Just a important reminder about jack safety

[Lilsmokey]

As I was working on my car my floor jack failed, luckily I always use my jack stands every time so it went unnoticed until I was back out form under the car. Just a reminder to always use the stands.

 

[engineer2]

Chock the wheels and have at least three things holding the car up.

 

[Lilsmokey]

Wheels was chocked and there's 4 stands holding the car. Wasn't any fault of mine. The jack wasn't supporting the car at all

 

[Bruce57]

Glad you were OK and thanks for the concern and reminder.

 

[jd_1138]

Wheels was chocked and there's 4 stands holding the car. Wasn't any fault of mine. The jack wasn't supporting the car at all

Wheel chocks are vital and sometimes overlooked. Even when using framestands, if the wheels on the ground move it could bring the car on top of you.

There's a local woman who lost a leg as she was doing her own brakes and just had a car jack (included with the car) under the car at the corner she was working on. She was trying to muscle a bolt loose and had her leg under the disc rotor -- when the jack slid away bringing the rotor down on her ankle.

It took an hour for someone to hear her screams. Lost her whole leg. Sheesh. Example of a little knowledge being dangerous. Knowing how to replace brakes but not about safety.

 

[Lilsmokey]

Wheel chocks are vital and sometimes overlooked. Even when using framestands, if the wheels on the ground move it could bring the car on top of you.

There's a local woman who lost a leg as she was doing her own brakes and just had a car jack (included with the car) under the car at the corner she was working on. She was trying to muscle a bolt loose and had her leg under the disc rotor -- when the jack slid away bringing the rotor down on her ankle.

It took an hour for someone to hear her screams. Lost her whole leg. Sheesh. Example of a little knowledge being dangerous. Knowing how to replace brakes but not about safety.

Yea I'm a pretty good at making something as safe as possible. Doing fire/rescue I have seen enough to last me. If it would have came down on me I would of been stuck without help as the wife was at work and none of my neighbors was home ether.

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

I've got a checklist that I go through in my head every time I lift a car. Transmission in park or reverse if manual, parking brake set, wheels blocked, lift car and set jack stands, then give it a good shake/shove to make sure it's not going anywhere. Only then will I remove wheels or climb underneath. Haven't dropped a car on my head yet

 

[Lilsmokey]

My biggest problem is forgetting to remove the tire chocks lol. I can't count how many times I've been trying to back up and wondering why the car won't move lol. Better than forgetting to put them there I guess lol

 

[FigureItOut]

My biggest problem is forgetting to remove the tire chocks lol. I can't count how many times I've been trying to back up and wondering why the car won't move lol. Better than forgetting to put them there I guess lol

I do that every single time, without exception. I think I'll start laying my keys down behind one of the chocks.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk

 

[ovrrdrive]

I always throw one of the wheels under the car before I go under...

If I'm not taking the wheels off then it's jack stands and a few cinder blocks. Anything to keep a gap between the floor and the truck if it falls.

 

[Hornman]

I always throw one of the wheels under the car before I go under...

If I'm not taking the wheels off then it's jack stands and a few cinder blocks. Anything to keep a gap between the floor and the truck if it falls.

I wonder what happens to that eight inch wide wheel when a six thousand pound pickup falls on it? Cinder blocks? Dust. Use good jack stands or cribbing.

 

[Rrumbler]

^^^^^^^^^^ Yep, the wheel is a good stop gap, and better a banged up wheel than a banged up man. Years ago, I made up a bunch of cribbing "plates" out of 2 x 4 lumber, 24" x 24", six boards running one way and six the other, screwed together to make a "plate", and stacked them under whatever I was working on; sometimes I used them like jackstands, but always had a stack under the lowest part of the vehicle near where I was working. I could set a Chevy Dually on them at four corners, on a sloped driveway, and push, shake, and bump into it, and it never moved. One of the safest forms of blocking I ever used.

 

[bert1913]

I just got done removing the transfer case from my son's 2004 Tahoe....6 ton stands in the front, 3 ton stands holding up the rear.

 

[str8axle55]

Always use good quality stands. I lost my neighbor when I was a kid. He was fixing the muffler on his daughter`s car, and it came down on him.

 

[WhiffySpark]

I wonder what happens to that eight inch wide wheel when a six thousand pound pickup falls on it? Cinder blocks? Dust. Use good jack stands or cribbing.

It'll hold it. You'd be surprised.

 

[Methodical]

I've got a checklist that I go through in my head every time I lift a car. Transmission in park or reverse if manual, parking brake set, wheels blocked, lift car and set jack stands, then give it a good shake/shove to make sure it's not going anywhere. Only then will I remove wheels or climb underneath. Haven't dropped a car on my head yet

I do the exact same thing, especially the shake.

 

[TK-421]

I wonder what happens to that eight inch wide wheel when a six thousand pound pickup falls on it? Cinder blocks? Dust. Use good jack stands or cribbing.

All it has to do is hold it up long enough for you to scoot out from under it. You don't use it as the primary means of support, but simply as a backup in case the primary support fails for whatever reason.

