JACKING & LIFTING

When you lift and support a vehicle it is important that it doesn’t move or it may roll off your jack/axle stand. For this reason, you should never lift a vehicle on any sort of slope because it is simply too risky. If you don’t have a level place at home then either get busy with the spade and concrete mixer to make one (concrete should be a strong mix and at least 100mm thick laid onto a bed of around 200mm of hardcore or preferably Type 2 Fill with all topsoil previously removed) or do the work on flat ground elsewhere. Sorry, but there should be no exceptions to this rule for the home mechanic because lifting and working on a vehicle may involve prolonged periods underneath it and you may be shaking and rocking the vehicle trying to free difficult nuts and components.

The second problem you should concern yourself with is the actual condition of the ground itself. Ideally you should work off some sort of hard surfacing such as block paving, concrete, tarmac etc. We are talking about properly laid surfaces that have a layer of hard fill beneath them. Be very wary of concrete with lots of cracks and weeds. The same goes for Tarmac with lots of humps and bumps and again, cracks and weeds. Watch out too for drain covers and manholes, never position your jack or axle stands closer than twice the distance that the drain is deep, from the nearest edge. Take a look inside and make sure no pipes run close to the surface (less than 1 metre deep) in the direction where you intend to work and look out for dips in the ground surface that could indicate subsoil has been washed out by a faulty drain.

Don’t work next to drops or slopes in ground level, even if there is a retaining wall, again you should be at least twice as far away as the depth of the drop.

Watercourses, streams and ponds too are bad news since the ground around them may be saturated and soft underneath the hard surface covering (even tarmac and concrete). Keep at least 3 metres away from any water feature, further if it is a large feature.

If you are in any doubt about the state of the ground where you are working then don’t take the risk, find somewhere else to work.

Wherever you decide to work, it is good practice to use a spreader plate as described previously under "equipment" to spread the load over a wider area.