What's the worst story lifting or jacking a vehicle

[Pops1967GTX]

The other day I ask advice on equipment for lifting a vehicle in a limited space garage. It made me think of some good stories. Well here's one . Road Call bring back a 50 passenger Bus with a Dual wheel blow-out. The rim was struck to the brake drum. I needed to lift the Bus & get some heat on the rim to break it loose. My supervisor thought he could use the arms of the high low lift to knock it loose. Well All he did was knock the Bus off the tow hitch making a bigger mess. Bending the tow-hitch & damaging the Bus....

 

[Budnicks]

Ok here we go... I was working on my 68 Charger R/T when I was 17 or 18 in my parents garage, I was installing new Crager S/S wheels & tires on the car & doing a shift kit in the transmission while I had it in the air, on some cheap a$$ Grand Auto pin style stamped steel jack stands, I was under the car I kept hearing a pop noise every once in a while, I got out from under the car to see what's up, I saw the punk 11-12 year old kid across the street he had shot my car with his Be Be gun in the past so I was suspected he was the cause of the noise I went over tore into him told him I was going to kick his butt, he swore it wasn't him & that his father beat his a$$ for doing it the last time, so he wasn't ever going to do it again.... I walked back to the garage & went back to work under the car, I heard the noise a couple of times again, jumped out ran over & threatened the kid again, he again swore it wasn't him, so I knocked on the door his dad took him inside & beat his butt yet once again... I walked back to the car got under & was messing with the trans when all of a sudden the car rocked backwards & fell off the stands with me under the car 3800lbs of Charger on my chest & only 1) of the 15"x10" with N50-15 wheel tire combo on the back, the others still sitting on the floor beside the car, my head luckily was in the tunnel area, but my arm was under the Transmission cross member, no one was home to hear me scream to help me out from under the car... I was laying on an old wood creeper it was basically split in two, I was able to crawl out the back of the car under the 1) side were the wheel was on luckily the car was kind of propped up by the broken cheap a$$ Grand Auto jack stands {the weld popped on or at the spot welds}, luckily it didn't completely crush me... I put the wheels & tires on 1 at a time, then buttoned up the trans & went to the Emergency room at the hospital... Well I told the nurse my arm hurt, she said they will have to X-ray it, I sat down in the waiting room my chest was hurting a little I put my fingers on my sternum area & they went way in between my ribs, I freaked out & yelled for the nurse, they took me into a room instantly.... I woke up 3 days later with a in a drug induced stupper with a split/fractured sternum & a broken left arm & 7 cracked ribs, multiple scraps & stiches... It was like 10 months to a year or so before I could play Football or Baseball, let alone work on my car etc... After I got home from the hospital 16 days latter, I had to go across the street & tell my neighbors kid & parents I'm sorry for accusing his kid of shooting my car with the Be Be gun again.... The thing is, he ended up helping me with a bunch of my future projects & even went racing with me... Well that's my Funny "NOT" story of jacking up or working on a jacked up car.....

 

[mopwrd340]

I was doing a roadcall on a garbage truck for a flat tire put a 20 ton air jack in between the tandems and pulled the tire off . when i came back with another tire the air jack had sank all the way into the asphalt and the tuck was sittin on its hub . had to get a wrecker to lift the truck up onthe rear of the frame i played :argue: getting that jack out it was one with wheels and a handle,

 

[Jonnyuma]

I don't remember what work was being done, but I had the front end of my old Jeep up with jackstands under the front axle. I reached inside to start it and guess what I forgot...for safety's sake I'd put it in gear and bumping the starter resulted in the Jeep jumping forward SEVERAL times before my brain engaged and told me to STOP RUNNING ALONG SIDE AND CRANKING THE ENGINE! Off the stands and forward about 6 feet. Short of the garage wall by about 10 inches.

I lucked-out and no real damage occured, but just the thought of how I would have explained it to the insurance company has helped to keep me from doing anything as equally stupid for many years.

 

[cam383]

Now this was a lot of years ago.When I was working with Kaltire I went on a service call for BC hydro at a new mine site there where opening up in tumbler ridge.She was in the middle of janurary -30c made her to the job site to fix a flat on 5 ton truck.My compressor would not start on the service truck so I took off the unit by hand and drove to a shop that was about 5kms away.Got the the job all done headed back to town which was 250kms away and my fuel line froze in the service truck.Dead in the woods.No road radio and I'm freezing my *** off.Did What I had to do.Jacked up service truck and set my tires on fire one at a time to keep warm.Finally at midnight my boss figured her that she was taking to long and sent a another truck out.Now we have road radios in all the trucks now.

