PPo

Wife: "What are reading about?"
Me: "Hubstands"
<long pause>
Wife: "Are you gay now?"
<long pause/confusion>
Me: "Hub STANDS, not husbands."

dt930

I bought a set of hubstands about a year ago, along with the smartstring set up they are one of the best investments I've made. I sold my alignment machine and have never looked back. The strings don't lie.

gieseja

dt930

Hubstand set up

dt930

Hubstand set up

JWERION

Can someone with the hubstands explain how they allow the suspension to settle out after being in full droop on the lift and being lowered on to the scales. I don't understand how the hubstand units let the suspension settle out to the sides using the black pads (rubber?) rather than a roller like the other brands. Particularly without using any sort of slip plate.

flatsics

maybe this will help

JoshuaB

I have a set of them and also feel that they were a great investment.

Although their design, as shown in the attached image above which shows the movement in the various directions, does allow for some slip, I have to use slip plates to relieve the bind that occurs. I have not used these on a lift, only with floor jacks and jack stands, so it may be much different when using a lift where the car is raised and lowered parallel to the ground and not one side like with a jack…

I use very low tech slips plates that I read about in a thread here on RL years ago, very thin kitchen garbage bags with a little Pam cooking oil sprayed inside...works great!

kurt M

Gallon ziplock freezer bags with some spray lube works too. No slimy floor tiles or grease to deal with.

Tom '74 911

Thanks for the great tip!

RedlineMan

Hey;

I'd say based on what I see they are rather a bargain for $995. Nice looking stuff if you have the money, or are not handy or capable. I made a set years ago for corner balancing. Pretty simple. Take a set of old rotors, flip them over, instant wheel brackets. Angle iron stands attached to them. Only fits one bolt pattern, but that's all I need. If you can afford these things, you can certainly afford some slip plates. Smart Strings are easy to make as well. I use an alignment rack for alignments. Far faster for difficult cars like the 944.

fatbillybob

That's funny John. I have been reading this thread and just changed out some old rotors and was thinking the same thing about welding onto the old rotors. My stands will be heavy as heck but I'm cheap as heck too!

wanna911

I would buy these in a hearbeat.


And pay someone to help me learn how to set my own car up. The time and money saved putting car on trailer driving to shop, paying for alignments/CB's would be well worth the investment.

If anyone in the Atlanta area knows how to DIY setup, please let me know........ I'd even let you use the stuff to set your own car up when you need it.

kurt M

Hub stands are nice but not required in a DIY format. For most cars a scale kit, smart strings and a camber guage will get you there. I bought a digital scale kit for under $1000 and made a set of levelable frames with a roll off area on them. The feet have sliders on them to remove bind as the car is set down. Set the car on the scales, set up the strings and go to town. The scale frames hold the car up enough to slide under and make most changes. The fine folks that sell the smart strings also sell a digital level. The electronic level is made to fit into the smart camber device. You can make camber guage frames up using home depot type stuff but I recomend you get the digital guage. It is a very handy little sucker. $1500 worth of gear and some handy man time making up the rest can get you all set up to corner and line up most cars in the home setting. IMO scales are a must. Go to Smart Racing website and read up. They have lots of how to info and charts for us DIY people.

I have lined up my white car and then had it checked against the Hunter system I have at work and the strings are dead on when used right. In some ways better. They are slower than a $40,000 Hunter rack so you will spend some more time in setup but I think the ROI for the pro digital rack in the home setting would be 20,000 years or so.

It is nice to be able to check the setup and tinker with it. I do think you need to be able to measure and ajust most all of the settings to be at all useful. Caster, camber, toe, corner weights, rake and ride hight are givens. Some other measurements such as bump steer can be calulated with a bit of thinking and or some inexpensive to make tools.

If you take in the time spent taking the car to the shop and bringing it back home, DIY is way faster.

chris walrod

and they work great!