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You never know, even with a hoist. My Uncle was a mechanic for years. He was working underneath a truck that was on a hoist. The truck was only a few feet off of the ground and he was sitting flat on the ground. Suddenly, the hoist lost hydraulic pressure and bend him over double. In was under there for an hour until someone came into the shop. In the meantime, he had suffered a heart attack. He recovered but had to retire.
like everyone else...i'm glad your ok...always think of your family before you get under a unsupported vehicle...my father never got under a car without floor jack and stands...but i guess there always that one time...he was changing the brakes on an old buick...finshed one side...moved to the other side...did not put the jack stand back under the car...my mother went to fix him a cup of coffee...when she came back he was crushed under the car...man i have to tell you...she had waited hand and foot on him for over 35years and when she found him under that car i didn't think she would live through it...she did age 10year that next one year...i was also devistated...how blessed you are...but always think of your family first...
PEACE
Glad you're ok. I hear scrap steel prices are up.....good place for a bumper jack.
Get yourself a GOOD jack and GOOD jack stands, this is not an area you want to go cheap. I knew someone who died when the stands he got a good deal on collapsed on him. Buy the best you can afford.....overkill is worth it.
Glad you are ok
I used to have a home with a full pit in the garage
man do I miss that It was so easy to work under the car and no jack stands
Glad that you got out ok. I only use a bumper jack when I have to change a tire and them I block all the wheels. Just don't like them. Also I have seen the cheap jack stands which use pins to hold them up come crashing down after being use for a while as one of the pins would break. I got the heaviest stands and jacks that I could and like Denny said, never figure because it was ok last time it will be ok this time. Some tools may be a little expensive, but a lot less so than hospital time.
Edit: I later bought a set of the Kwik Lift ramps as I don't have enough clearance in my garage for a lift. They are the best thing I have ever bought to work under a car with. I can just about sit up when the car is on them and they are rated for 8,000 pounds. You can get them for much heavier trucks and cars. And the width can be changed easily and when not in use I can just lay them flat on the floor.
Ron :)
glad your ok matt , looks like you learned a good lesson and you came out of it alright ... here the short version of what im sure all of us would say after the fact!! DUMBAZZ!!
I didn't think those things existed any more. My single experience was a '57 T- bird with a flat, along the road, and having the @#$% jack slowly tilt and drop the car on the drum when I removed it.
Now - since you have heard all the good words of advice from others and don't need mine - glad you're not hurt - don't do it again.
I'm not in a position to lecture you, Matt.
When I got out of the Navy I knew everything and didn't need advice from anybody. I bought a really nice '51 Chevy and started making some changes that I felt would tell the world that I was eaten up with cool ideas. The first change was to install lowering blocks to get the back bumper as close dragging as possible.
That in itself was dumb, but not as dumb as what I did next, and you can see this coming.......
Two bumper jacks. That's all. No jack stands, no blocks, no nothing.
I crawled under and unhooked the springs. My father looked under there and said "Good Lord, boy! That's going to fall on you!". In my infinite wisdom I told him "Naw, Pop. It's solid". About one second later the jacks went over to the left and the spare tire wheel well came down in my gut and nailed me to the ground. I couldn't breathe so I couldn't have yelled for help.
Thank God for my good old Dad. Despite having a double hernia and not being exactly a kid, he lifted the car up high enough for me to squirm out and start gasping and bawling like a baby. Nothing a bruised mid-section and a shot-to-hell ego.
I still do stupid things regularly but I never did THAT again.
Jim
Glad your allright. Damn, Boy---You should have known better!!!!
Well.. today went better, didn't end up in the emergency room... I did use the bumper jack again to put it in the air, but after that I put the jack stands down with plywood underneath and lowered the car on them, and removed the jack completely. all that did not go well is actually fixing the car.. engine is now missing on a cylinder and the E brake handle dosn't work right... I think I'v got a fouled plug ( I'v had bad luck with Champions lately ) but the ebrake handle might be a hard fix. Me and my dad put the brakes back togther and put the tools up.. I'll get back to it next saturday.. I'm out of town right now
Too Everybody... That is somthing I will never do again. I'll be getting a good 3 ton jack and another set of saftey stands...
Good to hear your back an ok, when I was your age I bought a set of jacks stands, and a creeper so I could pull a 3 speed trans from a 60 Chevy. I still have everything but the 60 Chevy. I have used some of the cheaper stands, when I think it's ok but it's not worth the risk. You should always be safe take the time.
Richard
As a kid I remember seeing daddy slide out from under the truck, and a minute later it fell off the jack. He was real lucky. I don't leave anything to luck. The only time I will get under a vehicle is if it's on ramps, or on jack stands, with the jack touching the lift-point, so if something somehow gives way, maybe the jack will give me that extra second to get out. An extra minute of preparation is a helluva lot better than a lifetime of being crippled, or worse.
Matt, glad you injuries were minor. You are a lucky guy, could have been so much worse. I hate the thought of crawling under my car even with the equipment that I use (4 x 6 ton jack stands and a 6 ton jack). I don't own a lift, so I got to make do with the stuff I got. Even though the stuff is heavy duty, heavy duty stuff can fail as well.:(
Friend of mine uses steel wheels as support. He welds 2 wheels together and uses them instead of jack stands. He has seen jack stands fail also, but has never had a problem with the wheels.
As I said, I'm glad you escaped major injury.:D
Just an 'add on' to my previous - usually when I'm working under a car, I'll leave the jack in place, a set of 3-4 ton jack stands at each raised corner, and then slide a wheel and tire under the corner I'm working on along with some 2x8 planking to build the height up if needed. I'll also block the opposite end as I will seldom jack all four corners off the ground.