I often camp in windy places. In my current, small van, I sometimes have to lift the tires off the ground to get stability. I use jack stands that are each rated for my whole gvw, to allow for the increased load with wind gusts. 45 mph gusts are common. (When they reached 60mph this winter I went to a motel for 2 nights, but my cat hated that. I thought my little van might blow off the jack stands!)I guess my current ones will be ok for the front of my new van, but I will need a stronger pair for the rear.Is gvw a good guide? Or how SHOULD I estimate wind forces and strength?Are HF stands ok? Thanks, always.

If each stand is rated for the full gvw then that is not going to be the issue. The only issue I can think of is the stands stability in two places. The part that is actually touching the vehicle ie will the vehicle slide /get pushed off without knocking the stand over or perhaps better said the connection between the stand and the vehicle and secondly the base of the stand or footprint. Is the footprint of the stand more than the tire it is displacing? Bottle jack perhaps not, actual jack stand probably ok. I would park nose or tail into the wind and only raise the vehicle the least amount as possible. I seriously doubt a 60mph wind is going to blow over a van but it may blow it off the stands if they are not appropriate.

Wind isn't going to put more than the full vehicle weight on any one jack stand, since the applied force on the van is in the horizontal rather than the vertical plane. Your approach is safely conservative.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.

DrewE wrote: Wind isn't going to put more than the full vehicle weight on any one jack stand, since the applied force on the van is in the horizontal rather than the vertical plane. Your approach is safely conservative.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.

Naio wrote:I often camp in windy places. In my current, small van, I sometimes have to lift the tires off the ground to get stability. I use jack stands that are each rated for my whole gvw, to allow for the increased load with wind gusts. 45 mph gusts are common. (When they reached 60mph this winter I went to a motel for 2 nights, but my cat hated that. I thought my little van might blow off the jack stands!)I guess my current ones will be ok for the front of my new van, but I will need a stronger pair for the rear.Is gvw a good guide? Or how SHOULD I estimate wind forces and strength?Are HF stands ok? Thanks, always.Your problem is similar to what a ship-of-the-line had-- to keep the lower gun ports aimed at the dastardly French ship downwind of her. (The good guys--us--always had the windward gauge)(Think camping neighbour with outside speakers, playing Hip-Hop.)A "topsail wind" is 2 lb per sq ft, so your van will heel 7 degrees. This puts that much extra pressure on the jacks to keep it level, so your lower gun ports are not pointing at the ground next to your van, and you want to use them to add to your fire on that annoying French guy down wind in the next camp site.So now it is all math-- how much extra weight is on the "down" vector from your van NOT heeling 7 degrees in a topsail wind? (The simple solution is left to the student.)

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).

Sizing jack stands for wind load? | Good Sam Community

12 Replies

DrewE
Explorer II
May 11, 2017
Wind isn't going to put more than the full vehicle weight on any one jack stand, since the applied force on the van is in the horizontal rather than the vertical plane. Your approach is safely conservative.

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.
BarryG20
Explorer
May 11, 2017
If each stand is rated for the full gvw then that is not going to be the issue. The only issue I can think of is the stands stability in two places. The part that is actually touching the vehicle ie will the vehicle slide /get pushed off without knocking the stand over or perhaps better said the connection between the stand and the vehicle and secondly the base of the stand or footprint. Is the footprint of the stand more than the tire it is displacing? Bottle jack perhaps not, actual jack stand probably ok. I would park nose or tail into the wind and only raise the vehicle the least amount as possible. I seriously doubt a 60mph wind is going to blow over a van but it may blow it off the stands if they are not appropriate.

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Sizing jack stands for wind load?

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