I do the same thing when I need to take the wheel off. Space permitting I stick it under the door sill, that way there's something between the car and the floor, other than me, if the jack stands fail.

Do I expect the wheel to hold the entire car forever? No, but I don't intend it to either. I just want it to hold long enough to scoot my **** out from under the car.

 

[APEowner]

A wheel will stop a falling car or truck. I've dropped cars and trucks on them with a bucket loader or a tow truck in a wrecking yard many times. A cinder block? Not so much. Any kind of a point load and they just crumble. If you're actually going under the car use jack stands or ramps.

 

[Aerogt01]

Years ago my dad and I were under his 94 F350. Memory is a bit foggy, so go with me here.

I think he had his side jacked up so he could fit under (he had a big chest) and I easily slid under the other side without vertical assistance. He was torquing on something and the jack slipped. The weight of his side came down on his chest minus whatever was in the suspension. He's stuck and yelling, I'm freaking out because I'm stupid enough to not have spent enough time outside helping him to know where a good jack point is.

Somehow, on my back, with visions of my father dying stuck under a truck flashing through my head and his labored yelling in my ears I managed to get the jack to a proper hardpoint and get it off of him. Normally I ran off as soon as he was done with my help. This time I stayed until he came out from under the truck.

I never told my mom about that one bc if the truck hadn't killed him, she probably would have.

Still haunts me to this day. Use your stands!! And good ones!

 

[extropic]

It'll hold it. You'd be surprised.

I think I've seen that exact quote on a tomb stone.

 

[CJM8515]

Wheels are strong, trust me on that. Its hard to bend a circle. At the junkyard they literally stack cars using them!

 

[four.cycle]

"... a local woman who lost a leg ..."

The reason my father stopped doing auto repair in the late 1940s and converted the 4-bay garage into the sales floor of an auto parts store was because one of his hired men, who was sitting flat on the floor doing a brake job, lost both of his legs when the hydraulic lift holding the car up failed.

I sold a lot of those little hydraulic floor jacks, little hydraulic bottle jacks, and the old "bumper jacks". I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I could throw one. Or a lift.

Just my two cents.

 

[dledmo]

Never trust a jack when your body is underneath anything, always use stands. Why risk yourself if a .10 cent o-ring fails.

 

[TK-421]

The reason my father stopped doing auto repair in the late 1940s and converted the 4-bay garage into the sales floor of an auto parts store was because one of his hired men, who was sitting flat on the floor doing a brake job, lost both of his legs when the hydraulic lift holding the car up failed.

I sold a lot of those little hydraulic floor jacks, little hydraulic bottle jacks, and the old "bumper jacks". I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I could throw one. Or a lift.

Just my two cents.

At least a lift has physical locks that prevent it from falling on you if the hydraulic system fails.

 

[Roberts210]

Chinese jack? I learned the hard way NEVER to trust Chinese metallurgy or 3rd world engineering for anything where my life or limbs were on the line.

 

[Squddle]

...so what is a good jack stand? Most times, I use too many jack stands just in case, so I guess I'm OK, but I never considered which ones were best and which ones would likely fail.

 

[Squddle]

After reading this thread, I went out to check my jack stands. I noticed that one of the cheaper ones is actually slightly bent! OMG! Never bothered to check them out before, as they always seemed OK. Must have used it on the ground once and it sunk in the dirt at an angle and never noticed the damage until now.

 

[Aerogt01]

...so what is a good jack stand? Most times, I use too many jack stands just in case, so I guess I'm OK, but I never considered which ones were best and which ones would likely fail.

Positive locking is a must, made in US a big plus.

 

[mrjaw14]

I wish I could find jack stands that were geared toward uni-body frame rails. regular jack stands just bend the frame over or contact the body

 

[maxpower_hd]

I do that every single time, without exception. I think I'll start laying my keys down behind one of the chocks.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk

I would then lose my keys if I did that. Maybe we need to invent a chock block key chain with a remote find feature. I will need to make sure mine is able to be run over by a tractor though. We have spare keys in our shop.

 

[terry603]

It'll hold it. You'd be surprised.

with holes on the up side

 

[Rustypigeon]

I just did extensive work under my sedan last week. (transmission rebuild, rear main seal, oil pan gasket) In addition to using 4 6-ton jackstands, I put wood cribbing under the wheels.

 

[whateg01]

I always throw one of the wheels under the car before I go under...

If I'm not taking the wheels off then it's jack stands and a few cinder blocks. Anything to keep a gap between the floor and the truck if it falls.

Cinder blocks are one of the worst things you can use to support a vehicle. There are many instances of the vehicle moving, cinder block crumbles, and vehicle falls on the person working on it. Better to have nothing, IMHO. At least there is no false sense of security then.

Dave

 

[four.cycle]

Cinder blocks are one of the worst things you can use to support a vehicle.

^ this.

Douglas Fir is your friend.

find some cut-off ends of laminated beams at construction sites - pieces of 6" x 8" work quite well.