Re: Lift it up question SAFELY

[CBL302@xxxx]

I remember one day back in 1984, I was working on my car (a 1975 
vette)it was a very hot day and I was using frame jacks,and the car 
was very steady on the frame jacks,as I was working under the car I 
was not paying attention to the frame jacks,and I was busy working on 
the car,as I crawled out from under the car,to get a bigger socket 
that I needed to continue working,just as I got out from under the 
car,it CAME CRASHING down,what had happened was the asphalt had 
softened,and was very hot from the sun beating down on it,and when I 
jacked up the car and put 3200lbs of weight on the jacks,slowly but 
surely,the Frame jacks legs started sinking into the asphalt,and 
tilting,then to a point that the car fell off the jacks,I was VERY 
luckly that at The moment,I needed to crawl out to get something,as I 
would not have been able to crawl out to avoid the car from crushing 
me.THE point is if it is a very hot,sunny day,and you are going to 
jack your car on a paved driveway,PUT a STEEL plate under the frame 
jacks(make sure all the legs of the frame jacks are on the steel 
plate)(Or better yet bring them to a welder and have a steel plate 
WELDED to the bottom of the Frame jacks)This also applies if you use 
frame jacks on hard packed dirt.and chock the wheels.

Claude
000570 



--- In dmcnews@xxxx, "Nick Kemp" <nkemp@xxxx> wrote:
> The message said ... The jack stand on the right front
> kicked out and the truck fell...
> 
> I almost always leave the floor jack under the vehicle just in case
> something like this happens. I prefer a belt and suspender 
approach. Have
> two methods to hold the vehicle up in case one fails.
> 
> As I said in an earlier message, a floor jack is so easy to use 
that it make
> jacking up the Delorean simple. So simple that you can raise the 
whole car
> and have it supported at four points. Since the frame is so rigid, 
three
> points will support the vehicle in the event that one failed.
> 
> Use a 4x4 to spread the load and jack the car up in the middle on 
each side
> to get it off the floor. I used this process repeatedly until I 
got the car
> high enough to remove the body and roll the frame out from 
underneath it.
> Yes, I used a long 4x4 to extend the stands out wide enough to roll 
the
> frame out.
> 
> I had two store bought jack stands ... and never liked how they 
looked.
> They don't look like they should work even though they do. I built 
two more
> out of 2x6 & 2x8 scraps. They are quite wide at the bottom and the 
boards
> are nailed together on their flat (thin) sides. They look like 
they will
> work and they do. They are wider than store bought and they cannot 
crumble
> like concrete blocks.
> 
> Just some thoughts. And I'm subject to being wrong without notice:-
)
> 
> Nick Kemp