Mechanic gets crushed by car

What about those janky-ass scissor jacks that is in the trunk of every car? Give me a break! Stupid skinny ass death traps!

 

Oh yeah... Theres a tire shop in Wichita I drive by all the time. They have 9 floor jacks out front, 3 groups of 3. Theres usually one or two cars out there, no tires with one jack centered in rear and one under each A arm on front. As high as the jacks go! Stupid asses!

 

I'm glad this thread is going, every once in a while we have to be reminded not to be stupid. It's not tough or macho to sit under a bumper jack or a cheap jackstand or jack, it's stupid, trying to look like a tough guy with this stuff will get you nothing but dead. it's simple, the car weighs thousands of pounds, you don't,if the car falls on you, you are dead. that simple. so are the shortcuts worth it? what if you have kids ,do you want your kid to find you crushed to death because you were being a tough guy? the car will ALWAYS win

 

OH my god how horrable,that poor kid.I can't imagine what he went through, all could of been avoided with just a few blocks of wood or good jack stands.How sad!

 

This might actually be FUNNY . . . IF it weren't so STUPID!!! (Sure isn't what
I meant when I said use sold stuff like wheel rims & inflated tires to block up
the car!)

 

SOLID stuff, not SOLD stuff. Sheesh!

 

A few years ago I was pulling the rear end out of my 52 Hudson. The u bolts had been on there since 52, it was early on a Saturday morning and I did not want to wake everyone with the noise from the grinder cutting the u bolts. Each time I cracked the nuts on the u bolts I rocked the car on the stands, I did no known it was happening. When I did the last one I rocked the car off the stands and found myself jammed under the car, it was fucking heavy. Some how got myself out, I was on a creeper and under the fuel tank, I think that's why I got out. My wife could hear me scream and dialed emergency from the kitchen. I broke no bones but my upper body was sore and I could not move. I was lucky to have gotten out, it took me a month to recover.

These days I double check, then triple check!

 

OT car but I have a bunch of jackstands so I used like all of them since I was under the car about 10 times putting it together:

 

I have learned a lot reading all these posts. I am like all the rest of you I own a couple of sets of the cheap stands. They are getting renforced and replaced.

 

Most of the deaths i know of involved using blocks like shown above. usaully happens here about once a year. The post where he says he puts a spare tire under it for safety is a really really good idea. I also do that. Unfortunatley I learned to do that the hard way. Took me two times to learn too. We all have a tire and rim around the shop. Usually several. Using them for added saftey is a no brainer i think. Costs nothing . Can save your life. What is not to like?
Don

 

I worked with a guy who used a cement/cinder block to hold the box on a dumptruck up while he was fooling around with the hydraulics. I Made real cool wedges out of a big block of oak but he'd used cement all his life. Right up to the end. They said he thrashed around cause things were dissarayed.
A friend of mine's kid had the sissors jack collapse on him when a big truck went by. He was on the side of the road under his japper and folks drove past him for 3 hours while he was slowly suffocating and thinking last type thoughts. The tires were all on it and he's not right even now.
I've allways been paranoid about crawling under and do most of my work alone. Spare tires, wood blocks 6 ton jackstands and the floor jack ready to pump, THEN I'll go under. Never had one fall.

 

Oh yea, I had a friend who used a screwdriver as a pin one time.
Some folks,,,,,,,,,,,sheeeeeeesh

 

nice weld on that drivers side mount..... I'm kidding

 

^ hahahahahahahaahahah ^
Baggin on a dudes weld on a jack stand thread.
Only on the HAMB!

 

I saw one of my apprentices working under a car on a jack and with no stands, I checked that I was right and then pulled him out from under the car by his testacles. A bit harsh maybe but the several times he had been warned didnt stay in his mind any where near as effectively.!

 

I guess I'm guilty as charged. Cinder blocks, cross stacked,with 4" solid blocks on top and stamped steel jack stands on all 4 corners. The van floor was 40" off the ground.





Would I do it again? Probably. In fact, the van is now in the garage as I type this on cinder blocks and the same stands. I shook the hell out of it, and it seems quite sturdy, but now you guys have put the fear of God in me and I'm afraid to get under it.
Just what do you all recommend when a vehicle has to be raised a lot, and you have a bunch of work to do under it? I know, a lift. But I don't have the ceiling height nor the funds for a lift.

 

Damn that is scary.