 

[rlsbee]

I can appreciate the story about the jack stands by Budnicks. I was changing a leaf spring on my '72 Fury wagon. I had it up on jack stands that were the type made of round tubing. I had almost finished the front shackle. I was under the wheel well when the jack stand just collapsed pinning my shoulder after it settled. My wife saw what happened and was able to jack the car up so I could get loose. Lesson learned... don't use cheap jack stands.

 

[Benji]

1977. The company bought the Veep a new Plymouth wagon and when he filled it up he got more than what he paid for, about three gallons of water in addition to 15 gallons of gasoline. The car ran a couple of blocks before puking so I got a call to get it into the shop and find out what was wrong. I pulled the fuel filter and noticed water, so I reattached the hose to the carb, jacked the car up and disconnected the rubber hose where it connects from the frame to the engine. The plan was to hold the hose in a bucket while another mechanic gave a short blast of compressed air into the fuel tank. I grab a bucket and a trouble light and crawl under the car. As I'm attempting to get the hose into the bucket the other guy gives the tank a jolt of air and a stream of water/gasoline squirts out of the hose (which was not in the bucket yet) and lands on me, on the floor and on the trouble light bulb which begins to hiss. I'm thinking to myself that bulb is gonna explode any second which it did. Not only was the car and floor on fire so was I! I had previously set a fire extinguisher right beside the car "just in case" and that saved me from suffering some serious burns.

Benji

 

[Meep-Meep]

Working on my orange RR a couple of years ago I had the whole car up on stands, engine and tranny was out, and was in the process of removing the K member and suspension assy and after that removing the Dana 60. I had the stands in the same place where I have been putting them for the last 30 yrs of MoPar wrenching - right by the front spring hangar and on the front frame section behind the tire. I got on my creeper armed with a 1/2" drive impact ready for the final operation to remove the 4 big K member bolts, slid a jack under the K to support it, and started to buzz the bolts out one by one. On the last bolt toward the front I noticed it was fighting me a bit but I stayed on it then all of the sudden "BANG" the K member fell off the jack and car disappeared from view. Somewhere between the last thread on the bolt and the BANG I found myself standing in front of my car looking at it positioned at nearly a 45 deg angle resting on the rear bumper area and supported by the rear stands. I was afraid to look because I thought for sure the rear quarters hit the ground and the rear corners folded under, but when I got closer they were spared by no more than 1/2" as the rear segment of the spring hit first. What a relief! Clearly the problem was the Dana 60 counterweight in the rear was being balanced by the K and when I took the K off the trouble began.

Now the next problem was to get it back level so I went to the front and grabbed the rad support, which was over my head, and effortlessly with one hand pulled it back down on the front stands. Then that created the Dutch boy and the Dyke problem and I stood there for a second wondering what to do next. I was of course by myself so I gently let the car back up and went to look for a counterweight to hang on the rad support or something to hold the car down while I run to the rear and reposition the stands. No harm done at all to me or the car and I wish I had a camera or better yet ran video of the entire event.

Just goes to show you that 30 yrs of doing the same thing because it's worked for 30 yrs is not the end all be all. I failed to analyze the situation by not taking into account where the weight was (or wasn't). Add it up: Rear end in place - engine - K member with suspension + jack stands improperly positioned = on hell of an experience!

 

[dla4567]

I had a car fall over while on a bumperjack.My hand was on top of the jack and got caught between the top of the jack and the car.The jack went thru the center of my hand and tore out between my fingers taking off my middle finger. Had my finger sewed back on and got all the feeling and use of it back in about 2 years.Even though it was my fault for using the jack improperly, I still have not used a bumper jack since.

 

[msbaugh]

My grandfathers best friend was killed a long time ok when the mower behind his tractor fell when he was working under it.

 

[shorty64]

OK - I'll play too (two?)

1) Was at my buddy's house as a teen working on cars as usual at that age. Well hell, he had a garage and my folks place didn't, clear choice to me!

So while he messed with his car, I calmly jacked up mine and put 2 cinder blocks under each tire to raise it enuff to get under it and grease the u-joints. Here we go!
- these were the thinner blocks kinda shaped like a really narrow shoe box.
and I laid them large side down on the floor.
- with the car in neutral so I could rotate the d/shaft to get at the zerks, I scooted underneath on a creeper.
- while busily doing my thing I heard a "crunch" or two and luckily for me, caught the clue that the blocks were collapsing under the weight of a '54 Olds 98 4dr tank.
- as the front settled lower the car started rolling forward. So with little fanfare I shot myself out from underneath.

The car rolled off the blocks, went about 2-3 ft and nosed into the wood workbench running along the back wall. As low as it sat to the ground, I would have been a teen grease spot on the garage floor, or at least severely flattened.

Yup, learned my lesson about thin section concrete blocks laid on their side as jack stands!!

