Safest way to take off a wheel?

This is one of those times you want a solid base to back up the car and NEVER, NEVER rely on a hydraulic jack no matter the quality or size. And those 2 cent scissors jacks should never be used for that purpose.

For this purpose I use some very thick wooden blocks I have carried around for 35 years which I place under the car (at the proper place) and then shim it up and then release the jack to just where it makes contact but to take all the weight off the jack. On a perfectly flat garage floor there is less danger but on any kind of incline you CAN'T be too careful. There are a lot of people in graveyards who made the mistake of relying on jacks and flimsy jack stands.

Now if I am doing a simple tire rotation, I use two floor jacks on either side/side of the car but I never get under the car. For those jobs the inexpensive floor jacks are OK, but only on reasonably level conditions.

The bottom line is to never get under a car where it could fall on you. And if there is a possible chance of damage to the car then get some sort of device such as I have suggested that will catch the car should it slip off the jacks.

KorsaBlue said:

Thank you!

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I appreciate the comment. I'd like to see anyone else's suggestions as well. Although I have quality jack stands I don't really see how they can be placed longside the car without damaging the paint or the body work due to their design. That's why I use those solid wooden blocks so the car is totally immobile. I even shake the car to be absolutely certain that it can't go anywhere. Be sure to set the parking brake as well and perhaps even put blocks on either end of the other tires as an added precaution. I'm sure the regular mechanics who service these vehicles have other suggestions but they have equipment in the garages which cost $10s of thousands of dollars and which allow them to gain access under the cars. Unfortunately none of us at home have that equipment unless we are independently wealthy.

I am really leery of putting those jack stands under certain places of the car even if they can stand the weight. It concerns me that the jack stands could shift or not have proper contact against the surface. And as for the hydraulic jacks what I found when I placed a block of wood under the contact point of the jack was that it would shift off the narrow contact point where the scissor jack meets the body. I quickly abandoned that idea and just used the actual contact point (about 1 1/2 inches) with the cutouts to prevent movement but then again we would be relying on what was made, most probably, in China where they cut so many corners to turn out stuff for the mass market. Of course one could invest $200 in an American made heavy duty jack stand at one of the major auto chain stores but who wants to tie up that kind of money in something that is used perhaps 2 or 3 times a year? So we settle for the cheaper stuff because of practical monetary considerations. But even those carry the danger that they will roll off the hydraulic jacks because they are on rollers. Therefore I concluded that only something that was rendered completely immobile was safe to get under a car. When changing oil, metal ramps with the troughs to fit the tires on a secure surface are of course safe but that doesn't meet the needs of tire rotation.

Who else has a better idea because I don't have anything else to offer? (for the home mechanic)

I didn't mean to belabor this subject but I think it is important because so many people have been injured or killed doing this kind of work. It deserves to be thoroughly aired.