Soooo yea.... I almost died today

thirdgenlxi · 09-09-2009, 12:57 AM

Just as the title says..... it was waaaaay too close for comfort!! And no this doesn't involve the bike at all, she was sitting in the parking lot waiting patiently for 5:00 until I could ride her home. This one involved a 6 wheeled beast, actually.

Anyways, for those that don't know, I work as a Ford diesel tech. I'm at work today, finishing up a headgasket job on a 2006 Ford F-350 King Ranch, 6.0L diesel 4x4 crew cab long bed dually. Big truck, just like the one seen below.... it weighs in at 10,500 lbs empty

Headgaskets are a very common thing on these trucks with this engine.... I've done about a million of them before. I always find it easiest to just lift the cab off the truck rather than pulling the engine out or doing them in cab (sucks!!!!). Just as seen below (this was on a different truck I did headgaskets on)

So today I finish all the engine work that I needed to do while the cab was off, and lowered the cab back down onto the frame. On the crew cabs there are 8 body mounts, 6 of which are inside the cab, and the front 2 are in the very front right by the radiator and intercooler. I finished everything in the engine bay that needed to be done, then the last thing I put on were the 2 18mm nuts for the front body mounts. I was going to back the truck out some before doing the inside body mounts because I couldn't open the doors due to the lift posts. I tighten the front 2 body mounts, then lift the whole truck up in the air to finish up a couple things underneath and put the running boards back on before I backed it up and out of the stall. I had already raised it up once already so the rack was already set underneath the truck. I'm very picky about how I set the rack and always double check to make sure the little feet are where they are supposed to be before lifting it up. They were, so up I went... lifted the truck about 7 feet or so off the ground (I'm 6ft tall and I was holding the running boards over my head to put them on, and walking freely upright under the truck). Now on the Ford trucks the way the frame is you have to put these little extender things on the rear arms of the lift to raise the little 'feet' up so that the truck will go up level. I put it up and I'm bolting the drivers side running board back on, then all of a sudden I hear a BOOM and see the truck shift pretty fast. It was the weirdest thing... I didn't even think about anything I just immediately dropped down to the ground and rolled out from under the lift. Everything was like slow motion and I could see the truck falling as I was rolling out from under it. This all took place in prob a split seconds time.

I get up and analyze the situation.... the LR tires are sitting on the ground in the middle of my stall almost on the sidewalls, the RR tires are probably 5 feet or so in the air, the truck is sitting at about a 45 degree angle cocked to the left, the cab came completely off the frame EXCEPT for the 2 body mounts that I had just tightened in the very front, so it's tilted forward and to the left. Very bottom part of the cab was about level with the top part of the truck bed. When the frame popped the LR lift arm out from under it and the rest popped out after, they all caught on the cab and held it. The ONLY thing holding the frame/engine/trans/etc up in the air in the front were those 2 rubber body mounts.

In this pic, it's the 2 studs sticking up in the front just behind the bumper. When you lower the body down there's an 18mm nut that goes onto each from the top. That's all that was holding the entire front of the truck from crashing down on top of me

Had those 2 mounts not been tightened, the cab would have completely seperated from the frame, and the whole truck minus cab would have come straight down to the ground and squished me flat (remember that's 10,500 lbs). I GOT FU***NG LUCKY!!!!

The funniest part about this whole thing.... the truck was running the entire time. Seeing it sitting there all discombobulated and pointing every which angle, cab off the frame, and it's just running along like no big deal..... clak clak clak clak clak clak clak, hahahah. I finally had to climb up and shut it off.