 

I recall a number of simelar deaths reported recently with thieves steeling catilatic converters with cordless sawzalls. Shop owners were finding crushed come morningtime.

I've got many pairs of good jackstands that i've bought at garagesales.
I find them hard to pass up.

 

Great, OldSkewl61, posted HIS method on a similar HAMB thread! OAK, not real costly & anybody with a couple of basic tools can/could make a bunch of these up! Me, I'd still throw inflated tires under the frame (or rims), close by me but still giving myself room to work. Thanks, OldSkewl, for another fresh (not expensive) approach to the problem, man!

 

I rember when I was 16 or 17, I drove to my friends house one saturday morning. The neighbor drove a stock car, witch he was working on. About a half hour later we were headed somewhere and the fire dpt. was at the house pulling him out from under the car while a couple of guys lifted the car! Ill never forget that guys face, nor will I ever go under anything without GOOD jack stands and a couple of rims or blocks of wood.

 

3 unwavering truths to this existence...taxes, death, and gravity.

 

When I was young and stupid I was working on a 58 Dodge, wiring the muffler back in place. It was supported by a bumper jack only. The neighbor came by, leaned on the fender and asked what I was doing. That was enough to dislodge the jack and let it fall, fortunately, there was enough clearance and and I only had a bruise on my chest to show for my stupidity.

 

As my Merc is dropped 5" front and rear I can't even get a floor jack under the front crossmember to change the oil. I built a set of ramps out of 4 pieces on 2 X 10. Each piece is beveled to a 45* angle on the drive on end. Bottom piece is 48" long, 2nd piece is 36" long and top piece is 24" long. Height is 5.25". Each layer is screwed to the one beneath it with 1-1/2" drywall screws. I have a 12" long piece, verticle on the end for a stop. I can change the oil without even jacking up the car but even if I jack it up and put on good cast ratchet stands I leave the ramps under the tires. They even work well if you back the car up one them to work on the rear end. It takes (2) 2 x 10's-10 feet long pretty cheap insurance.

Jim

 

Holy crap man.

You need stands made of wood or metal. It's the failure mode of the material under compression, cement virtually explodes at the limit without any real warning. Metal or wood will show signs of stress or suffer a partial fracture before it outright fails.

I tried to press this lesson into a friend after seeing him use cinder blocks for an OT vehicle in a similar fashion to you. He didn't listen and the following day found himself scrambling out from under it. Fortunately as the stack collapsed the jackstand found the gas tank and held the car up for a few moments before puncturing thru. Then there was a secondary scramble to get the open flame heaters shut off as 20 gallons hit the floor. Fun stuff.

Good luck and work safe

 

Wood cribbing (oak and hickory are good), like Bruce and Shifty have said...... look at how the house movers do it.

 

guys I have worked with have given me shit for how much time I take to set up a car on a lift or on jack stands, always taking a moment to look it over from both sides good shake, a pull down here a push there... never had a car drop, never damaged a car... and don't plan on it!

 

i work at advanced and newbie yuppie mechanic wanna bes come in all the time and wanna buy the cheapest jack stands possible to jack up their denalis,escalades,etc.

i try to get them to buy the good ones for safetys sake.
a lot of times they argue about if the good ones are really necessary.
i have one sure fire common sense question i always ask them.
what do you think your head is worth?
they usually see things my way after that.
common sense isnt as common as you think.

 

Its probably been said already in the thread, but cinder/concrete blocks tend to fracture dramatically with point loads. The only thing going in your favor is that you have them stacked properly (they only bear loads in one direction), and sorta-but not really have the top solid bricks up there to not-quite spread the load. If you ever swing something into them, don't expect them to hold together, it could lose a chunk and send everything crashing down. It may not happen today, it may not happen tommorow, but one day, you, or somebody else is going to toss one of those blocks and crack it, you'll use it and that'll be the end of it when you least expect it.

Wood cribbing.

Alex.

 

I always put extra jack stands, jacks, etc under the car, then give it a good shake. I also carry wheel chocks in every car after having a car roll off the jack while changing a flat. Nothing damaged, but a good scare. I'm lucky not to have to work over dirt, but I would always put a board or sonething under the stands to keep them from sinking.

 

It's not a bad idea to bump the car to check how well it is really supported on the jack stands. I had a 1959 impala fall off the stands when bumped for a safety check. Thank god we did that and repositioned the stands before removing the third member.!!!