Work on your ride solo? Be careful!

human beings are fairly clueless

 

lol, there are a few of us that are a lot more than 8" thick

 

I got pinned under the back of a car that I had to unload off of a trailer by myself one time.....my neighbor saw it happen...he laughed hystercially...then went inside his house and closed the door.....and I was stuck and hurt...

 

In my line of work I have to lift virtually every vehicle I work on. We work by one golden rule: A jack has 2 uses. Lifting and lowering. Try to remember this.

Working alone can be a ball ache sometimes. Especially when you,re stuck under a full-size oxy-acetylene set that you were pulling up a gravel driveway and you stumbled backwards.....errrr, help? Anyone? errrr....

 

I had a 70 chevy 4 door on ramp stands one time, I dropped the driveshaft and the freaking car started rolling down the ramps! I couldnt stop it and I rolled real fast into the transmission tunnel and put my feet on the rear end, the car pushed me across the driveway and a pretty good ways into the gr***y yard till it stopped. I learned that lesson many many moons ago.

 

Nice neighbor.

 

I hate going under a car alone. When I'm out in the field I'll use a bumper jack to get it off the ground, but those things fall over like nothing sometimes even on ashphalt. But a good big chunk of wood seems to do the job. I just put it as close to the middle of the car as I can and let the jack down and see how it sits. As long as it's stable, I put a notch or so pressure back on the jack and do what I have to do and try and stay out from under the car.

 

Two Jack stands minimum and I leave the jack in place to give a
second to move if it does
MArk

 

I work on my car by myself every weekend. No other option. Most of the time I make sure it's supported.

J.

 

When I was younger[much]I was out in the garage under my 63 Galaxie I paid $50 for and yes it was a 2 door hardtop[6 cyl though]working on the exhaust,the jack slipped off the frame,toppling the nice stack of boards I had as a safety feature.The frame came down on my chest,just at the right height so I couldn't move and not so low as I was gonna die,the wheels were still on the car.I yelled a lot untill my Dad who was working in the cellar came up and lifted the car up so I could get out.Thanks for reminding me ,that's another one I owe him for.Yeah,be careful.A car is a lot heavier when it's on you than when you're on it!!

 

i work with NO less than 6 jackstands under my car. i absolutely hate being under a car with out knowing that something is going to catch it before my head does if it falls. One of my biggest fears is having a car fall on me. Dying at 200 mph....no problem. dying uder a car that has no wheels and is not moving.....yeah i have a big problem with that

 

Billy Niles got his head flattened a bit putting air-shocks on his Camaro using the bumper jack. After that he acted like a 3 year old the rest of his life.

 

Me too, if the car had tires on it to begin with.

No.

Supposedly the average American Male torso is 13" thick.

Yes, I forgot about that (dad taught it to me, I guess it's just reflex now).

 

A few years ago a local guy here was working alone in his garage late one night. The next morning his wife woke to find that he wasn't in bed, when she went down to the garage she found him dead, crushed under his car. I think about that a lot when I'm in the garage alone (nearly always).
Then there's those nights when I gotta keep an eye out for the little woman sneakin' in and kickin' the stands out!

 

i work mostly outside so jack stands dont work well for me, one leg usely sinks in a little more then the others and ends up on an angle, mostly i use ramps, ramps that i have checked over well and put extra braces on or do a better job of welding, i run the front wheels up on one set of ramps then jack up the rear and slide the other set under the back wheels. works for me.

 

I decided a couple months ago to buy some ramps (they are better for some work). I couldn't believe what they're selling now -- PLASTIC ramps! No way I was buying any of that ****.

 

Here's my story. I was doing a leak down test on an 8 cylinder. I thought I needed the piston at exact tdc so as I went past tdc, the pressure from the compressor, 130 lbs. spun the motor over and pinned my hand between the car and the ratchet. Hurt bad and I had to fight my way out of it against the air compressor!!! No joke, I thought I was gonna lose fingers. Just me by myself. I lost a fight with a wire wheel the other day with a gloveless index finger. Stupid move not wearing gloves but the leak down was a trick question!​

 

I nearly had a BAD accident 2 months ago when the car gave way. Luckily I had 1 solitary jackstand under it,and the bottom ended up about a millimeter away from my nose. Scary to say the least. I closed the garage, had a beer, and left the car as it lay until nearly 2 weeks later when I was ready to work on it again.

