I’m here to turn myself in, hand in my “DIY motorhead” card, and hang my head in shame. I’ve been using jack stands wrong my entire life. And I have no one to blame but myself, I mean they come with directions!

Ever tried to pick your jack stand up, but accidentally only grabbed the ratchet arm? If you have, you know the ratchet arm slides right out and the jack base goes clattering across your garage floor.

This isn’t a design flaw, in fact the jack stand designers created a workaround to fasten the ratchet arm into the jack stand base. But as YouTuber 1D10CRACY explained, “When they ship these things, usually the ratchet arm is not inside the jack, it’s in a box somewhere else.” So there’s “some assembly required.” And that’s the part I’ve been messing up.

How to assemble a new jack stand–the right way

Look at the side of your jack stand base. See the “funny little ‘U'” engraved in the side of each jack stand base. The designers intended the tab forming the inside of that “U” to be bent inward, to catch hate base of the ratchet arm and keep it from slipping out when you pick the jack up.

So how are you supposed to bend it? Just slide the ratchet arm into the jack. Double checking it’s facing in the correct direction. Then grab a punch and harmer and hit the metal tab a couple times. You can also see a cool method to bend the tab using a wrench as a lever instead of hitting it with hammer and punch in the video below:

In the final video, see three things you probably didn’t know about your jack stands. Including why you’ve been getting their weight rating wrong.