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Either ON you or just fall while you had it up? Regrettably I have, twice.
I'm a senior industrial design student and I'm starting my senior thesis project. The problem I am looking at is lifting and safety of working on a (lowered) car. So I need some feedback from you guys for research!
How do you raise your car when you are working on it? What process and tools do you use?
What safety devices/checks do you use? Tell me the little things too, personal-protective-equipment, lights, padding, mirrors, etc etc
What are some concerns you have while working on your car?
All of us lowered guys know it is often a major pain getting our cars up, what are some issues you run into? How do/have you attempted to solve those issues?
In a perfect world, how could this process of lifting your car to work on it be made easier/safer for YOU? What tools/systems/or modifications of tools do YOU wish existed?
STORY feel free to skip
Here are my two car falling stories real quick. The first time, my brother was selling his style m66 wheels off his e39. We met with the buyer in a parking lot and were going to just swap all four wheels over from and to both cars. I started with my brothers car, jacked it up using the factory elbow jack and removed the rear wheel. To speed up the process I then jacked it up further to get the whole side off the ground so I could get the front wheel off too. My mistake was that I forgot to put in the wheel chock, so the car rolled forward a bit and knocked the jack over sideways. BOOM down on the rotor my brothers e39 came crashing. FCCK I thought! Luckily I was only next to it and not underneath it. I was able to get the car back up and properly in place. Luckily no damage was caused.
My next incident was this past summer. I was working on changing the front brakes on my dad's 3/4 ton Dodge Cummins pick-em-up. My dads large metal shop was packed at the moment and I couldn't pull the truck in, so I did the job out on the grass. I used two large bottle jacks with a piece of plywood underneath as a base to jack the truck up. I got the front wheels off and the brakes already on one side. My dad then instructs me that I should put the truck on jack stands. So I proceed to position the first jackstand under the truck where it should go, NOT on the plywood base. I then proceed to use the freaking 6 inch handle for the bottle jack to release pressure on it to lower the truck down onto the jack stand. All is well,,, so it seemed. As I'm nearly half bodied underneath the truck, pulling the bottle jack out from under it; in a split fraction of a second there is a noise and a brief second of my life that never registered in my mind. I look over and I am now standing 20 feet away from the truck that is now sitting on its chasis in the grass. Lucky enough for me I am able bodied and have the agility and reflexes of a ninja, otherwise there is no question about it, I would be without a right arm today. I brush off my arm as it was actually scratched by the truck's metal step sideskirt coming down (not ninja enough). My mom and dad (outside at the time) freakout and thank god that I'm not dead while I realize, shit! the cinder block that I had put underneath to set the brake caliper on, is being sat on by the oil pan that is now impaled by it. We borrow a low-profile jack from the neighbor down the road to get the truck up. And to our amazement that dam cummins oil pan is unharmed and leak free, just now with a baseball sized dent in it. With the truck now properly jacked up, the rest of the brake job went on. What had happened was one leg of the jackstand got pressed into the dirt more than the rest and so the weight toppled it over
END STORY
I'm a senior industrial design student and I'm starting my senior thesis project. The problem I am looking at is lifting and safety of working on a (lowered) car. So I need some feedback from you guys for research!
How do you raise your car when you are working on it? What process and tools do you use?
What safety devices/checks do you use? Tell me the little things too, personal-protective-equipment, lights, padding, mirrors, etc etc
What are some concerns you have while working on your car?
All of us lowered guys know it is often a major pain getting our cars up, what are some issues you run into? How do/have you attempted to solve those issues?
In a perfect world, how could this process of lifting your car to work on it be made easier/safer for YOU? What tools/systems/or modifications of tools do YOU wish existed?
STORY feel free to skip
Here are my two car falling stories real quick. The first time, my brother was selling his style m66 wheels off his e39. We met with the buyer in a parking lot and were going to just swap all four wheels over from and to both cars. I started with my brothers car, jacked it up using the factory elbow jack and removed the rear wheel. To speed up the process I then jacked it up further to get the whole side off the ground so I could get the front wheel off too. My mistake was that I forgot to put in the wheel chock, so the car rolled forward a bit and knocked the jack over sideways. BOOM down on the rotor my brothers e39 came crashing. FCCK I thought! Luckily I was only next to it and not underneath it. I was able to get the car back up and properly in place. Luckily no damage was caused.
My next incident was this past summer. I was working on changing the front brakes on my dad's 3/4 ton Dodge Cummins pick-em-up. My dads large metal shop was packed at the moment and I couldn't pull the truck in, so I did the job out on the grass. I used two large bottle jacks with a piece of plywood underneath as a base to jack the truck up. I got the front wheels off and the brakes already on one side. My dad then instructs me that I should put the truck on jack stands. So I proceed to position the first jackstand under the truck where it should go, NOT on the plywood base. I then proceed to use the freaking 6 inch handle for the bottle jack to release pressure on it to lower the truck down onto the jack stand. All is well,,, so it seemed. As I'm nearly half bodied underneath the truck, pulling the bottle jack out from under it; in a split fraction of a second there is a noise and a brief second of my life that never registered in my mind. I look over and I am now standing 20 feet away from the truck that is now sitting on its chasis in the grass. Lucky enough for me I am able bodied and have the agility and reflexes of a ninja, otherwise there is no question about it, I would be without a right arm today. I brush off my arm as it was actually scratched by the truck's metal step sideskirt coming down (not ninja enough). My mom and dad (outside at the time) freakout and thank god that I'm not dead while I realize, shit! the cinder block that I had put underneath to set the brake caliper on, is being sat on by the oil pan that is now impaled by it. We borrow a low-profile jack from the neighbor down the road to get the truck up. And to our amazement that dam cummins oil pan is unharmed and leak free, just now with a baseball sized dent in it. With the truck now properly jacked up, the rest of the brake job went on. What had happened was one leg of the jackstand got pressed into the dirt more than the rest and so the weight toppled it over
END STORY
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