So.... that was my excitement for the day, definitely got my heart pumping! I really did get super lucky not only that I'm alive, but didn't even get hurt at all. After a little intestivating I've found that the extender feet that they use on these lifts are super cheezy and loose. They have a big threaded nut welded onto the end of the arm, then the little foot screws down into it. Then there's the extenders, which I have to use on these trucks, which slides over that 'foot' and has yet another nut welded into it with another foot screwed on. So by the time they're fully extended there's so much play in it that it can lean quite a ways! Which is what happened here... it was fully under the frame where I placed it (where it's supposed to be), but when I picked it up it cocked the whole extended foot piece, and the weight of the frame just pushed it right out from under it. Works fine for cars and stuff, but definitely a very poor design for big heavy trucks like these. I'll definitely be talking with my boss tomorrow about a different style of arms for my lift

derf · 09-09-2009, 01:09 AM

That sounds like fun. I dropped a car off a jack stand a foot off the ground and tried to catch it by grabbing under the brake disk (didn't quite work as expected), anyway, i had a hard enough time with a 3k lb car, let alone a 5 ton truck

Captain Morgan · 09-09-2009, 01:21 AM

Glad to hear you're ok. Any damage to the truck? Dealerships insurance cover it, or what? Again, glad you made it out alive

Gas Man · 09-09-2009, 06:55 AM

Crazy

What damage done to the truck?

What did the boss say about it?

Amber Lamps · 09-09-2009, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gas Man

Crazy

What damage done to the truck?

What did the boss say about it?

I'm glad that you're okay but I'm also curious about what your boss had to say... I mean you even said yourself that you've done this "a million" times so blaming the accident on the equipment might not cut it.

thirdgenlxi · 09-30-2009, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TIGGER

I'm glad that you're okay but I'm also curious about what your boss had to say... I mean you even said yourself that you've done this "a million" times so blaming the accident on the equipment might not cut it.

Oh but I can! I have indeed done this job damn near a million times without incident, meaning that chances are, I know what the hell I'm doing. I'm not new to working on these trucks... I've been working on them exclusively for the past several years, so I've put "a few" of them up on the lift. I'm very picky about how I have the lift set, and will not put it up in the air until I'm completely satisfied with how the feet are sitting on the frame. I've spent 30+ minutes before just getting a rack set to where I'm happy with it before putting it up in the air. But see here's the thing.... I've only been at this place for a couple months. The majority of the times I've done this job it was at my old dealer, where we actually had adequate equipment for picking up these trucks. This dealer does not. These are 9000 lb lifts, the truck weighs nearly 11,000 lbs. That's a problem!! The lifts at my old shop were 18,000 lb lifts, and I never once had a single problem with those lifting these trucks (even bigger than this one... F-550's with a service body or crane). I don't like using these lifts, but I have no choice.... I have to use what I have and that's the only lift I have to use. There are also locking mechanisms on the lift arms so that when you raise it up off the ground it locks the arms to keep them from being able to be moved. These locks do not work on my lift. So yea... I won't take responsibility for the truck falling by any of my wrong doing. I had it set properly, but the arm slipped out from under the frame because the truck was simply too heavy for that style of lift. I didn't want to use the lift in the first place, so now my boss at least has a little better understanding as to why.

My boss didn't say jack to me as far as blame, he knows we're not using the proper equipment for these trucks... he was more worried about me being OK than anything else. We were talking about it today and he said he didn't care at all what happened to the truck cuz insurance will cover it, as long as I was OK. He also knows that I could make one phone call to OSHA, who could totally wreak havoc on the place (it's an oooollllld rundown shop with tons of safely hazards, plus lifts that don't work right, and using too small of lifts for the trucks). We're getting a brand spankin new dealership and shop in a couple of months with all new and proper equipment to use, so that's the only reason they're not really putting any $$ into this shop for much of anything. I will not use these lifts anymore unless I'm lifting a car or something else small. I either get on a creeper and work on the floor or put it on the drive on rack

