Always block your wheels when using jack stands!!

[J Wikoff]

http://www.daily-journal.com/news/local ... 04aa3.html

I wonder if he was a member here.

[ShaneC]

Wow that really sucks! I feel bad for the family.

[nos4blood70]

That's awful! Always gotta block your wheels or hit that ebrake.

[vogie01]

Same thing happened to my wife's cousin in AZ a couple of months back. I thought he had it up on wood blocks and it slipped off but not to sure. Super tragic as they just had a baby the month prior.

[1oldman]

I think the majority of people don't think it can happen to them. If they really knew the risks, they would be much more vigilant about following proper safety procedures. It is really sad to have something like this happen. It makes it very difficult for the family. - BC

[Jfridge92]

My dad had a car roll off the jackstands as well, but fortunately he wasn't under it at the time. Very sad to hear that this happened, but that just ensures to me that the $8 I spent on wheel chocks are well worth it. Safety first, no matter how simple the job.

[repinS]

I'll share my moment of ineptitude, so that hopefully nobody here does the same.

The 04 GXP once fell off its jack stand. I needed to get the front left wheel off for a quick job (I was not going underneath the car) and forgot to chock the rear wheels. The ground was a little less level then I thought. It also didn't help that the parking brake (that I always set on any other car) was inoperative at this time. Everything went into slow motion as I saw the car start rolling back and *SLAM*.

Thanks to the bigass 12.7" front rotors, there was no damage done to the car, as the car contacted the ground with the bottom of the rotor. I did ruin the jack stand though, due to the subframe crushing it while it was on its side. To get it back up, the spare tire jack was low profile enough at full collapse to fit under the pinch weld and get the car back up in the air. I was working alone at night at the time in the school's shop. I got incredibly lucky.

Scarier part is

[Wes]

Scarier part is

Dramatic pause for suspense....check.

[J Wikoff]

:slow clap:

Nicely done, Wes.

[WhiteArrow3800]

^Hahaha

The thought of the vehicle falling on me always crosses my mind when I'm under one, especially if I'm under a car someone else jacked up.




Never posted this...but I had a moment as well. Wheel chocks might not have helped in this particular case, but thankfully I wasn't under this in any way... this was when I had that Dark Bronzemist SSEi that I fixed up and sold...








Jacked the car up in the driveway to take the wheels off to get new tires (at the time still had no registration or inspection decals). Came back later that afternoon to put the wheels back on and the jacks had sank into the gravel just enough that I couldn't get the wheels on. I should have put some plywood or something under the jack stands. But as soon as the jack touched the car to lift it up more it very slowly rocked forward and crushed the two jack stands in front. At this point I thought it was kind of funny because it was harmless. I couldn't get the jack under the front end at all. So I grabbed the brand new (to me) scissor jack I had just got from Andrew since this car didn't have one as well as the scissor jack out of my car and tried to slowly lift each side up a bit at a time, and it was working but then one of the scissor jacks popped and this time the whole car came down crushing the remaining two jack stands in the rear and my other scissor jack. That's when I got upset about it. Ended up digging a hole in the driveway so that I could get the jack under the car and jacked one side up enough to get two wheels on, then dug a hole on the otherside and got it off the ground and on 4 wheels again.

[repinS]

Sorry, posted in a rush. Scarier part was "I was working alone at night at the time in the school's shop. I got incredibly lucky."

[MattStrike]

I had something similar happen on the '86. Tire blew out on the road. Still on the concrete I used the body jack on the pinch weld. Got it up just high enough to pull the wheel off when the weld flange folded over, the car fell, and the jack almost went through the floor pan... The tire was still on at the time so other than wounded pride nothing was seriously harmed.

[CMNTMXR57]

A similar issue to this is why I invested in the lift (not that those are infallible either, which I've seen happen).

[nos4blood70]

Never personally had issues with jacks, but had Penny slip off the ramps me and Will were putting her on to change the trans fluid. It was very interesting seeing her hanging there, front wheels spinning since it was still in drive, and then Will's face inside. Hahaha! Popped a fender out a bit, and FUBAR'd the pinch welds up front..

[1oldman]

Sorry, posted in a rush. Scarier part was "I was working alone at night at the time in the school's shop. I got incredibly lucky."

Never work alone and especially never alone after dark. jmo. - BC

[BonneMe]

If the work allows it, I'll always take the wheels i've removed, and put one of them under the rocker below the B pillar as a safety measure. If a jack/stand slips then it'll still be on one axle, and the wheel in the middle of the car.

Then you're not tripping over wheels either!

[spoiledred94]

If the work allows it, I'll always take the wheels i've removed, and put one of them under the rocker below the B pillar as a safety measure. If a jack/stand slips then it'll still be on one axle, and the wheel in the middle of the car.

Then you're not tripping over wheels either!

Ditto here. Also I'll start using chocks and the e brake.

I was jacking up my front end to remove the trans. I had to raise it very high for clearance. The car was at quite an angle it just rolled back and off the jack stands doing some damage around the "pinch weld"

It is very tragic what happened to him. I hope his family is recovering.

When I get paranoid about my car falling on me I always thought it would be over very quickly. Maybe not.

[Z-type]

I've certainly been guilty of creating dangerous situations like this but have been lucky to have no accidents. I have a lift now too and I triple check all lift points and locks before it gets more than 2 feet off the ground. I don't want to die because of something stupid I did lol.

[crash93ssei]

Something else people rarely think of, when lifting either the complete front, rear, or side of the car up and using two jack stands with two jacks or one jack moving from side to side... Most regular hydraulic floor jacks will lift and pull at the same time. This pulling action is usually covered by the wheels of the jack moving as the arm goes up, but a tiny pebble or any dirt will stop the wheels from moving and Instead either slide the jack saddle on the car or move the car completely which will cause the other jack stand to lean some. Any time you do something like this always make sure to bring the jack back to the other side and lift the vehicle off the first jack stand just enough for it to settle again so the load is only vertical with no horizontal load in any direction.

[ga93sle]

I brought up this thread and the OP article to my boss at work, and it is now policy in my department (the whole establishment for that matter, but we're really the only ones who have to use jacks) to chock the wheels when going under a car. Even though we're always on level ground, cars in park, e-brake set, this is still pretty scary.