Sizing jack stands for wind load?

Naio wrote:

DrewE wrote:

Do bear in mind that jack stands are often sold in pairs and rated for load for the pair, with each of the stands actually rated individually for only half that weight. It's sometimes a bit misleading, with the small print taking away what the big print giveth.

Oh, dang, I did not know that!

So the 3ton stand I have are really 3000lbs each... that still might be ok for the front, where gaw is around 3000lbs? And for the back, where gaw is around 6000, are 5 ton / 5000 jacks ok?

I do know to go with steel. I was exited over the lightness and high weight rating of those screw top aluminum jack stands -- until I saw a couple break in two when a jack slipped. Not good for sudden shear forces.

You really have to look at the stands or their instructions or packaging to know for sure. Some are rated by pairs, some individually; I've seen both. I think usually if they're sold as a set of two they rate them by the pair, but if they're sold individually the rating is for the individual unit; however, I wouldn't treat that as anything more than a rule of thumb.

Realistically, so long as you have some reasonable margin over the axle weight divided by two, you should be OK. 5000 pounds is in my opinion quite sufficient for a 3000 pound load, even taking into account wind forces. If the wind is blowing enough that you have 5000 ponds on the one side and 1000 pounds on the other, you probably don't want to be anywhere near the area, particularly if there are trees or sand or what have you around. I'm assuming you aren't intending to camp on the summit of Mt Washington, for instance, where the old observatory/stage road office building is literally chained to the rock to keep it from blowing away (and where the highest recorded wind speed was observed, at 231 mph).