I'm an Effin' idiot....

Well I might have died today....seriously!!

I bought a mid 80's 3/4 tonne ram pick up for parts and was out stripping it down today. Well I finished out back and pulled the wheels and set the truck down on some dunnage under the rear drums. Wrecker comming tomorrow to take it away.

I then moved to the front of the truck to pull the new shocks, rotors, calipers etc. Now I have this 3 ton floor jack that has been defective since almost new...it creeps down when under load...very slowly but down it will come. So I jacked the front of the truck up and pulled the rims to get at stuff....guess what I didn't do...YUP no jack stands!!

So after about a half hour I had the rotors, calipers and lines off and I had just finished removing the top nut from the drivers shock and was about to climb under the truck to remove the two bottom nuts when I couldn't find my ratchet....I wander around the truck checking my small piles of tools but couldn't find it....well it was as I was standing there trying to figure out where my ratchet was that the truck fell off the big floor jack on the front and that blew out the dunnage I had set up under the rear and it started to roll down the drive way.......

Now with the big BOOM that the truck made my two neighbours came rocketing out of the house fearing the worst....I am incredibly thankful to him/her/it...higher power...Karma....whomever...for sparing my life today becasue things could have gone so much worse!!

I know better and I usually am so paranoid about this kind of thing but I had a BIG brain fart and it could have killed me....I'm thankful I have a chance to be more responsible in the future!!

So please guys/gals remember accidents don't only happen at work they happen at home as well... and we should be even more diligent about safety when we are working at home.

 

Glad you're OK ... just think, it could've been worse!

 

Glad you're ok. It's always good to remind folks about simple safety precautions. When we take them for granted is when things usually go wrong.

 

Happened to me when I first started workin on cars, close call. Of course you will have other brain farts, but after a scare like that you will never have another brain fart like that again. I work alone at home now, safety is an absolute top priority.

 

Oh and I'm going to replace that old creeping floor jack and buy a couple new sets of floor jacks as well....

 

I may be an idiot......What is dunnage?

 

my sears floor jack is older than many HAMBers. I bought it in the early 80's. doesn't leak. doesn't creep down. you know why? it has only held cars up long enough to get jack stands underneath.

 

i had to talk my buddy into using jack stands tonight ....... he didnt want to take them out from under another car

 

Sorry trucker term....meaning scrap wood....usually the stuff you toss under your load to keep it up off the deck so the forklift or whatever can get under it for loading adn removal. can be big or small length of 2x4, 4x4 etc.

 

Not as bad as yours, but I had a car slide off the floor jack, the car slid foreward causing the crank pulley to land on the jack, being the only thing still holding the car up. Luckily there was no damage to the crank pully, crank, bearings or oil pan. I always throw a couple jack stands under the car now.

 

We've all done something similar because we were in a hurry and didn't take the time to do it right.

I've got some firewood rounds that I usally use as blocks to block a rig up as I don't have a cement driveway or even a paved one. I don't like cinder blocks as I've seen too many of them crumble under the weight of a car.
We don't see too many skinny bumper jacks out of the trunks of cars anymore but I spotted a guy with the front of a car jacked up with two of them while he worked under it without any stands or blocks once. He got pissed when I stopped and told him he needed to put some blocks under it.

It's always a good idea to shake the car a few times after you set it on stands or blocks to make sure that it is solid before working on it too.

 

What's the problem? He's got a redundant system with that second post. Pretty smart if you ask me!

Glad you're ok Mr. Chev.

 

Glad you lived to tell the story......

Sometimes I become anal about safety, just seen too many people hurt. Every once in a while you get a wake-up call.

Last year I had a Caddy Eldo motor/ trans/ frame clip hanging from a fork lift when the chain let go. 10 seconds before that, I told the buyer DON'T GET UNDER THAT THING as he was trying to guide it into the back of his pickup.

 

Rightfully said, brother.

 

Good to hear you couldn't find that ratchet .

