Be careful out there!

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Complacency gets us all, and I've had close calls like that as well. I think we all have. It's those high frequency/high risk operations where we do it all the time and forget about the danger that gets us in trouble. Thanks for sharing your experience and reminding us all to be careful.
 
Righty Tighty said:
Complacency gets us all, and I've had close calls like that as well. I think we all have. It's those high frequency/high risk operations where we do it all the time and forget about the danger that gets us in trouble. Thanks for sharing your experience and reminding us all to be careful.
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Amen Brother! The stuff I usually was able to do when I was younger a little faster more observant more agile I kind of hesitant about doing any more
 
Back in the late 80s we had an old Austrian mechanic who was as hard headed as it gets. Shop foreman was always after him about using jack stands. One day we were short on hoists and he had a 440 New Yorker with an oil leak. He stuffed a hydraulic scissor jack under the frt bumper lifted it and with the car running slid under on his creeper.We figure he bumped into the shift linkage as the car drove forward partially off the jack pinning him under the car.Lucky for him he only suffered burns on his face from the hot exhaust pipe.Add insult to injury the jack was driven into his brand new 3 month old Mac tool box, doing significant damage.To this day I always think twice when getting under a car. The memory off getting that car off of him is burned in my mind( no pun intended)RJ
 
CFD244 said:
I've been to many sudden death calls in my career where safety precautions were disregarded. I only wish the "lessons learned" were not so permanent.
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Back in the 50s my lefthanded Dad was adjusting the front brakes on our Plymouth. Being a southpaw required his arm to be under the brakedrum. He was a longterm aircraft mechanic and knew about safety rules, but thought this would be quick, so he used the bumper jack, but couldn't find the base, so he set the jack on a 2X8, figuring the post would press into the wood. The wood split, the car fell, and Dad instinctively jerked up to see if my toddler brother was underneath. Result was 3 compression fractures of the spine & a broken forearm. My Mom heard the crash ran in, lifted the car with one hand and my Dad with the other, carrying him into the kitchen by the collar with the other hand and started calling around for transportation.
 
I'm willing to bet most all here has had some close calls. I went under a car that I jacked up and put a stand under. But I didn't lower the car all the way down to the stand. While on my back I had a spilt second to see the floor jack sliding down the frame rail because the rail was no longer straight horizontal due to the lift angle. The jack slipped off the frame and the stand caught the car.

I still own that jack stand. And no more being lazy.
 
Year's ago I worked with a guy who said over the weekend he was going to get his car back on the road.
That come Monday his wife was no longer going to be dropping him off.
Monday came he was a no show. He and his buddy were both killed whem the car fell on them. Changed a transmission out with 4 bumper jacks only.
 
Always make sure your floor Jack can travel in the arc that the blocked tires have created. If the floor Jack can not move to follow the arc of the jacking process, the lifting plate can slide on its jacking surface. Especially if it is greasy. That will create the OPs condition.
 
You know I must say I haven't owned a bumper jack for any of my mopars. For some reason they just didn't have them.i keep a scissor jack in my driver Roadrunner and nothing in the racecar. .aybe it's a blessing?
 
