What's the worst story lifting or jacking a vehicle

[6PKRTSE]

My co-worker is a volunteer fireman for his local township. One of the calls he went on a gentleman was working on a car that was up on ramps in the front and on jack stands in the rear with another car parked behind the car he was working on. As the guy was lowering the jack the car rolled down the ramps. Before he could get the car all the way to the ground to stop it. He tried to jump to the side to get out of the way & got pinched in between the two cars by his "junk". Yes, that junk. He bled out & had passed before they got there for the call.

Makes me think because I had the same thing happen to me before but luckily there was no car behind the one I was working on that rolled off of the ramp but I was able to get the jack dropped so the rear tires hit the pavement to stop the car since it was in park.

 

[Tim Chavez]

One of my techs released the jack pressure while the other tech was still setting the jack stand. He ended up sandwiching three fingertips between the axle and the stand on a fully loaded semi trailer. The tech on the jack was a newbie and as soon as he heard the other tech scream bloody murder he freaked out and gout away from the truck like a bat out of hell. Fortunately I was walking out of the office at that moment and recognized what had happened and started jacking it back up that second. Fortunate for him, his stands were set low so he didn’t take the full weight but he did break his fingertips and lost his nails

 

[Cranky]

My co-worker is a volunteer fireman for his local township. One of the calls he went on a gentleman was working on a car that was up on ramps in the front and on jack stands in the rear with another car parked behind the car he was working on. As the guy was lowering the jack the car rolled down the ramps. Before he could get the car all the way to the ground to stop it. He tried to jump to the side to get out of the way & got pinched in between the two cars by his "junk". Yes, that junk. He bled out & had passed before they got there for the call.

Makes me think because I had the same thing happen to me before but luckily there was no car behind the one I was working on that rolled off of the ramp but I was able to get the jack dropped so the rear tires hit the pavement to stop the car since it was in park.

I've done that before but attached blocks on the ramps just because of that reason....and I don't use metal ramps. Used them one time and thought no way and build my own heavy duty ramps from wood. The ones I have now have wood runners and landings with a steel frame which are much lighter and stronger.

 

[Budnicks]

resurrected thread

 

[Skytrooper]

I have had some interesting experiences, but no accidents.I guess I learned well jacking aircraft to be overly cautious. When I got the Charger, I put it up on 8 jackstands...4 front, 4 back. That allieviates any pair becoming a fulcrum. The car was so solid I could have worked under there in an earthquake.

 

[Slap Stick]

Years ago my brother had a Plymouth Turismo. He took it in for new exhaust. (He did no work on vehicles he might have got dirt on his hands)
They kept his car overnight...on the lift....raised.
During the night the lift bled down until the car contacted the mechanics tool chest which caused the car to come off the lift. Come morning they opened to find his car on its roof.

 

[jogirob]

Slap sticks story reminds me of my jacking incident that could've been worse. It was with a transmission jack this past weekend. I managed to wrangle the A904 in place just over the engine dowel pins and had one trans to engine bolt started just so it wouldn't slip out and I'd have to battle getting the dowels lined up again.
I went off to get some tools and hardware for the next step and I noticed the jack was just chilling about half way down leaving the transmission just free floating! Fortunate for me the output shaft housing came to rest on a crossmember.

 

[flypaper]

seen all kinds of horror stories
from a car falling off a lift
to a guy who broke his hand in 13 places from
overinflating a split ring truck tire that exploded in his face.
most of it happens to people in a rush or who don't think
I never trust a single jacking point
and you never leave any kind of lift hydraulics extended with weight
unattended for long periods of time no matter what it is.
I always stuff something underneath to stop it from hitting the ground jack stand
whatever you can find even a tire on a rim if I have nothing else
you just never know when a jack will let go

 

[451Mopar]

Those 3-leg split tube jack stands fold up easy if the car rocks onto one leg. Happened on my '67 Coronet, stands were on dirt, and one stand started sinking into the dirt, noticed the car moving, got out from under it just before the jack stand collapsed. That was back around 1978-1979 era.
About 8 years ago, I was stripping my '84 RamCharger on a wooden flat bed trailer. Using the Harbor Freight 6-Ton Jack stands. The stands were under the frame because I was removing the front and rear axles. Pulled the rear axle first, no problem. Pulled the front axle, and noticed the truck trying to twist/rotate on the stands. Got away from the truck, and it fell off the stands. Not the stands fault, the trailer was not on flat ground, slightly tilted to one side. It did flatten one or two stands, and the trailer fender. Lucky my guardian angel was looking out for me.

 

[Cranky]

In the mid 60's a neighbor down the street was working on his mid 50's Pontiac. He had blocks....cider blocks under the frame just behind the front wheels. Saw him under it and about 30 minutes later, the car wasn't on the blocks anymore and he was still under it.

 

[kiwigtx]

This is ever so slightly drifting off topic, but does include some Jacking....

A difficult business decision...complicated by poor sentence structure:

"Business was terrible and not picking up. I had to fire somebody, and I narrowed it down to one of two people, Debra or Jack.

It was an impossible decision because they were both super workers. Rather than flip a coin, I decided I would fire the first one who used the water cooler the next morning.

Debra came in the next morning with a horrible hangover after partying all night. She went to the cooler to take an aspirin.

I approached her and said, "Debra, I’ve never done this before but I have to either lay you or Jack off.”

"Could you jack off for now?" she says.. "I feel like ****. If you can wait, I'll do you at lunchtime." ......

I had to let Jack go."

 

[Duda]

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.....

Omg that’s terrible.

 

[biomedtechguy]

I had to let Jack go

 

[Cranky]

This is ever so slightly drifting off topic, but does include some Jacking....

A difficult business decision...complicated by poor sentence structure:

"Business was terrible and not picking up. I had to fire somebody, and I narrowed it down to one of two people, Debra or Jack.

It was an impossible decision because they were both super workers. Rather than flip a coin, I decided I would fire the first one who used the water cooler the next morning.

Debra came in the next morning with a horrible hangover after partying all night. She went to the cooler to take an aspirin.

I approached her and said, "Debra, I’ve never done this before but I have to either lay you or Jack off.”

"Could you jack off for now?" she says.. "I feel like ****. If you can wait, I'll do you at lunchtime." ......

I had to let Jack go."

You know I'm going to have to either give you points or cane you since this is the General Forum, right??

 

[kiwigtx]

You know I'm going to have to either give you points or cane you since this is the General Forum, right??

Sticks and stones may break my bones....but whips and chains excite me.

 

[biomedtechguy]

Sticks and stones may break my bones....but whips and chains excite me.

 

[HD539]

Hahahaha

 

[Cranky]

Oh man.....I'm heading for the horizontal room pretty quickly and cover my head....both of them!

 

[bm02tj]

Do moderators get time out same as anyone else

 

[mmissile]

My dad was working under our 71 Crestwood wagon. He had it way up in the air, and it fell. It landed on him and a 5-gallon pickle-bucket he was catching fluid in. Mom called 911, and when they arrived the plastic bucket was bulging and holding the car off him enough to barely breathe. I wasn't home at the time, but he put about 10 jackstands under a car after that.