When I was 11 or 12 and into mini bikes there was a small engine repair shop that a man owned. The type of man with huge muscles from what nature gave him and from hard work. The guy would have my 5 hp horizontal shaft Briggs an Stratten held down in one hand and pull the cord with the other and hold while it was running. Years later I heard he got crushed to death while working under a car The man knew his stuff but guessing he gambled that he would only be under for maby a minute. In High School my friend had 70 428 SCJ Stang.. We were young and not much money so we would use wood, bricks, stones etc.. to secure the cars up My friend was under the front of the Stang and my other good friends brother was with him who had dropped out of grade school and couldn't read. After asking my other friends brother for a wrench and repeatingly getting the wrong one he got out from under the Stang all while cursing him and calling him "ignorant for lack of stronger words" and within 2 seconds the Stang collapsed to the ground.. Goes to show the Lord sees the good and has plans for everyone.. I wasn't there to see this but others did.
I regularly used short Oak logs for jackstands. I had just as much faith in them as I would (Chinese) jackstands. No, more faith.
Oh I have used pieces of probably 6 to 10 inches diameter of cut logs in different lengths. Can't say I always used oak though but still felt ok using them. Your right, after reading about my Harbor Freight jackstands, no matter how good the weld is I still back them up.
Also I can't understand why?? they used bumper jacks in the 60's and 70's on cars like Electra's, Caddy's that are 20 feet long! Even looking at those long long cars jacked up to fix a flat was silly stupid not to mention the bumpers bending after.. All the head engineers couldn't figure out to manufacture the side jacking from the frame?? Boggles me..
...yeah, always use handed-down stands that are likely older than I am. Heavy, but I still drag 'em out instead of the lighter/later ones whenever I go under. Don't trust any kind of jack, I've seen too many fail...
