Wildaugust
Senior Member
:Groaner:
Bumper jacks
- Thread starter tbm3fan
- Start date
300Nutter
Senior Member
At home I use a 2 ton floor jack that I bought somewhere cheap years ago. Still works.
I get coupons in the mail all the time from Harbor Freight wanting me to buy more of them. Aluminum racing jacks, cheap steel floor jacks, 3 ton floor jacks. Hmmm.....can't think why I would want them, I don't race my cars and the 2 ton jack seems to actually be working fine.
Being a cheap b***ard, it goes against my nature to spend the $ on a new one, as long as the old one still works.
I get coupons in the mail all the time from Harbor Freight wanting me to buy more of them. Aluminum racing jacks, cheap steel floor jacks, 3 ton floor jacks. Hmmm.....can't think why I would want them, I don't race my cars and the 2 ton jack seems to actually be working fine.
Being a cheap b***ard, it goes against my nature to spend the $ on a new one, as long as the old one still works.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
cm23uoc
Old Man with a Hat
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Now where has that hose to be attached to ? :methane:
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
What??? You dont have an on board air compresser???
live4theking
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I needed a good laugh. Thanks!
Ripinator
Old Man with a Hat
Back in high school, I pulled the rear end and transmission out of my '47 Mercury using two bumper jacks and four cinder blocks. Is that manly enough for you ?
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Welcome to The Manly Man Club!
300rag
It's Not Going to Shift Itself
300Nutter
Senior Member
I've seen a jack like that one where you use the car exhaust to inflate it too.
Maybe that is just an emergency thing, but I've seen videos of it (cars in remote places).
I have my old 2 1/2 ton floor jack that I bought from Sears... oh geez... 35 years ago. It works great and it looks sturdier than any of the new ones. My two boys used to take turns standing on it while the other jacked it up. It wouldn't surprise me if they would still do it given the chance.
On a serious note.... I have to preach a little about safety. A guy died next door to my shop years ago... right outside my window as a matter of fact. His dump truck fell on him after he jacked it up. I wasn't there at the time... but I was there just after they took him away. It made a very profound impression on me.
Please, use good jack stands. I like to give the bumper a tug to see if everything is settled. If you take a wheel off... toss it under the car as a backup to your stands.... and don't use cinder blocks please.
On a serious note.... I have to preach a little about safety. A guy died next door to my shop years ago... right outside my window as a matter of fact. His dump truck fell on him after he jacked it up. I wasn't there at the time... but I was there just after they took him away. It made a very profound impression on me.
Please, use good jack stands. I like to give the bumper a tug to see if everything is settled. If you take a wheel off... toss it under the car as a backup to your stands.... and don't use cinder blocks please.
Tink
Well-Known Member
German engineering at its finest.....
Boomer
Active Member
Wowsers....fun with bumper jacks. Never trusted them, had cars roll forward and go sideways on a couple occasions. Once when I was 14-15 we were visiting family friends. Dad noticed a flat on the back of our '70 Satellite sitting in the driveway, picked up a nail or whatever. Being all about cars then, I volunteered to change it. Didn't noticed the slight side grade to their driveway. Got the wheel off and the car started to come with it. Managed to lean on the car and had the spare laying there, somehow managed to contort, press my skull against the fender - whatever. Got a couple lugs on to line it up (thanks to whoever invented the 4-way lug wrench!) and lowered it down.
Someone also showed me a "neat" (=crazy) trick to get the jack back down with involved leaving the jack handle in place and switching the lock or such. Handle would bob up and down and eventually go flying out, but the weight of the car lowered the jack for you. Was never quite manly enough to try that one.
Dump truck got a fellow I knew, but it was different. He had the dump body up and was working on the cylinder. Loosened the wrong nut or hose. Stephen King couldn't have come up with a nastier ending.
Jack stands can have shortcomings too, but are certainly better than cement blocks. A classmate of mine who was a mechanic had just gone out on his own after years of working for others. Had a car in the rented garage he used, front wheels off and up on stands. Was under it doing something. Asked his buddy to crank the starter. Buddy either thought it was an automatic or forgot to take it out of gear, though the same thing could happen if you got a wrench across the solenoid. Car jumped forward, fell off the stands. It was late, they probably shouldn't have still been working.
