I didn't know this gentleman, but his death underscores the need for care and caution when working under a vehicle. Never depend on a transmission alone to hold a vehicle when it is on ramps.

Man killed when van rolled onto him

....Yes , it,s sometimes easy to assume that what you use to support your car will be ok/just fine. DO NOT USE CONCRETE BLOCKS to support your car, eighter.friend of a friend was killed when a concrete block shattered dropping his TR-6 on his chest.(he had owned that car for 20+years)....YOU ALWAYS must THINK about what your doing,when your TIRED--- THINK through it at least twice.TAKE the time to do it right.

We have a member here whose jackstands collapsed, and he got hurt... it's a strong argument for the type of jackstand that uses pins to lock them in place rather than the more common ratcheting type. I still use those, but I slide a wheel with mounted tire under the side of the car as added insurance.

Yep, family friend had his Snap On truck fall on him. Almost killed him. No jackstand from what I was told, just a Snap On jack.

I still use the pawl type as well, but I always make sure I have my floor jack under the car as well incase one of the jackstands fail. Redundant failure protection.

Zach

Heck, strong argument for non-adjustable jackstands. Or a lift.

call me but I always use 8 jack stands, one back up for each...

I knew a guy in high school who used an engine hoist to lift the back of his dads corvette up. Crawled under the car and the hoist collapsed. He lived but will be in a wheel chair the rest of life.

this is a good reminder.

I hate the ratcheting jackstands. I will ONLY use them when they are all the way down and on the setting that is the lowest so they can't fail. Aside from that, the ratcheting is a pointless feature as it is insanely dangerous.

Agreed, buy the stands with pins if you plan on going above the bottom setting. It is not worth gambling your life. Get the right stuff.

I seem to recall the thread about the rachet jackstands. I tossed the few that I had and scored the pin type. That's all I have now.

Although I have a lift, I sometimes find a need for jackstands. But after Gint's little incident, Betty made me get rid of the ones with the ratchet.


I married a smart one!!!!

Years ago and when I was young and dumb a friend and I were taking off wheels/tires from a old heavy Chebby. Got the right side off ok, on the left got them off. We used a bumper jack on the rear and a bottle jack underneath the middle. I went under the car to get the bottle jack loose, heard a noise and slid out from underneath the car just as it fell to the ground slipping off the bumper jack. Just got a couple of cuts to the head from the car, but I could have been crushed by the car.....Now I am soooo safe under a car.

I know whats wrong with your car just from the picture- Someone put antifreeze in it!

I agree...I also always keep the jack under the car and extended even after the jack stands are in place.

If you must...wood beats the hell outta concrete.

I use wood 8 x 8s under the tires and 4 jackstands as backup. Block the tires from rolling too....

I also exercise extreme paranoia and let my wife critique how stupid I am before I start...

Geez, I bet that takes awhile! I wonder if you have time to work on the car after she is done?

When used correctly, concrete blocks are extremely strong. I have seen too many examples of them being misused. So we really should not use them! However, there are some other concrete products that are hard to misuse and work very well and are more stable than jackstands. I have a system that I use that is very strong and stable and makes me feel safe when I'm under my car.
If some one will PM me their e-mail address, I'll send them pics and they can post. I have had no luck at resizing pics to post.
To Jim Kelly. As a former shipyard supervisor, looking at the pic of your car in the air, I would not let any of my personnel go under there to work. It is just to dangerous and unstable. You need to support both ends of the car securely to prevent movement. One end on round tires is asking for some movement that would have the jack stands and jack teetering on collaspe.
Please, I don't mean this unkindly, just sharing 40+ years of safety training and practice. I never had one of my personnel get injured. "Safety is job one!"
Tom

I assumed that picture was a joke. No?

I didn't get it as a joke or reminder of how not to do it. If I missed something that pic that refers to, I apologize.
Just don't want to hear of one of our members getting hurt because they didn't know a better way. Sometimes we learn things the wrong way and get away with not getting hurt. Then we think that way must be OK, while it really isn't.
Tom

An interesting thing that I see every day is when people learn workplace safety, but fail to bring those practices into their home life.

This does not only pertain to working on the car, but mowing the lawn, working with chemicals, power tools, grinders etc.

How many of you use eye and ear protection when mowing the lawn?

I use both with all lawn equipment and use hearing protection with my shop vac also. Want to keep what hearing I have left.
And that is a very good point by the way. Shipyard where I worked actually encourged employees to take their PPE (personal protective equipment) safety devices home to use.
Tom

I do, it cuts down on the vibration from the riding mower. Grinding is especially important to use leather gloves and glasses. That thing can get away pretty quickly and cause some major damage.

huh?

this very thing happened to a friend of mine. No ramps, his driveway was on a hill. He removed his driveshaft for repair and the parking brake failed. His truck rolled back on him and crushed his spleen. He survived only because someone found him quickly.

I wear hearing protection when using the Stihl 2-stroke brushcutter... push mower and John Deere, not so much. Which is inconsistent with my ATGATT attitude on the bike.

What? Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you over the ringing in my ears...