How to safely lift your car off the ground with jack stands

If you're going to do work on your own vehicle, you'll most likely need to get underneath it at some point.

Unless you own a monster truck, this means that you're going to have to lift your car in the air. This is intimidating for many, but there's a way to make it less so and Engineering Explained is here to show you how.

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First and foremost, make sure you're starting on level ground. You want everything to stay balanced so don't try this in a slanted driveway. Engage the parking brake and chock the wheels so your car doesn't feel like rolling anywhere. Next, find your jacking points and get either the front or rear in the air.

Put the front or rear on those jack stands. Now repeat for the other half of your car. Congratulations, you can now work underneath your car safely... after you give the car a good shake or two to make sure it's not going anywhere. A nice added piece of safety comes in the form of the wooden blocks that host Jason uses under his Honda S2000.

Another idea is to put a car tire on its side underneath the car. This acts as a safety net in the event that a jack stand fails on you. Better to have extra safety steps when doing this. The more you do this, the less scary it becomes.