So yes, as Big John says - always be safe, use the proper safety and other equipment. And quit before you've been at it too long.
Someone also showed me a "neat" (=crazy) trick to get the jack back down with involved leaving the jack handle in place and switching the lock or such. Handle would bob up and down and eventually go flying out, but the weight of the car lowered the jack for you. Was never quite manly enough to try that one.
Dump truck got a fellow I knew, but it was different. He had the dump body up and was working on the cylinder. Loosened the wrong nut or hose. Stephen King couldn't have come up with a nastier ending.
Jack stands can have shortcomings too, but are certainly better than cement blocks. A classmate of mine who was a mechanic had just gone out on his own after years of working for others. Had a car in the rented garage he used, front wheels off and up on stands. Was under it doing something. Asked his buddy to crank the starter. Buddy either thought it was an automatic or forgot to take it out of gear, though the same thing could happen if you got a wrench across the solenoid. Car jumped forward, fell off the stands. It was late, they probably shouldn't have still been working.
So yes, as Big John says - always be safe, use the proper safety and other equipment. And quit before you've been at it too long.
I'm huge on safety too......
I can kick my 18 year old nephew's ***.......daily!!!
He's an ASSCAR fanatic..........and he thinks it's OK to get under a car held up by just a floor jack.....no jack stands. Also doesn't think safety glasses are necessary when metal grinding. I'll get Jethro on board eventually!
I can kick my 18 year old nephew's ***.......daily!!!
He's an ASSCAR fanatic..........and he thinks it's OK to get under a car held up by just a floor jack.....no jack stands. Also doesn't think safety glasses are necessary when metal grinding. I'll get Jethro on board eventually!
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I used the bumper Jack to put the spare on when the tread flew off one of the old tires that was on my Imp when I got it. I was able to pull into a flat and level parking lot to do it so it went very smooth and fast.
A local guy died yesterday when a car fell on him.
Unfortunately, I've seen many fatal accidents......because of stupidity too.
Boomer
Active Member
I bet a lot of us can think back to things we did when we were young and invincible (stupid) and thank our lucky stars we're still here. I like to think I was a pretty bright kid, but can't even begin to count - at least, the ones I can remember. But there are definitely some folks out there who need to be kept away from machinery, jacks, heavy things, pointy things, multi-syllable words, etc etc etc.
So back to bumper jacks....one of the saddest things about their passing has been the loss for Hollywood thugs. Gone are the days when the bad guy grabbed a tire iron - courtesy of the bumper jack - and came after the good guy. With the lack of imagination these days, it ends up being a gun, a pipe, or a 2x4. Tsk tsk.....
A real thug knew how to wave around a tire iron in a menacing way!
So back to bumper jacks....one of the saddest things about their passing has been the loss for Hollywood thugs. Gone are the days when the bad guy grabbed a tire iron - courtesy of the bumper jack - and came after the good guy. With the lack of imagination these days, it ends up being a gun, a pipe, or a 2x4. Tsk tsk.....
A real thug knew how to wave around a tire iron in a menacing way!
300Nutter
Senior Member
YES...
I had some cheap jackstands that i threw in the garbage Years ago. They claimed to be rated two tons, but they were cheap sheet metal and when I bought a pair of REAL US made jackstands...it was obvious they were cheap crap. So I tossed them..no use giving them free to somebody else that might use them and die as a result.
I also have good metal wheel chocks That I use with the ramps and and when tires are still on the ground. I never trust just a parking brake or the park pin in a auto transmission when I am under a car. Too many close calls!
300Nutter
Senior Member
I went to a "highly rated" tire shop yesterday, to see if the could check the suspension on my wife's '01 Stratus. I think it may need upper ball joints soon and its a real pain to do it. Not a job I am euipped for anyway, so as I went there to see when they could check it and quote me. The place was packed, being Saturday noon and all their lifts were full. They has two guys working in the parking lot UNDER the cars, each held up with two or three big floor jacks. No jack stands that I could see. Did NOT impress me!
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