DIY mechanics take care....neighbour squished under car!

DIY mechanics take care....neighbour squished under car!

Author
Discussion

Benni

3,510 posts

210 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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A very talented tuner got trapped under his car 20 years ago and suffocated,

the guy did not reach 25years, was working on his own in his closed-off part of an underground garage,

the stuff nightmares are made of. RIP Doc Turbo / Berlin

Take care and double-check.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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I was jacking a car, the tarmac gave way nearly crushing g me luckily hit the wall. Now I just go to a self hire garage and use proper ramps, not worth it.

hooblah

539 posts

86 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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I have a pair of those quickjacks. Probably one of the first people in the country to get hold of them.

I initially ordered the mid size ones, but found them too heavy to be moving around (I do all my spannering at the side of the road).
The smallest ones are the best for portability. They're not light by any means, but I can at least move them without doing my back in!
Even though they were not rated for what I wanted to lift, I checked with the manufacturer first and found they were load tested to over 2 tonnes. I was happy with that.

The main reason I got them is because I couldn't find a safe way to jack up my S4. There was no suitable place to put an axle stand if you were using a jack. If you did manage to bodge it in place, the car would move around a lot and almost fall off the stand when trying to jack up the other side. I couldn't even use ramps as the bumpers would end up catching. It used to take me up to an hour to get it jacked up on all fours bit by bit.

So would I say they were worth it? For saving time, yes. Are they worth £1000? That's debatable. I've only used them a handful of times because they're still a pain in the arse to manhandle and setup. But it has the added benefit of being height adjustable. Oh and I have a tool fetish lol.

I was able to get the gearbox out quite easily at this height.


caelite

4,273 posts

111 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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I've always been super anal about jacking. Stands, Jack left in place and a wheel tossed under the sill for good measure.

I have had a jack fail on me before, an old draper 2ton, was jacking the rear end of my Shogun up, lifted the truck at its rear diff, once it was suitably high I go back into the garage to get my stands, as I was back towards the vehicle there was a cracking sound, like a gunshot and the vehicle just drops back down. Oil seal on the jack had gone in a rather dramatic manner. Could only imagine the outcome if I had crawled under the truck, rather than went into my garage.


Mandalore

4,165 posts

112 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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I was surprised to find this had reached page 2, before one of 'do as I think' brigade had used one of these cases as an excuse for never opening their own bonnet.

To the point in question, I have never known of anyone it has happened to personally, but everyone seems to be quick to point out that one jack is never ever enough.

spaximus

4,230 posts

252 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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As a 16 year old apprentice mechanic I nipped under a transit to adjust the handbrake cable and the jack slowly came down. I was pinned by the propshaft, couldn't move at all but was not in any danger as the van was on the ground now.

The rest of the garage left me there for the rest of the day to teach me a lesson. Never done it since and never will. This was top notch equipment fully serviced and still failed.

Garages can be dangerous places especially home use, pits are particularly bad places in a home garage.

bristolracer

5,528 posts

148 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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Mr Happy said:
Sam993 said:
Mr Happy said:
A lot of automotive youtubers use these: https://www.quickjacklift.co.uk/

They get them for free for promotional reasons, so endorsement is obvious but they do seem like a pretty good idea, only problem is that the 5000lb one (mid size) is over £1k...
What sort of anti-drop safety mechanism does a jacklift like this have. It looks like something that could fold as easily as any other jack.
There's a pretty hefty looking bar that locks into place when it is lifted, forward of the lifting ram.



Page 20 of the manual: http://www.asedeals.com/Ranger-QuickJack-Car-Lift-...

FWIW - I don't have a set of these, nor do I work for the people that make them.
Just wait until the Chinese start making st copies of them eek

hyphen

26,262 posts

89 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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V8RX7 said:
Happens a lot.
One a few days ago, 21 year old taking out an engine from a BMW, jack collapsed, dead.

https://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/breaking-m...

julian64

14,317 posts

253 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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Mr Happy said:
There's a pretty hefty looking bar that locks into place when it is lifted, forward of the lifting ram.



Page 20 of the manual: http://www.asedeals.com/Ranger-QuickJack-Car-Lift-...

FWIW - I don't have a set of these, nor do I work for the people that make them.
That looks totally inadequate for that weight of car. That small section box steel only has strength along its axis. I bet if I pushed that car sideways the jack would fold like a wet lettuce. I personally wouldn't get under the car with that setup..

Vitorio

4,296 posts

142 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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lyonspride said:
I think one of the problems these days is a lack of proper jacking points on a lot of cars. More often than not you get the jacking points on the seam welds, which is ok if you have a 2 post ramp, but not ok if you have a floor jack and axle stands, because the jack is taking up the only jacking point........ My Mondeo is particularly bad as all the suspension components are made from pressed/shaped sheet metal instead of solid structures, so there are very few areas big enough to hold the weight.
Yep, finding a proper jacking point for a trolley jack can be hard enough, never mind another spot to put an axle stand.

Changed the tires on my sisters Twingo (MK2) last weekend, at the front i settled for putting the trolley jack on a mount point for the front subframe, at the rear the axle itself was the only logical place i could put any weight on... I quite honestly wouldnt know how to put a thing like that on proper axle stands, its all weak bits with just the sill seam for the emergency jack.

