They can, but mostly it's the cheapie ones made out of stamped steel that do.

Better ones might slip if you don't get the latch set fully.

Not really a jackstand issue, but ANY of them can let the car drop if one or more of the legs are set directly on dirt.


Norm

 

How can you tell if they're cheaply made? I've never owned a pair of stands before...

Mine were purchased at a brick and mortar Harbor Freight Tools for ~$20...
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38846

 

Stamped and formed from relatively thin metal flat stock and tubing, ends of the legs (usually 3) may not be squared off at the floor ends, height adjustment is by pins pushed through one of typically three sets of holes. In these, the cradles will bend flat or worse, and the holes will get ovalled from the weight.

OK for 2200 - 2300 lb Pintos and Vegas back in the day, too risky for anything of wide interest here.


Norm

 

Harbor Freight, that's how you can tell!
Don't buy tools from this joint...
Not only it's China, but it's cheap China.

 

Hello. My name is Rob... I'm a pumpkin jacker.... I'm proud of it....

I can't use ramps to change oil, so K member works fine in front...

 

Seriously?...

 

Meh. I wouldn't think twice about buying jack stands from harbor freight. They are gonna hold. And besides you should always take safety precautions and have something else there as a backup in case of a failure.

 

That picture is not entirely accruate.

For the rear, other than the pinch seams and diff, where can you jack up the rear ?
Ive searched high and low, cant find anything solid, so i use the diff.

 

People that don't use the diff generally end up jacking up one side at a time.

 

Yea, I conducted a bit of research in the past few hours and could not find complaints from anyone who's used the jack and stands... I shake the hell out of the car after it's lifted anyway...solid as a rock.

Yeah I know the picture is slightly off. I realized it when I tried to use it myself. The front-end jack point is right on, but the points along the frame didn't match up to my GT. Originally I thought it was an SN95 image, but the solid rear axle threw me off that track. Then I thought it was a V6er, but as I said, it doesn't appear that the frame points match up.

Woof...I imagine a reasonable alternative would be to back the car up onto ramps and then jack the diff just high enough to get stands underneath...

I must admit, the ramps were not the miracle car-lifting means I had anticipated. I was squirming pretty bad changing my oil with the car on ramps...and I'm a small dude. If I'm lifting the front up, it's jack/stands or bust. I love ramps more for the peace of mind I get knowing that if the jack and stands fail at the same time, the car just falls onto ramps and maybe I suffer some bad lacerations instead of certain death...