1973dust said:
I'm posting this just because I figure if it makes one person think more about safety it's worth it. I was jacking the frontend up to remove the front wheels and tires a couple of nights ago and was in a hurry. I figured I didn't need to mess with jack stands as I "wouldn't be under the car". I assume, after the fact, that I didn't have the jack back far enough under the k-frame. A couple of minutes after pulling the second wheel off, while my back is to the car, I hear and feel a crash. I initially thought that the cylinder on the jack had failed but then realized that the jack had squirted out the front of the k-frame. I had the cross beam on the jack so it caught the car right under the radiator, smashing the bottom of the core support and separating one bracket from the top tank. At least I was nowhere near the car when it happened but it was definitely very eye-opening. I'm sure like most of you, I've been tinkering with cars most of my life and knew better. The damage to the car could have been much worse as I fortunately had the hood open or the radiator would have possibly bent the front of the hood. It also didn't seem to damage anything but the very bottom of the core support and I had 2 of the Rallye wheels under the car towards the rear and they were not even touched. I am curious what would have happened if I wasn't using the crossbeam as the crank pulley would have caught the car instead of the core support. Bent or broken crank? Again, I know we all know better but I also know we all get in a hurry at times. Stay safe.
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Same thing happened to me about 10 yrs ago, I was trying to move the front of the car over a couple inches , and pulled the jack out from under the after market k frame , bent the lower facia (pan) , and shoved/bowed the new griffin rad. up about 1 1/2'' or so in the middle , I air tested it and was ok , that was about 10 yrs ago , and the griffin 28x18 alum. rad is still in the car ---no leaks
1973dust said:
I'm posting this just because I figure if it makes one person think more about safety it's worth it. I was jacking the frontend up to remove the front wheels and tires a couple of nights ago and was in a hurry. I figured I didn't need to mess with jack stands as I "wouldn't be under the car". I assume, after the fact, that I didn't have the jack back far enough under the k-frame. A couple of minutes after pulling the second wheel off, while my back is to the car, I hear and feel a crash. I initially thought that the cylinder on the jack had failed but then realized that the jack had squirted out the front of the k-frame. I had the cross beam on the jack so it caught the car right under the radiator, smashing the bottom of the core support and separating one bracket from the top tank. At least I was nowhere near the car when it happened but it was definitely very eye-opening. I'm sure like most of you, I've been tinkering with cars most of my life and knew better. The damage to the car could have been much worse as I fortunately had the hood open or the radiator would have possibly bent the front of the hood. It also didn't seem to damage anything but the very bottom of the core support and I had 2 of the Rallye wheels under the car towards the rear and they were not even touched. I am curious what would have happened if I wasn't using the crossbeam as the crank pulley would have caught the car instead of the core support. Bent or broken crank? Again, I know we all know better but I also know we all get in a hurry at times. Stay safe.
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67Dart273 said:
When I was in the Navy, NAS Miramar, I had a part time job at the auto hobby shop. One day I was out in the lot, and here was a guy laying under a 57 Chev working on it. Now, bear in mind that when you checked in you got a shower curtain ring with a number of (10?) "chits" or tags. If you wanted an item from the toolroom, you traded a "chit" with your stall number on. You could easily get a jack or jack stands, other tools

BUT THIS GUY had the 57 jacked up with a pair of bumper jacks, each jammed up against the big "tits" on the bumper

I just reached down and grabbed his ankles and skidded him out of there

This was a civilian job, so I was out of uniform. He had no idea I was an E-5 and he was an E3. He wanted to fight.

I told him he had two choices---leave, or go up to the tool room and get some jackstands. And if he wanted trouble, I could fix it so he could not come back.

Last I saw of him, he was headed for the toolroom
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This story got my memory gland going... We used to use bumper jacks to move a car sideways...as in getting a tire up and out of a small ditch. We would jack it up and push the car over. VERY dangerous! But the same movement can happen with any load suspended on a jack or even a jack stand.

When I worked at the power company, any object unless it was considered "cribbed" was considered a suspended load and not only could you never put a body part under the suspended load but you had to stay a minimum of 1 foot away for every 3 or 4 feet it was suspended. This rule was adopted after a 525 ton generator rotor at Arkansas Nuclear One caused it's temporary overhead crane to collapse, killing 1 and injuring 10. In the photos taken just prior to the accident you can see bystanders standing everywhere in what would be considered the impact zone should the crane fold, as it did. Dallas crane supplier involved in Nuclear One accident in 2013.
 
