• AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Use jack stands for your car. If your body will be under the car for even a second, there should be jack stands. There were five different people at my high school who were in a wheel chair because they thought the jack was enough.

    I don’t care if your jack costs $100,000 made of pure titanium; do not trust it.

    • netburnr@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Similar to this, once you have a vehicle on jack stands, shake it lightly to make sure it doesn’t fall easily. Better to find out now by shaking the car before being under it.

      • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        True. It’s okay if your car falls a few inches. At worst you’ll have a blown shock.

    • carzian@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Related pro tip, if you’re changing a flat tire and don’t have any jack stands, place the spare/damaged wheel under the car while you’re working on it. Better to have the car fall on the wheel then potentially your leg

      • signor@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Why would you be under a vehicle to change a flat? You just sitting at the wheel legs under the car?

      • AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social
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        7 months ago

        I do this anytime I take a wheel off, even with jack stands. Doesn’t hurt anything and I’ll take anything extra between the chassis and my head I can get.

    • marmotworks@lemmynsfw.com
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      7 months ago

      Taking a wheel off of a car, and you don’t have jack stands? You have jack stands and are taking a wheel off as part of your work? Does it involve being under the car? Throw that wheel on the ground under the frame rail / pinch weld. If something horrible happens and the jack kicks, dropping the car on you, it may save your life, and you have to put that wheel somewhere anyway

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      There was a waiter at my second job who was crushed by a car that fell off a Jack. Same, he was in a wheelchair. But then he (probably partially from continuing to do meth) had a heart attack and died 6 months later.

        • squiblet@kbin.social
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          7 months ago

          We weren’t either. I guess being in a wheelchair is hard on your heart already. He was only 45 too, and a really chill and nice dude.

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I just posted elsewhere in the thread, neighbor had his car roll off his jack stands because he was, let’s face it, dumb enough to be working on a sloped driveway. Crushed his head and killed him. His parents found him.

      If you’re only using two jack stands get chocks too, not just a log from the wood pile.

      People seem to think nothing bad will happen to them because it never has before. This is wrong.

      • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        People are way too comfortable with getting underneath unsecured loads, especially cars. I feel bad for the kid, but damn, don’t get under a car on a slope.

        I need to buy some chocks now that you mention it. Parking brakes aren’t enough

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          People are way too comfortable with a lot of dangerous situations. There were two sanitation engineers in my city just a week ago who died trying to replace a pump in a subsurface pumping station (read: one of those big manholes that had a pump inside it). One dude went down to secure a rope around the pump, didn’t come back up, his buddy went in to save him, also didn’t come out. This is an almost identical event to one that happened 6 years ago in the same city, for the same sanitation department.