Work on your ride solo? Be careful!

Do you work on your ride alone? I do. Just a reminder to be careful. I just saw a news item where a guy here was working on his car - alone - a neighbor came over to see what was up and the guy was dead. His car had fallen on him. There was a floor jack in the picture. I'll bet just about every one of us has been under a car with only a jack for support. Even good floor jacks can fail.

There are plenty of other dangers in the garage. Take the same precautions you would make your wife, kid or girlfriend take to keep them safe.

A word to you young guys and gals. Take shop safety seriously. We old guys are just the survivors - and many of us have ugly scars!

 

Jack stands are no guarantee either. I had a friend get killed under a car and he had jack stands under it. When they came out from under the car they took a pretty big chunk of concrete with them. So, I tend to use several jack stands if I'm alone, more than the standard 'pair'.

 

I don't trust jacks for supporting a load at all. As for jack stands, I use the heck out of them but the image of one failing and the car crashing down is still in my head.

 

I dont go on roofs alone either.
House roofs, not car roofs.

 

I like to put a tire and wheel under the car when I slide under. It's a bit of a h***le, but not compared to getting squarshed.

 

We normally work side by side on our projects. I hate to work alone and so does she, if Flower is working on her roadster.....I'm her 'gofer.......when I'm doing something on the sedan, she'll 'gofer my needs. Works kinda slick that way.

 

Yeah, i still double check each stop has 'clicked in' on my 4 post lift before I get under it and still feel nervous...

 

I don't believe I've ever been under a car supported only by a jack. I had to remove one from the legs of a guy that was doign a brake job with his legs crossed under the rear end, supported by a bumper jack. I didn't have my first car yet, and I've always tried to learn from the mistakes of others...

I do all of my work alone. I do keep a cell phone on me, more for my wife to call if she needs something, but it's always there, just in case.

 

I use two jack stands and keep the jack up close to the frame, three points of contact. I usually give it a good hip bump before I get under just to make sure everything is settled and not ****ed. I still don't like it though...

 

All that is holding the jack up is an o-ring, they can go at any time. My friend is a fireman and he gets more calls than you would believe of guys getting crushed by jacks failing. The tire under the frame is a good idea , its already off the car and sitting there.

 

And, you youngsters don't know what bumper jacks are. Now that's a dangerous thing to use.

 

Well, it was never intended for a bumper jack to be used for anything but changing a tire on the road. I've used one, and I think you'd have to be pretty clueless to crawl under a car using one.

 

i had an f150 roll off jackstands, luckily or maybe not so, it had all the wheels on it, i was stupid and young. it was on a little hill. not cool when the wheels hit the ground and it went rolling down the hill with me under it. i could stop it, but i couldnt stop it and roll out. had no choice but to **** it in and let it roll over me, i just barely made it under the 9", had a stripe of grease down the side of my face from it. the tire caught my arm and really did a number on it. i came very close to losing it. not cool at only 19. you could see the side of the bones in my elbow. the scariest part was as bad as it was, i couldnt feel it, didnt hurt even a little. they told me at the hospital it was going to be very hard to keep infection out of it. i had to go back to the e.r. for a second visit when it all swelled up and really scared me a few days later. my friends dad had a van fall on him once, luckily they were in the house when it happeend and the adrenaline kicked it, 3 of them were able to lift the front of the van just enough for the neighbor to pull him out. he got really messed up but did recover after a while.

 

I have a bare frame in the garage on 4 jack stands, and even one of those have fallen over. It's easy to see how flimsy even they are.

Great idea on the tire rim under the frame!!

 

I see guys at the track all the time working under cars with only the floor jack and no stands. I would never get under a car without jack stands or some sort of support besides the jack.

 

wait.... peoples friends help them with cars???? =O

 

I am a bit paranoid. I always throw the tire underneath, and use jackstands, and have the jack under it.

Saw a jack blow a few times - they come down fast!

 

I latched onto a few three foot long pieces of 8x8 inch square solid wood chunks from a local company that makes beams for large buildings--I've yet to see the car that can crush them.

 

I always use either two or three forms of support, right now I've been working on my Riviera and I have jackstands a jack and blocks of wood under there. I have heard of too many people being killed by falling cars, almost everyone I know has told me a story about somebody getting killed by everything from falling jacks to car ramps collapsing.

 

This is good advice and generally what I do. Also anyone else jack the car with the parking brake off? I find it stops the jack wandering off, slipping or starting to tip. My work area is quite flat though so the car rolls up nice and predictably.

You're right I have no idea what a bumper jack is

The one that came with my Anglia fits into slots in the ch***is rails. You pop out some caps in the floor, drop the jack through and jack the car up from the comfort of the drivers seat. Wouldn't work under that though

 

Good post, but do you feel safe under a car held up with jackstands made in CHINA?

 

Cars used to come with metal bumbers that attached to the frame, unlike the plastic cushions that come on them now. The bumber could support the car while you jacked it up to change the tire. I still wouldn't get under one without supporting it better however.

 

But they were included with my ethylene glycol sweetened toothpaste!

 

Bumper jacks make real good trailer tongue jacks.

 

I don't buy anything made in China. I always look at the box first.

I like the tire under the frame idea, kinda embarr***ed I didn't think of it earlier. And I always use all 4 stands when I'm under there.

 

I lost a good friend last week when his crown vic fell on him. He was found by his 14 year old son. Always practice safety, it may take a bit longer, but it beats the alternative. I've been crawling around under cars since the 50's and I've been real lucky........

 

Watch out for your power cords also. A few years ago a fellow in town let his car down and the jack wheels cut the cord as it rolled back. They found him the next morning.
Ya'll be careful out there!

 

And how many times have you seen concrete blocks, turned on their sides, so that you can see THRU them, used to hold something up? Three non-supporting webs of concrete, trying to hold a car up? Ouch.

 

I use the 8x8 too throw one on both sides of me so it it dose come down there will still be at least 8 inches of me still intact.

 

After I set a car down on the stands I take hold of it and try to shake it to be sure it's sitting solid.When I was a teenager I put a set of overload springs on the back of a pickup sitting on a bumper jack,looking back I can't belive I was that stupid!