Do you have or know about Pin socket + pin style jackstands?

I'm interested in installing pin sockets and building/buying pin stands for my car.I'm wondering if any of you have done this?

I like working on my car, and while I have a set of ramps and traditional Jack stands, I'm hoping pin style stands will be less intrusive.

Do any of you have or know of someone that uses this type of stand? I really want to hear if people have found this useful or not, and if there were any surprise negatives that came up.

The primary positive of pin sockets is the fact that they are thin (less intrusive), quick, easy to use, and wont be pushed so far into the dirt, ground, or asphalt. You will need to make modifications to the chassis to use them. The ones I have seen are made and installed by custom cage shops. If there is a fault in the construciton, you may end up with a crushed skull.

My suggestion; Go up to Harbor Freight and grab a set or two of 3 ton steel jack stands for $25. That is all I use.

In reply to N Sperlo:

Thanks a lot for your response! My current set of stands are actually HF's aluminum 3 tons! I think I'll possibly hold off on the pin stands, and maybe get the sockets at some point down the line. Would you also recommend a HF jack?

I've seen some threads in another forum where the ratchet-style HF jacks have failed and people claim the pin type are more safe. Some also make noise about not trusting aluminum stands made in China, but without any examples of actual failure. I have aluminum stands I will continue to use under my 1500 lb racecar, but not under my 3/4 ton truck.

I have some pin-type, but I don't understand why anything special needs to be done to the car to make them work, unless we're talking about different things?

In reply to Basil Exposition:

Here are some links. The type of pin socket/stand I speak of is pretty much a slot welded into the body behind the door sills and an A or Y shaped frame with a rod that goes into them.

Some examples:

example 1, the stands are away from under the car. In my situation, that means more room to work on more things.

example 2, the stands go into the welded slot near the sills

As you can see, it sorta gets rid of the jack stands underneath the car by shifting them to the outside, parellel to the body itself instead of underneath on the factory jack/lift points.example 3, the stands

Interesting... never thought about them. After a bit of Google-fu (sill stands), I found a vendor in the UK who sells them as well as mounting kits:

http://www.motorsport-tools.com/motorsport-tools/jacking-lifting/sill-stands.html

Ian F wrote: Interesting... never thought about them. After a bit of Google-fu (sill stands), I found a vendor in the UK who sells them as well as mounting kits: http://www.motorsport-tools.com/motorsport-tools/jacking-lifting/sill-stands.html

Never mind, I thought y'all were referring to the freestanding type that used pins for adjustment, like towards the bottom of that page.