 

A couple of weeks ago, when I was racing at Seattle, I witnessed a Man unloading his early 1960's Ford Wagon, that was on a trailer, Have his 4000+ lb wagon PIN him between the wagon, and a racers trailer, It was pouring rain, and the wagon, would not stop moving on the wet pavement. when the trailer was raised. The man got hurt, so did his car, and so did the racers trailer. Moral to this story is: The man did not have to get hurt, all he had to do was get out of the way of his rolling car. It all was(is) fixable. How would you have liked to have made the call to his family, saying he was crushed by his car... I heard he was OK, and the damage to his wagon was less than a grand.

 

I'm careful, I'm still here, all limbs intact....even though it took many years working on cars before I finally got some decent stands

 

Squirrel, those kind of stands aren't the best.
The "locking" mechanism can slip a notch, or ALL the WAY! (had one do it; gave it away!)
I use the kind that have a "pin" that goes through a hole in the base side and the upright.

As far as the best method; I have a couple of short pieces of railway ties - 12" x 12" - with extra pieces of 2" x 12" NAILED on the top and bottom.
(makes about 15" height - roughly MY thickness!)
I used a "barn door pull" on each side to make it easier to carry and position under the frame, before lowering the jack - have had one suddenly let go - so the load is firmly on the ties.
(a level surface and wheel chocks is advised in ANY CASE!!)

 

I was working on my truck a few summers ago in the summer heat and the damn thing fell off the jack stands because the tar in the driveway had melted enough to make it wobble.
Luckily, I heard the split second creak and rolled the hell out of the way- I would have been killed and Dana wouldn't have any insurance $$$

oh and they were the same kind of stand you have Squirrel(cuz it was at home not my shop)
I try never to be working on heavy duty stuff by myself now...

 

One of these days, I'm going to build/make a similar copy of the old 'milkstools' we used to support the ramps of C-130s for loading. Basically, they are 2x12 cut down to about a 24" square size on the bottom, and then taper up from there to about 12-15" square at the top. They weighed around 100 pounds or so, but ****, if it would support the back end of a cargo aircraft loading a 40,000# tank across the end of the ramp, that is the jack stand for me!

 

Sometimes when I'm working on my car alone, I'd welcome death and the sweeet relief it would bring...

 

Your suburban is as big as a house! serious thou...I got a couple of pieces of railroad ties I throw under just in case seems Im always alone out there and I live out some from the neighbors........CYA!,and yes I also use the stands like squirrel!

 

iwas working on my truck in the drive way at my house when iwas 20 years old,it was a 4x4 lifted with 38"tires,i had a chock under the front wheels and did not need a jack to get under it so i figured iwas good,well iwas taking the driveshaft out and when it came out the chock didnt hold...........all i could do was hang on ...to the diff,and the wheel went over my ankle spraining it draggin me down the driveway when it made the gutter it bounced over me as i was trying to crawl up the driveway in ****** major pain the damn thing rolled back and knocked me out cold!!!!!!****in scared the **** out of me for sure.its funny now but i was really lucky.my nieghbor saw the whole thing and got me out from under it.never will iwork on something on an incline like that again.

 

ROTFLMAO

 

might be hard to tell from the picture, but these are big, well made Snap on stands, not the typical cast iron chinese ones you find at pep boys. I have not seen any pin type stands that are nearly as strong as these (I have about a dozen of the pin type stands).

 

Unca scoob, you are a funny guy. Didn't see that one coming. If you work on cars long enough even with precautions things happen. Good to have a reminder now and then.

 

I have about 4 sets of jack stands. Recently I was in the market for a new pair and a new floor jack. I had a real hard time finding an American made floor jack and jack stands. Almost everything was made in China. I went to Sears and Auto Zone. With no luck. I finally ended up finding everything at a rinky dink independent auto parts store. All new old stock. I dont know about you guys but Im not crawling underneath a car with anything "made in china" holding it up

100% Matt