Living on the edge

T

tigger

New member
Sometimes, even stupid people get lucky and a second chance.

So I am working on the lift, and have most of it done. I have replaced the front coil-overs, upper control arms, rear shocks and rear coils. Nothing traumatic happened and things went fairly smoothly for once, although it took a really long time to complete. Unfortunately I have to spend about 2 hours cleaning for every 30 minutes of wrenching. So what should have taken 5 or 6 hours took 20. Straight through with a couple quick trips for new jack stands and meals.

So I finish up fighting with the front sway bar brackets. They are being a pain. So here is the one negative thing that did happen. I dropped one of the brackets and it fell perfectly splitting me head open right above the eyebrow. Luckily it wasn't my eye.

Anyway, on to the stupidity part. I am cranking on the bolts for the sway bar and re-installing the skid plate, all the while laying under the truck. Get it finished after a trip to Walmart to find butterfly closures for my head and Home Depot to find longer bolts for the skid-plate.

I decide I need to paint some of the rust spot underneath. As I am getting ready to crawl under again, I notice something weird about the jack stand. What hell? Thn I look at the other side and see it has slipped off and is hanging on by less than a 1/2". And all of this time I am laying under the engine just torquing away on bolts.

I am really lucky one side or the other didn't give out. These are 3 ton stands. Looks like I will be getting a second set of new stands. (at least they will match now) This is why you don't work on a vehicle for 25 hours straight.

(And no, the front tires were not installed at the time)
 

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I have had those for years. I just picked up a 4 ton set that are holding up the rear. Will get a matching set for the front as well.
 
Jesus man- that pic gave me goosebumps!

Yeah- get some bigger jack stands if you want to work under there and CHOCK YOUR WHEELS.

Tip- I always put my wheels/tires under the truck while working on it as a backup to the jackstands. Like this...


 
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mikey's2010SR5 said:
Damn....

Take that piece of crap back and get some new ones on their dime. Get some heavier duty ones now.
Click to expand...

Honestly- it wan't that they were pieces of crap- it was complete user error.

They are extended waaay too far and on top of that I would bet the wheels weren't chocked. You can see that the truck moved backwards causing the bend and the other to slip.

I think they did an outstanding job given the circumstances and saved his ass!
 
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Antman said:
Jesus man- that pic gave me goosebumps!

Yeah- get some bigger jack stands if you want to work under there and CHOCK YOUR WHEELS.

Tip- I always put my wheels/tires under the truck while working on it as a backup to the jackstands. Like this...


Click to expand...

Excellent advise, I always leave the jack with just a touch of pressure on it (mine has a rubber pad so just till it makes contact) when working under the truck along with the jack stands but I really like the tires

OP Thanks for sharing the story and photos you never know whom it will help/save by having them think twice because they remember this.
 
Like others have mentioned, jack stands, keep the jack underneath, keep the tires underneath. You could never be too safe.
 
Man. you are lucky. So many things wrong in that pic.

1. Jack stands are over extended and way too small (yikes). 6 Ton...
2. They are positioned too far back (put them up on the frame as far forward as possible or on the forward cross member)
3. Get the rubber boots (hockey pucks...) to create some friction vs metal to metal
4. Add some backup stands or some other last resort measures.


I've done a lot of work on cars when I'm tired... I've done some dumb things (like forgotten to tighten wheel lugs....), but I'm usually pretty darn vigilant about lifting it before crawling under. The consequences of a mistake are something I don't even want to think about.
 
Doesn't work when you're having to take wheels off, but when those can stay on (like when I put new skids on yesterday) I'm a fan of using ramps instead of jack stands. Get the vehicle up, hit the emergency brake and chock the other wheels still on the ground. It's fast and much less likely to have any issues.
 
My stands are 6x6 wood posts 3 1/2 feet long with a tapered ramp cut into each of them. I drive the truck up onto four of them. Nothing moves.
 
Antman said:
Honestly- it wan't that they were pieces of crap- it was complete user error.

They are extended waaay too far and on top of that I would bet the wheels weren't chocked. You can see that the truck moved backwards causing the bend and the other to slip.

I think they did an outstanding job given the circumstances and saved his ass!
Click to expand...

You are right in that the wheels weren't chocked as they weren't even on the car.
In this wider view, you can see the larger new stands towards the rear. THat was the only place I could put them to make them work, They were far to short to reach the frame.
But it was definitely a case of improper usage of improper tools.
Although the blue one looks like it is leaning, it's just the angle of the shot.

I did have the tires under there but pulled them out to crawl underneath.

But all in all it was pure stupidity on my part. :sorry: (the good thing is that I have been fixed so can't breed :welcome: )
 

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Man that's scary. Just like other posters, that's why I try to leave a jack underneath whenever I have something up on jack stands.
 
[MENTION=120209]tigger[/MENTION], your taking criticism much better than most. All anyone needs is one good scare to make sure something like this doesn't happen again, I've been there.

It takes balls to share an incident like this, but now that you have shared it, members can read it and be safer because of it.
 
Glad nothing happened! I only use 6 ton stands and keep a touch of pressure on the jack as well. Spent too many days on the farm chancing it... not anymore....
 
Glad you're ok. That is a scary picture. I agree with numerous people on here, put the tires under the frame rails; it gives you some margin of safety.

Those jack stands are plenty big. I have two 6 ton stands and two 2 or 3 ton stands (can't remember right now) and have worked on the 4Runner and my previous vehicle which was a 1987 3/4 ton Suburban (i.e. heavy as hell) with the smaller stands. Never had all four wheels off the ground at the same time, but even one two ton stand can support almost the full weight of the 4Runner. It's fine when doubled up with another one and with the back wheels on the ground. Make a big wide base out of two or three 2 x 12s to put under the smaller jack stands so they don't have to be extended so high. Then you can put them further forward under the frame rails.
 
I think I know when it happened. It was probably when I was jacking up one side of the rear axle to get the new coils in. I was trying to be carfeful to not lift the vehicle off the rear stands, but probably did just enough to allow the weight to shift.

I should have left the tires on the end I wasn't working on just for stability.

At least I found a purpose in life.... to serve a lesson (warning) to others of what not to do :hatsoff:
 
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully the lessons learned through this discussion will prevent someone else from having a similar (or worse) experience.

Something else to keep in mind with jack stands is that they are typically rated as a pair. This means that a pair of 3 ton stands can support 3 tons when distributed equally over both stands and that a single stand is only good for half the load rating; in this case 1.5 tons. 4Runners aren't light vehicles, and 3 ton stands are cutting it a bit close for my liking (example of why). My preference when working on an SUV or truck is to use a pair of 6 ton stands per end. The extra load rating is peace of mind knowing that a single stand should be able to hold up half the truck if necessary, but the significantly larger base size used on the 6 ton stands provides much needed additional stability as well.

Having dropped a car off a jack once (totally my fault, thankfully no one was underneath anything) I don't mess around with safety anymore.
 
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