Keep your eyes peeled at swap meets, I have found GREAT deals on jack stands at swap meets. The good ones too, not Lincoln or Walker but really good. I don't recommend getting a used hydraulic jack but the stands are simple enough to figure out if they are in good shape. I never thought I really needed more than 4 stands, was I wrong I have 10 and wish I had more sometimes.


Marty McFly

 

I understand how things like this occur. You become pre-occupied with the fact that the wrecker is coming in the morning, so the focus becomes getting your parts off now! Everyone of us makes mistakes bro. I am the king of regret let me tell you. I'm happy all is well, you must be living right brother.

 

Thats a brain fart from hell!
I was always shit cared as a kid working on the family hot rod, my father was one of those guys that thought a jack was fine!
Since I have had my own cars, and working in shops I never NEVER even think of doing something unless the car is firmly on jack stands, not cheap ones either!
Giving the car a good shake is great advice from Mr48chev!
My life ma not be worth shit, but it is to me!
Doc.

 

Thank God, You re okay. My Great Grandfather died this way under his car in 1967. Even when I put the car on jackstands, I put some wheels under it, just in case.....

 

The best jacks and jack stands you can buy are cheaper than the cheapest trip to the emergency room. Avoid those cheap jack stands made out of tubing with a pin through the hole for heigh adjustment. I had one of those things fail, fortunately I was not under the truck when it did. It was under my '38 Ford pickup, the thing split open along the weld seam and collapsed. The one time you don't want to see a long line of hot rods coming through town is when they're in a funeral procession for somebody who didn't have his car adequately supported before crawling under it.

 

Oh shit, I didn't notice the timber props. I thought you were talking about welding without gloves...'cause that's dumb

 

Thank the Lord it turned out OK. A good friend of mine did basicaly the same thing and he's paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. It happened while we were in out thirties... seems like a mighty long time to suffer for one "brain-fart".

 

It appears that he is welding next to the gas tank. OldWolf

 

man I'm just glade you were not under there. there have been two people on the news this week in jacksonville that were killed by cars falling on them and you know what they both had in common you guessed it no jack stands. i don't think its karma that saved you but maybe a higher power

 

One thing I was taught about hyd jacks, no matter how strong, powerful, safe, etc. they basically are dependent on a 10 cent "O" ring that makes them work.... think about it, I trust very few things in life.. and jacks aren't one of them

 

Glad you didn't have a ratchet handy . . . I believe because the good Lord decided you needed to live that day! I had one scare when I was in my early 20's -- in a hurry, using a hydraulic jack . . . lucky I didn't get hurt/killed that day.

These things are almost always related to doing something in a hurry and we're too lazy or stupid or both to put the stands/blocks under it like we KNOW we should.

Happy you're with us brother . . .

 

One word cure for this problem that we all share. THINK.

 

thrashing cows, careful not everybody understands truckers.

 

Yeah, that's dangerous, an explosion could set those timbers on fire, and eventually that truck would fall on him.

On a serious note, a couple years ago a friend told me that a friend of his was working in the garage one night and when his wife woke up in the morning, he still hadn't come to bed. She went down to the garage and found him dead, crushed under the car. I think about that sometimes since I work alone and late on my stuff, imagine being trapped and not being able to get help, terrible way to go. Be careful.

 

I have 5 pairs of jacks stands in my little garage. I like to have spares kicking around, and I can be quite anal about using them, too. I'll often use two sets at a time, one as a redundant backup in case something fails. When I did my front springs in the Essex last week I had one set under the lower control arms, and one set under the frame a little further back.


Hmmmmm...not the best pic, you can't see the second set.

 

This past week, I read news reports that Mark "The Bird" Fideyrich (sp?) a former Detroit Tigers pitcher was found dead on his farm in Massachusetts. He was apparently alone working on his truck and a neighbor found him dead. I haven't been able to find any more details, but usually these kind of deaths are caused by the vehicle falling on the person.

I'm thankful that you weren't hurt at all. We have to watch out for each other. Posts like this one help remind all of us that we can seriously hurt ourselves working on the cars we love.

Next time you see some person working in an unsafe manner on a car, make sure you say something to them. If they yell at you for "sticking your nose in their business", just ignore the noise and remember, at least you did the right thing.