Hey guys and gals, figured these pics might be a lesson to some. Have your lifts inspected and maintained!!! This is at the dealer I work at. The lift chain snapped without warning. The platform missed the guy working on it by inches as it came down, thank god no one was hurt! Sorry if this is O/T, but sometimes everyone needs a safety reminder (and yes these lifts had been inspected recently, and were scheduled to be red tagged, but due to some management changes and other BS the repairs were forgotten about, or at least thats what the roomers are)
glad no one was hurt. as a service tech myself i joke sometimes, it i'm going to die under a car at least let it be my own.
X2 on the no one hurt. What brand ? I have just started looking for lift's and prices. Is inexpensive (cheap) a killer???
You have to be careful with this kind of stuff. Think about what can happen, at all times. This is a good reminder.
The locks still should have caught it! Too many guys disable the the locks because they are too lazy to hold the safety release while the vehicle is being lowered!! I've seen it way too often!! There was a lube guy where I worked who cut the cables for the safety because someone kept returning the lift to "proper operating condition" after he would rig the safeties to "not work"! He was promptly dismissed!!!!!
looks that way to me too. Yep, where are the locks. My lift it would have been sitting on the locks and not the weight on the drive.
lift capacity exceeded. if the lift chain snapped, the lift would have dropped onto the safety catch. that looks like one of the arms buckeled under the wieght. a superduty diesel ambulance shouldnt be on a light duty drive on lube rack. and if it was known the lift was to be red tagged, why risk your own safety. when we get trucks in that are to heavy to safely lift, (anything bigger than F650) we refuse to work on it. if our manager wants to service large trucks, he can either buy the right equipment to do it safely or he can fix them himself. and yes, we have told him that. safety is no joke and risking life or injury to fix a truck, well you just cant pay me enough. were not saving lives here, just fixxing cars and trucks. be safe Dave
The locks worked just fine, but they are on the hydralic cylinder, and the chain that snapped was the one that connected the cylinder to the lift, so when it happened they did nothing. As far as being overloaded, maybe, but its a 12000lb lift that we've had countless med units on....
I work at a ford dealer also we are always lifting these heavy modified vehicles. alot of times when you are lowering the lift one of the locks will catch and you can get a result like this. very glad to hear no one was hurt.
Sorry guys I probably should have said that different, From what I was told by another tech, the GM was informed at the last inspection that the chains should be replaced, and the lift should be taken offline until then. He was fired shortly after for unrelated reasons and the information was never passed on...
the ambulance is over 12k lb. my buddy has an f350 standard cab diesel 4x4 not a dually. he had it wieghed and its just over 9000lbs. so think about what the ambulance wieghs, 15-18000 maybe. just be careful. like i said before, its not worth getting killed to fix some trucks.
I agree with the rest of you...definitely the result of an overloaded hoist! Good thing no one was hurt!
Unless it was going up or down the locks should hold it where it is. If it doesn't then it's a shitty design. When mine is on the locks. It's on the locks. and wether the cables or the cylinder go it's not dropping. If it's going up or down then no one should be under it or around it.
people just don't realize the weight of these kinda trucks. i have had utility body trucks for a few years now. 1 truck was totaled by tire kingdom when it fell off the lift and i have taken out 2 lifts at the local pep boys. i will look for the pic from tire kingdom later on when i am home
I agree, it is a shitty design, and all the other lifts in the shop have locks like you describe except for these 25 year old piles... And trust me, us techs have been on the higher ups to replace or update these lifts for years, but none have listened. Hopefully they will now... Weather the chain snapped from overloading and/or age, all i'm trying to tell people is to watch themselves around theirs and to keep them in good working order...
send those pictures to OSHA along with management's reasons for not getting the maintenance performed.. remember peoples lives are at stake when they walk/work around and under lifts..
Reminded me of when I was a kid. Service Station owner came running into my Dad's shop in a panic. Needed the Wrecker immediately because a 66 El Camino he was servicing came off an old floor lift hoist. Had it laying on its side, held up by the wall. Became the next project for my Dad's Body Shop. Glad nobody was hurt. You can never be too safe.
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