Ian F
Ian F PowerDork
5/20/13 8:51 a.m.

I went to a funeral on Sat for a friend's husband who was killed last Sun when the old-school bumper jack he was using to change the oil failed and the vehicle crushed him. She found him cold when she got home from work.

Needless to say, she is pretty devastated.

He had been a dirt-modified racer for about 30 years and has built and worked on cars for most of his 54 years. Not exactly a novice in the garage. But he was working alone and one simple lapse of judgement was fatal.

Be careful out there.

dculberson
dculberson UltraDork
5/20/13 9:20 a.m.

:-(

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, and especially sorry for your friend.

SlickDizzy
SlickDizzy GRM+ Memberand UberDork
5/20/13 9:22 a.m.

Sorry for her loss, but...

How many more freaking people need to die working under bumper jacks to get the point across that they are NOT SAFE? No stands either...really?

Terrible, but wholly preventable...

JohnInKansas
JohnInKansas Dork
5/20/13 9:25 a.m.

That's a terrible way to go. Terrible way to find your significant other, too.

I've always hated bumper jacks. Never trusted them, even when they're brand new.

Ian F
Ian F PowerDork
5/20/13 10:10 a.m.

In case of possible confusion, it was this type of bumper jack:

From what she said, the air valve (or something) failed and the safety catch... didn't.

DrBoost
DrBoost PowerDork
5/20/13 10:26 a.m.

^^ Oh.
Crap. That could happen to me too the. If I were using that, I don't know that I'd use jack stands if I'm only changing the oil. I wonder if it wasn't up high enough for the catches to come into play, of it they just didn't work.

docwyte
docwyte HalfDork
5/20/13 10:42 a.m.

I pretty much use stands anytime I've got to be under the car. If I'm just doing a wheel swap or brake pad swap I generally don't, as I'm not under the car.

It would suck to have the car fall on the rotor, but I wouldn't get hurt.

Really sorry to hear about your friend...

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
5/20/13 10:44 a.m.

Man. Hate to hear this. A similar death reported on VWVortex a while back changed my attitude toward jackstands etc. Hard to believe that a jack as substantial as the one in the pic would fail that way.

Jerry
Jerry HalfDork
5/20/13 10:47 a.m.

That sucks. (Did anyone else picture old OEM bumper jacks from like 1975?) Benefit of being a fairly noob on car maintenance - super careful and paranoid. Hopefully that never wears off.

motomoron
motomoron Dork
5/20/13 10:53 a.m.

I don't feel truly comfortable with Chinese stands, even. I'll use 4 stands and still stick the wheels under the ends so it'll stop above crushing height if one fails.

I need to make a lift a priority.

Ian F
Ian F PowerDork
5/20/13 10:56 a.m.
DrBoost wrote: ^^ Oh. Crap. That could happen to me too the. If I were using that, I don't know that I'd use jack stands if I'm only changing the oil. I wonder if it wasn't up high enough for the catches to come into play, of it they just didn't work.

Yeah, he had probably used it to change oil hundreds of times. It was pretty old. She refered to it as "the POS bumper jack" so it may have been showing signs of potential failure. The sad fact is we'll probably never know exactly what happened.

Jerry wrote: That sucks. (Did anyone else picture old OEM bumper jacks from like 1975?) Benefit of being a fairly noob on car maintenance - super careful and paranoid. Hopefully that never wears off.

Yeah... that's why I posted the clarifying pic. Being perpetually paranoid/careful is a good habit when dealing with a few thousand pounds perched above your head.

Apexcarver
Apexcarver PowerDork
5/20/13 11:05 a.m.

If I jack it up, I throw a stand under... might not set it down on the stand if its really quick, but at least have the stand there to catch it.

chandlerGTi
chandlerGTi Dork
5/20/13 11:17 a.m.
Apexcarver wrote: If I jack it up, I throw a stand under... might not set it down on the stand if its really quick, but at least have the stand there to catch it.

I've seen stands rip out from being suddenly loaded; they aren't designed to "catch" weight suddenly.

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