Rachet straps are great for ALMOST everything!

Ok, i have been a member here for awhile now and this is the FIRST time i have noticed this section on the builders page. So, i decided to share a wee bit of painful knowledge that I have incured during my build. Here are the 2 MAIN things I have learned with safety:

* High lift jacks are great and a handy dandy tool in deed...but are intended for certain use. Useing a high lift to jack up the front of a jeep with nothing else to support it while you take a tire off or do ANY OTHER WORK ON THE JEEP WITH NO JACK STANDS will result in the jeep getting the sways and flopping over onto the pavement. I did not learn from the first time and I held the jeep by a tow hook for over 10 minutes with the high lift at a steep angel leaning away from me untill I finally had to let go and bail out. (could not pull the jeep back up right because when the jack gave, it slid the base towards the passenger side about 4 inches, just enough to not allow the jeep to steady itself again.) Did the same thing again a month later but luckily my buddy was there to lend a hand and we got it leveled out without the jeep falling again.

* While installing my np435 WITH the dana 300 attatched ( not a good idea without proper tools), i got a bright idea to use a 4" rachet strap anchored to my roll cage to hoist the combo up and in position to stab it in. My idea worked great...untill the rachet itself stripped a tooth and unlocked itself resulting in the tranny and tcase to come crashing down on my buddy and I who were laying under the jeep. Now granted, the combo was less than a foot above us, but it dont take much for that kind of weight to hurt you purdy good. Bottom of tranny case caught me square in the chest while the tcase took out my buddies right shoulder. pure accident but use some other means of hoisting when dealing with big weights and try to stay out from under neith it. Saving a couple days instead of waiting for the proper equipment is not worth the injury or worse.

Happy jeepin and wrenchin.

 

OH MY GOSH!!!! NEVER WORK UNDER ANYTHING THAT IS NOT SUPPORTED PROPERLY!!!

Sorry for bold and all caps... Granpa nearly lost a couple fingers that way about 30 years ago.
When I work on my cars, I tend to put my extra jackstands under the car too, give better weight distribution.

I think we're all just glad there were no serious injuries.

 

Wowzers! Yea, never get under a hanging load, no matter how it's supported, if you can help it. Anything can break. And if you do have to get under, make sure you are using excellent quality equipment. Spending a few, or even many, extra dollars up front is well worth saving life and limb.

We had a guy at work, before I started, use one of those threaded chain link doo-dads in a lifting operation. It broke and the piece of equipment hit the floor. No damage. Next day, he did the exact same thing, only he went under the truck while they were trying to mount this thing (it was a shoulder machine on the back of a dump truck). When the rigging broke this time, it landed on his knee. That was like 13 years ago. He still suffers from that injury.

 

good idea but , needs to be bullet proof to get under it . if that had landed on your face ,,,,goodbye teeth.
ive used this method a couple of times ,with it lifted up by the winch all you have to do is slide it right in ......ford T18/d300 combo right there

 

We werent working on it with it suspended. We had pulled it up with the rachet and I was wrapping a chain around each frame rail as a craddle for a "just in case" and he was sliding in to get ready to help me grab it when it happened. And with the NON supported jeep while working on it...yes I had a huge brain fart and got ahead of myself to save a few minutes. Needless to say, I take a lil more percaution and time while doing stuff like this.
442, I like that idea with the winch, but dont that cable goudge the poo out of your rollbar? From the pictures it looks easy as pie so I think i will wait to install the new clutch fork till after I get my winch hooked up and mounted. After my strap insident, I borrowed a buddies cherry picker and used that to hoist up the combo.

 

actually no damage to the hood or the rollbar .super easy ,,
,I took the floor out also, put it in with no help ......

 

i always have a cement block under where I am working. set my tools I'm not using in it. Also keep the hydraulic jack down there too. Lost a great grandfather to improperly supported equipment.

 

Sorry to hear that jamco. Very dangerous in deed.

*442, Did you just remove the center section over the tranny?

 

yes that whole thing comes off, then theres plenty of room

 

Ya thats what I removed as well when I started to drop out the original combo. The 435 fills it up purd good now though, may need to do some modding to get it back on.