DapperDanMan

2,622 posts

206 months

Monday 16th April 2018
quotequote all
Mr Happy said:
Sam993 said:
Mr Happy said:
A lot of automotive youtubers use these: https://www.quickjacklift.co.uk/

They get them for free for promotional reasons, so endorsement is obvious but they do seem like a pretty good idea, only problem is that the 5000lb one (mid size) is over £1k...
What sort of anti-drop safety mechanism does a jacklift like this have. It looks like something that could fold as easily as any other jack.
There's a pretty hefty looking bar that locks into place when it is lifted, forward of the lifting ram.



Page 20 of the manual: http://www.asedeals.com/Ranger-QuickJack-Car-Lift-...

FWIW - I don't have a set of these, nor do I work for the people that make them.
I've got the 5000lb version of these and the safety bar has two stages of lock. They are heavy but of course need to be for strength they fold flat so I store them vertically against the wall with a strap. So far put 3 of my cars in the air and have no problem with a creeper under any of them. Yes they are expensive but for me it was worth it as my garage isn't suitable for a two/four post lift and I didn't want a floor install scissor. They are great for four wheels off inspections and cleaning of the wheels.

Before the quickjack I used axle stands with the jack even when doing brakes.

Why doesn't a trolley jack manufacturer engineer a jack with a locking mechanism?

Anyhow in the USA there is a company which produces jackstands that use a disc that sits on the trolley jack which also sits on the axle stand when raised.

http://www.jackpointjackstands.com/




rxe

6,700 posts

102 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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The problem with a locking mechanism on a jack is that you don't know where the lock point needs to be - you end up with a load of locking points, which is probably more fragile than the current solution. I quite like those jack stands in the post above, it seems like an answer that is easy to put in place, rather than jacking on one point and trying to stick an axle stand somewhere else. My general rule is that if suspension attaches to something, it is strong enough to cope with an axle stand.

In any situation where your life is at risk, you need belt and braces. Doesn't matter it is guns, flying, or lifting heavy weights, you mustn't have a situation where if your only plan fails, you end up dead.

Butter Face

30,192 posts

159 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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I’ll never understand why anyone would go under a car without jack stands or wheels chocked if on ramps. Just a quick way to end up dead!

Sam993

1,302 posts

71 months

Monday 16th April 2018
quotequote all
Mr Happy said:
There's a pretty hefty looking bar that locks into place when it is lifted, forward of the lifting ram.



Page 20 of the manual: http://www.asedeals.com/Ranger-QuickJack-Car-Lift-...

FWIW - I don't have a set of these, nor do I work for the people that make them.
I'm skeptical although I'm not claiming they haven't tested it and that it's unsafe.

InitialDave

11,856 posts

118 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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I've seen these integrated axle stand jacks, which seem like a neat solution to the limited jacking points on most cars, but unfortunately they only seem to sell them in the USA, and the minimum starting height is 11", too high for most normal road cars.


wal 45

654 posts

179 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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Always in the back of my mind when working on a car, I probably go OTT and often put a set of spare axle stands in to back up the stands taking the weight. Also put the wheels under the car as well, having worked on Italian cars for years a set of chocks go in if the front is up on ramps (rubbish handbrakes). For final good measure I put it in gear....

Like most of us on here I wince at some of the methods people use, I just know I wouldn't get found in time so do everything possible to prevent getting squashed.

MDMetal

2,775 posts

147 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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InitialDave said:
I've seen these integrated axle stand jacks, which seem like a neat solution to the limited jacking points on most cars, but unfortunately they only seem to sell them in the USA, and the minimum starting height is 11", too high for most normal road cars.

I've seen those but the base never seems wide enough. I've never used bottle jacks for the same reason they seem way too easy to knock over. My drive isn't perfectly level across and quite often when jacking you can see the jack start to roll sideways. Pretty terrifying. I've once had it fall off the jack but only onto the stands (whilst jacking) No harm done but I'd never ever ever ever not use stands even for a second, not worth the risk either to me or the car.

Why is there nothing between £40 jack and £1000 lift?

V8 FOU

2,970 posts

146 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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The problem with trolley jacks is that 99% of them are sh*te.
They are too cheap to be any good. I recently bought a Snap On jack, cost about £400 and it is very good. Havent see a jack this good in years. The first one I bought in the 70's cost £120 and lasted 20+ years. Other ones bought since (apart from said Snap On one) have struggled to last a year.
Even scissor lifts at c£2000 aren't too good either. People want a cheap jack, so that is what they get. You pays yer money.....

Oh, plenty of axle stands have broken/worn out too. And it isn't uncommon for a car to roll on axle stands either.

TurboHatchback

4,152 posts

152 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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This is one of the reasons I no longer go under cars, I'd rather pay somebody else to do it for me. Back when I used to do it a lot I was extremely careful, big heavy axle stands (over 10 ton rating), second set of backup stands, 3 ton trolly jack, wheels under the sills, chocks, the works. The extra 10 minutes taken to set it all up is a small price to pay for your life.

I had an RAC man out the other day who went underneath with just a trolley jack holding it up which made me cringe.

DapperDanMan

2,622 posts

206 months

Monday 16th April 2018
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Dug out a different photo angle on the QuickJack



They are solid construction and I did my homework before I got them. There are loads of youtube reviews and tests by the manufacturer.

None of my cars swayed when raised. Maybe I should have axle stand as well belt and braces and all that.