2) This one didn't end as well:
In between marriages, I was making my way to the laundromat for the twice a month multi-load clothes washing & drying chore when I noticed a large 4dr Caddy sitting toward the other parking lot outlet with the right rear up in the air on the bumper jack. And also saw a pair of jeans clad legs sticking out from the side just ahead of the right rear wheel.

I was thinking "what a moron! slick icy pebbled coating on the paved lot, heavy car up on a bumper jack, and human underneath - recipe for disaster!"
In fact, I was sorely tempted to go verbally chastise the individual for such a dumb stunt. However, he hadn't asked for my criticism and I had at least 4 loads of wash to do so I ignored him and went on into the laundromat.

When I came out to leave, evening was descending and in my car's headlights I saw the Caddy still there, jack lying on the ground, and the legs still poking out from underneath.

You got it. The guy was cold toast. He was in his 50's, blue collar worker, had evidently just got paid as the Police found around $550 bucks in his pocket. Looked like the muffler was dragging and he jacked up the car to either wire it up or rip it off the pipe.

In addition to the guilt I had for not yelling at him to get out from under or at least use a scissors jack under the frame, or something, I got hassled by his insurance company plus the widow's lawyer for suit about the bumper jack design, etc.

Needless to say, I've not been silent about jacking and stands since then. I don't care if folks want to do dumb things - can't usually stop the determined ones. But damned if I'll not suggest a safer method and why. They don't have to like me, just stop and reconsider what they are doing!

 

[rp23g7]

My one and only bad jacking story in the yrs of working on cars. I was checking the brakes on my dads 68 Dodge A108 van, no body home, no big deal.

No floor jack, just a bottle jack, i was ready to lower the van and got on my stomach from behind the van, and used the handle to twist the valve, it started lowering slowly, and the handle slipped of the valve and rolled down the slightly sloped driveway.

Well when it fell off i shifted my hand a bit forward, right under the rear tire, in the time i moved it and the time i reached for it, the wheel had lowered slowly onto my hand.

HMMMM, what to do? it didnt hurt really, just a lot of pressure as it lowered so slowly. I cant reach the handle and i couldnt get enough leverage on the pump to jack it up.

Ok, so here i am, stuck under a car with it on my hand, what to do. Each time i hear a car come by i start thrashing my legs around hoping someone will stop. It took 5 cars and about 45 min. My neighbor cam home and jacked it up. My hand was flat and had a tread mark bruise on it for a week no permanent damage though.

 

[Cranky]

I used to part out cars in the mid 70's and was doing a Duster. It was nearly completely stripped except for the front and back window and rear bumper. I was using those cheap stamped steel ones like Bud was using and had them placed on the frame rails just before they kick up...and was about to take the rear bumper off when I looked into the trunk and noticed I left a tool in there from the day before so I leaned in to get it and what little bit of weight I placed on the edge of the trunk make the back of the car start to go down with the front end going up in the air and by the time I realized what was happening, the thing started to slide back off the rear stands and I barely had time to get out of the way. By the time everything quit moving, all 4 stands were crushed with the weight of the body sitting on them. Didn't have to put the front windshield anymore because it was now cracked.....

 

[Budnicks]

I don't feel so bad now... looks like those "damn stamped cheapo jack stands" are aiding to or are the culprit of a bunch of problems...

 

[yellowdartdave]

Driver was unloading, slid the deck all the way forward and deck went over center and bent the deck channel on 1 side. That allowed the deck to fall down.

Took 2 cranes to lift it out and upright unit onto the grass.
Luckily he had tied the car down with chains instead of the stupid wheel straps.

 

[Bbody540]

I could remember one incident while working for a large utility in ny. we had floor controls for the car and truck lift's, and they had small pin's that would lock the handles so they would not move, well most of the pin's were worn, or broken, so one day we went to lunch,and when we came back one of the two man bucket trucks was sitting over on it's side, it seems someone kicked the raise lever for the rear axle lift, it went up and turned the truck over on it's side. that was one of many!!

 

[msbaugh]

This is why I use a good pair of ramps every chance I get! obviously you can't when you need a wheel off, but for simple things underneath the car their a good investment! Don't have to deal with jacking anything up!

 

[jogirob]

I feel like this should be required reading to all those young bloods out there. Including myself. I've had to do so much jacking these last couple weeks and the only other living soul nearby is my Pug. Fortunately I have a plethora of jack stands, jacks, ramps, and 2x4 pillars. I've got backups to my backups!

 

[Dibbons]

I changed a flat tire on the right front of the family pickup (during an annual family/neighborhood party). I knew it was recommended to final tighten the lug nuts after the vehicle is back on the ground (which was my plan/intention).

A week or two later, my brother was driving the same vehicle when the right front tire passed him by. Fortunately, no one was hurt and there was no property damage.

 

[Cranky]

So, how did you find this 7 year old thread!? lol