So early on, 1967 or so, it was cinder blocks, stamped steel jack stands, bumper jacks and scissor jacks. And then for motor jobs a 2 1/2" pipe rack arrangement and a come-along. Then I was working for a dealer and the Snap On guy says they bought a freight car of Hein-Werner 2 1/4 ton floor jacks. I got one of those and 4 five ton jack stands. And then the local gas station is closing and I bought their motor lift rig, the 1 1/2 ton chain-fall and the OTC diesel engine stand. After that I would carry the floor jack and at least one jack stand. Then to complete the madness it was a succession of 3/4 ton pick-ups and 1 ton vans. After about 30 years the floor jack gave out and not too long after that I bought a new Hein-Werner 2 1/2 ton jack. My current van is a '92 Dodge B350. I carry the floor jack, a jack stand and enough tools to do anything on the side of the road except pull the motor. For the Max I had the 2 1/4 ton jack rebuilt and I carry that, a jack stand AND the tapered axle drum puller! Oh, and in 1989, since I am also a Y-Body guy, Imperials, I bought a 10,000 pound gross trailer. I wasn't going to drag a 6,000 pound car up onto a 7,500 pound gross trailer! And when it comes to my safety I try to by US made tools. There is a discussion on FBBO about that.
 
Horror stories are good reminders of how quickly something can go awry. I did some silly things as a teenager with bumper jacks, but I did use them just long enough to get stands under the car. A friend didn't bother with that for a quick repair and his car fell on him. He had only minor cuts and bruises and was able to extract himself, but we knew it could've been far worse.
Another friend got crushed under an industrial forklift. The seals in the jack let go and it wasn't on stands. He was very lucky there was enough clearance that he wasn't instantly killed, but took quite awhile to get the machine off him. He's had serious medical issues ever since, and he hasn't really been the same person. Having a beast of a floor jack doesn't mean a 50-cent seal can't ruin or end your life.
I've been careful since the bumper-jack days, especially since I've lived alone for the past 20+ years. I rarely have company while wrenching, and the dog doesn't know how to dial 9-1-1. If something were to happen to me, it's doubtful anybody would notice until they were annoyed by loud music still going at 2AM or I didn't show up for work.
The worst thing that's happened to me was while a friend and I were pulling a car onto a trailer with a come-along. The column was out, so I was "steering" the car by manipulating the LHF wheel. He was going like a madman with that come-along when the wheel snapped to one side with my hand behind it. He wan't aware and kept winching, the car being pulled forward and down onto my arm while sucking me further into the wheelwell. "OK, stop... stop! STOP!! MY ARM'S CAUGHT!!" When he did stop I was in a curious position, pulled almost to my right shoulder into the wheelwell. Simply removing tension on the chain hoist made it worse, and my hand was no longer on the sidewall to pull on the tire. We had to jack the car up with it half on the trailer and partially remove the wheel to release my arm. That took awhile--he had to fetch the jack, chock the wheels, lift the car and undo the nuts. Thankfully, it hurt quite badly the entire time so the lesson was well taught. Even more thankfully, it was a come-along and not the 18,000lb winch he now has. That would've at least broken my arm if not removed it.

We're all still here to discuss safety (and I'm still able to operate a 4-speed). Let's keep it that way.
 
1973dust said:
I use jack stands under the rear axle all the time and always have with no issues. Although, I'm obviously not the safety police after my stunt.
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A few of my pointers. When using jack stands or other type of support of lifting device on anything other than a hard surface (concrete or asphalt, on a cool day), put some type of flat barrier under the tool or it can sink into the ground or fall (I have a fiberglass plate that is use with simi trucks for this reason). While using a bumper jack, always chock a wheel correctly. I keep a rubber chock at my garage door for easy asses (a wood chock can slide). When using a floor jack, make sure it rolls as you are jacking (had a lawn tracker fall once when the wheels were struck in a crack and the jack plate fell off the frame). Take your time and plan before you lift anything that you crawl under. It only takes one mistake to give someone a bad or last day.
 
RatRod said:
Thanks for sharing this, I dont like getting under my Dart even when I have it on jack stands. There just isnt alot of frame under there to get hold of. I'm glad your mishap didnt result in injury to you. Maybe we should get a lift?
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I don’t like getting under my Dart either
 
toolmanmike said:
Dang, be careful. Lucky you weren't hurt. Here's a friend that was just kind of lucky. He's alive but damaged. Yep just slide underneath quick. It will be ok. Ouch! Makes my head hurt just looking. You are one lucky man Brad.

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Yeeeesh! I hope he's doing okay.

Seeing that gives me the heebee geebees! Worthy of an Eastwood Cringe.
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