Car Fell on Man

[wroughtn_harv]

Well harv there's one problem with that hole in the ground. It takes up too much floor space.

If you do a pit right you will end up just as much if not more in it I'd think. Plus it's a hazard when a vehicle isn't over it etc.

Nah, check out this lift. They're so slick they make WD40 look like glue. It's in a Performax race car trailer. It's twelve volt with the ram up under the top ramp.

Performax is owned and operated by Ronnie Young of NASCAR fame. It's hard to put the image of my friend and a three hundred mile an hour funny car at speed together.

When I get the bandwidth like in my own web page I'm gonna run progress photos daily. It's a crime to have so much fun and not share.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Darn harv the edit wouldn't allow me to post the attachment!

 

[EdKing]

My one neighbor has a set of ramps that go over a bank on his property. You just drive the car out on the ramps, and you can walk under the car to work on it. It is kind of like the 4 post lift, but no lift.

 

[Harv]

Okay, Harv, that is slick!

I'll start saving my pennies.

 

[Jeff396]

Now this is no joke. I have a 20 x 24 garage that is built over a room in my basement. It's got four big steel I beams covered with metal and then the poured concrete.....pretty unusual for a residential home. I have considered cutting a rectangular hole in the floor so I can work on the cars from the basement. I could then make some plates to go over the hole when it's not in use. My wife thinks I'm nuts but I don't have the height in either of my garages for a lift and I don't like getting the car very high on the jack stands. I think I'm just being practical./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Jeff

 

[bgott]

One of the biggest problems with a pit, if not the biggest, is the possibility of gas leaking into them and making a big bomb waiting to happen. Basement + hot water heater+ gasoline fumes = ...

 

[MikePA]

Many years ago I was rotating the tires on my 1987 S10. I jacked the rear of the truck up and placed three legged jack stands under each spring pack. Took both rear wheels off and was swapping the tires, side to side. Just as I was lifting one tire into place, the whole truck moved backwards, the truck dropped off the jack stands. Fortunately, the gas tank was shielded because it crushed the jack stand. I had not blocked the front wheels.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Your message about the gas brought home a memory.

I had changed out my acetylene bottle on a Saturday morning.

That afternoon as I was shutting down I smelled acetylene so I went looking for the source with a bic. The bottle neck leaked and I couldn't stop it.

So I pulled out the rosebud sat there with it until it burned all the contents of the tank.

I'd heard all those stories about how in the shipyards someone had left a torch leaking and when the crews came back from lunch and a spark trickled down to the lowest deck and all hell broke loose.

In my youth when I worked at the phone company a slow day activity was to put an acetylene torch nozzle into an ant den entrance for a short time and then light it. One of our asleep at the wheels left it too long and cracked a sidewalk.

I'm as nervous about getting under things to work on them as some folks are about spiders and snakes. I'm never comfortable and I never go under unless I'm ninety nine percent sure there's no way in heck I'll be crushed.

 

[GSS]

Pittsburgh!

I noticed you are from the Burgh. Where abouts? I live in Tarentum.

- Gerald

 

[rf33]

Sorry to hear about that Bird. It is a real tragedy when something like this happens. Lets all do our best to learn from these kinds of things, and hopefully let this one unfortunate incident help to prevent another.