My name is Roland Dudley and I'm a chintzy jack-stand-oholic.
I felt guilty about owning a set of these three-legged stamped-out
pin-lock jack stands until I spotted a photo in one of my Cobra books.
There sat one of Carroll Shelby's World Champion Team Cobras perched on
a set of identical looking stands. Hey, if K-Mart jack stands were good
enough for Ole Shel, they're good enough for me.
In the same book is another photo of the pit crew doing a quickie engine
installation. One of the crew members is sitting on the nose of a Cobra
with his legs inside the engine compartment guiding the engine through
the hood opening. Afterwards I'll bet you could see an imprint of this
guy's butt in the body work, cleavage and all.
I'm too paranoid to crawl under a car supported only by jack stands,
these or any other type, but I do like mine because they're light and
easy to store. Drive-on ramps would be nice but they're too big and
clunky. I just don't have the room. Beside, the stuff I usually need
to work on requires removing one or more wheels; and I would never
consider doing any major engine work "in place". I might make up a set
of blocks like the ones Ray Gibbons described, though. They look more
compact than than ramps. Nice for oil changes and such.
Roland
|