You may be right wes, I might be being overly cautious. Generally, I’d guess that a lack of innate understanding of lifting is behind many serious crushed-by-vehicle accidents, and I always tend to err on the side of safety. Much as any attempt by me to provide medical assistance would probably kill an injured person, 'cause I lack any understanding of this stuff, I worry that lack of mechanical aptitude could lead to a crushed body.
A while back while driving to work I noticed a pickup truck with the rear axle & springs removed. The guy had the truck elevated on 6x6 beams… but instead of building a “crib”, he had stacked them all in the same axis, one on top of the other… on uneven dirt under some trees. The beams on both the left and right sides were oriented in the same direction, and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the truck. It’s just as well that the guy wasn’t outside, or I probably would have stopped and commented… and gotten punched in the schnozzle.
yeah, I had to put my foot down with my son when he got his first car. he was under it with a jack only holding it up.
he wanted to argue, but I threw a tire under it and told him to brace it safely or I was taking the tag off.
he still gets in too much of a hurry but he s more careful now. I think he had some close calls I don t know about.
but he s grown now and on his own and doing very well. I think he remembers a lot of my advice and puts more stock in it than when he was 17. he ll be 24 soon
My dad always insisted that you place the removed wheel under the door rocker…or someplace near the frame.
He always said that if things give way…it’d be a lot more room to wiggle out from under a car that’s up 8 inches…than one thats sitting on your legs.
I don’t remember any close calls…yet…but even changing a tire…as soon as it’s high enough the spare gets slid under the car. Once the flat tire is off…it’s slid under right away as soon as you slide the spare out…before you even try putting the spare on.
You don’t hear of it often, but now and then you hear of someonme who was recued by a passer by after a car fell on them and crushed their legs.
My neighbor had the front end jacked up with a floor jack and he was under the thing banging away. I just couldn’t stand it so I brought my jack stands over for him. I don’t like blood and the noise of sirens hurts my ears.
Years ago I was at my BILs and he was swapping an engine in his Ford. I was underneath the car and he was using the hoist to lower the engine into place when the engine came off the hoist. A big kabang and the car dropped quite a bit but not enough to hurt anything. It was not a pleasant experience though and I don’t like getting under jacked up cars. I much prefer ramps.
yeah. I need new ramps. I don t trust my old metal ones anymore. I should have made some while I was still at the steel shop. but then I d have to lift them.
Not solid, but designed such that the load path puts the critical support structures (molded in under the ramp) under only compression load all the way to the driveway. I’m far, far, far more comfortable with the design of my molded ramps than that of my old “bridge type” stamped metal ramps.