Cheap Hydraulic Jacks...

[68 Stepside]

Hey all,

I'm cheap by nature, and tend to really cheap out when it comes to tools and such.

A few years ago I bought a small 2 ton "Mack" brand hydro jack from Wal-Mart. It's always worked well for what I needed it to do, so I thought.

Then comes this morning. I was raising the truck up to take the front tires off, raised it, placed the jackstands underneath it, lowered it and proceeded to take the drivers side tire off. The tire was just barely scrubbing the driveway, so I went around and raised the truck up a few more pumps on the jack. As I walked back around the drivers side and started to reach under the truck to raise the jackstand up another notch, it happened.

I see the truck start to shift, so I jump back as it falls over, kinda landing on the jack stands, and being held up by those and the drivers side front tire that's only held on by two semi-threaded lug nuts that I'd left on.

I checked to make sure I was ok, then got to wondering..."what the hell happened there?"

First pic is the tire (you can also see the jackstand), second is of the jack.

Moral of the story: Don't buy junk if you would like to keep yourself alive. I've been in town all day, bought a new 3 ton jack that's really heavy duty (weighs like 100 lbs.), and a better set of jackstands as well. I could have very easily been hurt severely or crushed to death had that tire not been on the truck.