Watch Several Jack Stands Try to Make a Stand Against 150-Ton Hydraulic Press

It's not that we want to scare everyone into never going under a car again, but it's better to be perfectly aware of the dangers and play it safe. One way you can do that is to pay very close attention to the load limit of a stand and make sure the weight of the vehicle doesn't exceed that.

With cars getting heavier and heavier, especially now that EVs are becoming mainstream, a two-ton rating on a jack stand isn't looking that impressive all of a sudden. However, you might be wondering just how accurate that figure is: will a 2,001 kg car instantly crack the thing, or could it be used to hold a bridge if needed?

As you would expect, the answer lies somewhere in between, though not precisely dead center. To find out, the Finish guy running the mega-successful Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube took a few stands with different ratings, placed them on a pressure pad, and then let the 150-ton press do the talking.

The first lamb to the slaughter was a four-legged jack stand rated for two metric tons (about 4,400 pounds). The result for that was pretty encouraging at nearly 5.6 tons (12,300 lbs), but things got even better when the safety pin was used. With that in place, the stand crumbled at 8.5 tons (18,600 lbs). To highlight the importance of the pin even further, a third test with just the tiny piece of metal doing all the work was carried out, and the result matched the first attempt (locked but no safety pin) almost perfectly: 5.3 tons (11,700 lbs).

Right, next up was a three-ton cylindrical stand made out of aluminum. Despite the lighter material, this design (with the safety pin on) managed to withstand a maximum load of 12.5 tons (27.5k lbs), making it the clear winner on the day.

Finally, a classic scissor jack rated for 1.5 tons (3,300 lbs) was brought up, and despite the apparent flimsy nature of its design, it held its own up to 4.2 tons (9,200 lbs) of force. As always, after all the testing was done, it was time for some fun - of the crushing variety, that is.

The bottom line here is that most manufacturers value safety enough to make their products a lot stronger than the actual rating suggests. However, that maximum load should never be ignored on the basis of what you've just seen in this video because no two jacks are the same, just like the conditions won't be either. Plus, it's not worth the risk.