What happened to service pits?

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69MOPE

69MOPE

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Does anyone here have or use a service pit. The large hole in the ground that had steps to get in and out of. You would drive a car over the "pit" and service the underside of it. I remember them as a kid but they seemed to disappear.
 
Donooo but I can tell a "story." Former (now gone) friend of mine built a country shop with a pit. Turned out the water table was a little higher that he thought, so it spend a lot of time with 2X's across it

One day he was down on the floor with a cuttin' torch and the next thing he new, all those 2X's were "up at the ceiling" on the way back down!!

I'm sure that one thing's led to their demise is the relatively cheap and easy 2/4 post lifts you can get nowadays--and you don't have to go up/ down the pit for tools!!!
 
I had one in my garage before I bought the place it was filled in and concreted over. My neighbor still has one in his that is boarded over.
 
We have an Exhaust shop & Fast Lube shop in our town still using pits.
Both of these places were built in the late seventy's.
Had a third location, but when you try to vacuum up 20 gallons of gas with a shop vac, it goes BOOM!
I agree, the lifts probably killed them off.
 
Gas or any other vapor gets down there and has no where to go.
Todays shops, if there was a leak or something you would just open the door.
Same idea is to have the heater up on the ceiling.


Darryl
 
Seems like a lot of the "quickie" oil & lube shops here in SoCal have pits. There's also a general multi-bay car repair place in the city I live in that has one bay with a pit.
 
ocdart said:
Seems like a lot of the "quickie" oil & lube shops here in SoCal have pits. There's also a general multi-bay car repair place in the city I live in that has one bay with a pit.
Click to expand...

They must have some type of venting system . Reminds me next time
I get an oil change in my work van I will ask them.
Any one here know?

Darryl
 
Cheaper to get a 2 post lift than
dig a hole that fill with water all the time
 
I just climbed out of the one in our shop that is 6 years old. However I do prefer to use our 16,000lb. lifts when I can on the tandem trucks.
 
monook said:
They must have some type of venting system . Reminds me next time
I get an oil change in my work van I will ask them.
Any one here know?

Darryl
Click to expand...

The Express Lube I worked at as a kid had "pits."

It was actually a full basement where you stood on the oil tanks to reach the underside of the car. Very open, with plenty of ventilation, it wasn't like the pits being described in the OP.

As a basement it held the new oil tanks, the used oil tanks, the boiler, the extra oil in cases, the pumps, all the electric panels, etc.

I actually liked working downstairs better than I did working upstairs.
 
mikedevore said:
Had a third location, but when you try to vacuum up 20 gallons of gas with a shop vac, it goes BOOM!
Click to expand...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Nice! One of my co-workers wanted to turn a 55-gallon drum into a trash can, so he started using a cutting torch to remove the top. Problem was......it used to hold paint thinner. *BOOM*

I love pits but they are little limited if you want to do tie rod ends or anything "out there". Yeah, and running up and down for tools gets old, but it's good for your fitness! One thing nice is that you can lay a thick piece of steel across the pit then use a bottle jack to raise the engine to do motor mounts etc. I wish my garage had one!
 
The local concrete and stone operation across the sreet from our store still usews them for servicing there fleet.
 
Insurance/ liability and carbon monoxide. (gas fumes too although gas fumes have a smell and carbon monoxide doesn't.) Carbon monoxide is also heavier than air and working in the pit can give you a head ache. it can also cause brain damage and kill you if over exposed. I would bet that most of the problems occur in the north where the shops are closed up over the winter. No ventilation.
tmm
 
Carbon dioxide is actually lighter than air, but still deadly. Our local lube shop built around 6 years ago has a pit like the one in the video posted above. I'm still planning on putting one in one of my shop bays... Not enough height for a "lift".
 
Sorry Bighammer, CO2 is about 1.5 times heaver than air. I used it to devapor underground gasoline tanks before removal. As has been said it to can be very deadly!
 
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