ISO car museum jackstands

In the warehouse where I office during the day, my boss has a collection of about 55 collector cars. All but a few of them never move, except down. At any given time 1/3 of them have a flat tire. So we want to get the weight off the tires. We looked at jackstands, including the nice sleek ones that are coming out. But those are a bit expensive when you are looking at 200 or so. I know that car museums use a more specialized stand that just supports the weight at the ball joint, with the tire touching the ground in it's normal position. That's what we really need. Is there a source for those, or are they custom-made? Alternately is there anyone in the DFW area who would like to bid on 200 simple stands ? All we really need is a 6" steel plate with a

12" pice of heavy-wall 2" square tubing welded to the center. We can cut them to fit the individual cars with a chopsaw.

Other suggestions welcome

--

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

Reply to
Rex B
Loading thread data ...

15 bucks each

John

Reply to
john

Rex: Try using sections of 4x4 or 6x6 set so that the grain is vertical.

Craig C.

Reply to
cvairwerks

Good idea. Someone else suggested lengths of exhaust tubing

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

snipped-for-privacy@tigerbyte.net wrote:

Reply to
Rex B

Old wheel rims from a salvage yard with 3" pipe risers welded and cut to fit the axles on the display cars. CHeap to make and they work great. Bugs

Reply to
Bugs

Do the jacks realy have to be ugly? Or is this the Luginbuehl-Museum?

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

Right now I'm leaning toward 3" exhaust tubing, cut to length.

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

Nick Müller wrote:

Reply to
Rex B

Reply to
RoyJ

He wants the tires on the ground, but with most of the weight on the stands. As long as there's some weight on the tires it might me pretty hard to knock them off. I would probably try one or two and see if I could knock them off first. Worst case, the tires are already on the ground and any corner with a flat drops a few inches. If this is just a warehouse and not open to the public, it doesn't sound too bad... This warehouse doesn't have vinyl tiles or anything does it?

Reply to
Larry Fishel

How about 6" or 8" sonotube filled with concrete. Maybe cut a wood or mdf circle and set in the bottom when casting the concrete, then turn the other way up so that the car axles are protected.

Mark Rand RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

I'd be concerned about water-friendly material in contact with a car for long periods of time.

Reply to
Dave Hinz

Here's the plan:

1 Inflate tires to 50 lbs 2 Accurately Measure floor to support point on suspension, close to wheel, preferably ball joint. 3 Cut tubing to size, place under support points 4 Reduce air pressure to normal, bringing majority of weight onto tubing.

By doing this most of the weight should be borne by the tubing. The contact patch of the tires will add stability. Worst case, if the car rolls off the stands, the "drop" might be 1/2 inch, unless all the tires are flat. As for the floor, it's an old concrete warehouse floor.

We are going to try a few today. I'll let you know how it turns out.

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

RoyJ wrote:

Reply to
Rex B

Exactly our thinking, Larry. No, this isn't open to the public. Probably an average of 20 people per week, typically customers, vendor reps, or friends of employees.

Reply to
Rex B

Mark For the fronts, I probably won't want anything over 3". I need them to bear on the A-frame (where so equipped) and be as unobtrusive as possible. On a solid rear axle a 6" might work.

Rex

Reply to
Rex B

Fill the tires up with water and a little antifreeze to stop rust. A foot-operated bicycle pump from Wal-Mart submerged in a trough of water works OK for pumping water into tires, though it's slow going.

Reply to
B.B.

Now that's something I haven't thought of. Don't think the boss would buy into it though.

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

B.B. wrote:

Reply to
Rex B
6x10 pine, had some left over from my barn building some years back, a 12 inch piece is a dandy jackstand, soft so it won't mar anything, and a real 6 inches[sawmill cut] will hold the balljoint of most things. If not a suitable spacer[related to the suitable drift] and then mark them with a sharpie as to which car they belong to.

Wood won't scratch or dent things as badly as steel when some bozo flings it about, won't nick the paint on the way in or out

punch a big hole and pass a chunk of that big yellow poly rope through it with a knot on each end and you don't have to be under the car to remove[like wheel chocks]

Reply to
yourname

these are going to be semipermanent. I thought about wooden blocks but I would prefer something less bulky, for aesthetic reasons.

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

yourname wrote:

Reply to
Rex B

Rex

I may have missed something. Have you rejected the $26.00 for four aluminum jack stands from Harbor Freight? It seems that the aluminum stands would have an intrinsic value, so they could be sold whenever they are not needed. And, at $6.50 each, the aluminum stands seem quite affordable.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Martes

Jerry, I have not seen that particular deal. But we did look at Jackstands initially, as that's the normal solution. But conventional jackstands have 2 problems:

1 - The pyramical base keeps you from placing it far enough outboard in some cases. 2 - The adjustment is too coarse. If one of the notches happens to be correct, you are extremely lucky

There is a showier style of stand that would work, but these cost us at least $14 at distributor cost, buying 200 at a time. That's the stands tat come with this package:

formatting link
But I have not found the 4-pc Al set for $26.00. Would you have a HF part number, or a link?

- - Rex Burkheimer WM Automotive Fort Worth TX

Jerry Martes wrote:

Reply to
Rex B

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.