels normally sit on when in the driveway. The ramps are three 2X10's nailed together and inverting one on top of the other was just about enough so that the axle flange could sit on top. A piece of 1 inch scrap filled the gap. Turned out that I didn't have to crawl under the rig to do the brakes.

Do NOT USE cinder blocks. They have superb compressive load when used as designed with the load spread over their entire top and bottom surface. They are not designed where there will be a potential for lateral loading or uneven loads from a surface that doesn't directly mate with them.

Either use jack stands or wooden stands. I prefer to use both jack stands and used railroad ties that are cut into 24 inch sections and stacked. If one fails, the other will provide back up.

Thanks for the feedback and especially the pic. That looks easy and stable.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
A set of 6 ton jacck stands are only $40......Harbor Freight...LINK

Ditto. See below, HF 6 ton stands under the rear axle, HF 3 ton stands under the front frame. Sat like this for about 5 weeks while I did the brake and fuel line replacement.



Life is too short to risk it on cinder blocks...bite the bullet and get the right tool, in this case, jack stands.

I 2nd the 6 ton jack stands from Harbor Freight. I bought 2 pairs a few years ago for just that purpose. Love them. :)

Friends don't let Friends use Cinder Blocks.

Got my 12 ton jack stands at Harbor Freight. No regrets for spending a bit to be safe.
I would loan them to you if you were in So CA.

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-jack-stands-34924.html

Cinder block aren't even good for walls. They are porous and weak and they literally explode when they get to their compression limit when used for jack stands. So do concrete blocks. People have died from using those! Use jack stands or cribbing. Craig