Anyways, quick update... sorry to take so long to respond, I was trying to find a pic of the truck and today my boss sent me a text with the pic he took on his phone. The damage really didn't seem bad, a dent in the bottom of the drivers front door, drivers running board bent up, passenger side bottom of truck bed bent in a little bit from lift arm hitting it, tiny dent in passenger front door, cracked the front grille, broke the parking brake mechanism, pulled RF wheel speed sensor wiring out of connector, then a couple scratches and whatnot. Truck went to the body shop right after I got done with it and they did an awesome job.... fixed it all up, repaint, and then buffed the whole truck (black) and detailed it.... looked fantastic! Detailed the interior too, gave it back to the customer and he went down the road, got on the highway and said it started shaking all over the place. He took it in to an alignment place, and now word has it that the frame is bent or tweaked from being twisted when it fell. It's been sitting in our shop the last couple of days now, my boss is trying to figure out how to get him a new truck/fix the frame/whatever they're gonna do. Fun fun fun.....

Here's the truck in all it's glory right after it fell. The lift is still at the height the entire truck was at when it fell. I was standing UNDER it on the drivers side between the front and rear doors... I was putting the running board back on. Oh yea it was running this whole time too, lol. I'm very very lucky indeed!!

Antwanny · 09-09-2009, 01:12 AM

FUCK THAT go buy a lotto ticket it is your lucky day.

racedoll · 09-09-2009, 10:39 PM

Damn lucky!

MILK · 09-09-2009, 10:41 PM

Just like the move in Sky High!

Kids movie, sorry I have a 7 year old...

Glad you are OK Jared!

101lifts2 · 09-09-2009, 11:09 PM

Before going to engineering school, I was a tech for 3 years. I used to do most of the used vehicle inspections and put up many big trucks like that on the little side post lifts designed for small imports. Shit would make me nervous just standing under those big ass trucks. I've also had the legs slip out a few times, but I usually rock the vehicle just off the ground to make sure shit didn't slip out.

You mean you cannot pull the heads off with the engine in the frame and the body on? Seems like pulling the entire cab off is overkill (steering shaft, A/C lines, wire harnesses etc. etc.) and leads to many more issues. But hey...

09-09-2009, 12:57 AM	#1
thirdgenlxi They call me a ride whore Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Mills River, NC Moto: 2004 CBR 600 F4i Posts: 353	Soooo yea.... I almost died today Just as the title says..... it was waaaaay too close for comfort!! And no this doesn't involve the bike at all, she was sitting in the parking lot waiting patiently for 5:00 until I could ride her home. This one involved a 6 wheeled beast, actually. Anyways, for those that don't know, I work as a Ford diesel tech. I'm at work today, finishing up a headgasket job on a 2006 Ford F-350 King Ranch, 6.0L diesel 4x4 crew cab long bed dually. Big truck, just like the one seen below.... it weighs in at 10,500 lbs empty Headgaskets are a very common thing on these trucks with this engine.... I've done about a million of them before. I always find it easiest to just lift the cab off the truck rather than pulling the engine out or doing them in cab (sucks!!!!). Just as seen below (this was on a different truck I did headgaskets on) So today I finish all the engine work that I needed to do while the cab was off, and lowered the cab back down onto the frame. On the crew cabs there are 8 body mounts, 6 of which are inside the cab, and the front 2 are in the very front right by the radiator and intercooler. I finished everything in the engine bay that needed to be done, then the last thing I put on were the 2 18mm nuts for the front body mounts. I was going to back the truck out some before doing the inside body mounts because I couldn't open the doors due to the lift posts. I tighten the front 2 body mounts, then lift the whole truck up in the air to finish up a couple things underneath and put the running boards back on before I backed it up and out of the stall. I had already raised it up once already so the rack was already set underneath the truck. I'm very picky about how I set the rack and always double check to make sure the little feet are where they are supposed to be before lifting it up. They were, so up I went... lifted the truck about 7 feet or so off the ground (I'm 6ft tall and I was holding the running boards over my head to put them on, and walking freely upright under the truck). Now on the Ford trucks the way the frame is you have to put these little extender things on the rear arms of the lift to raise the little 'feet' up so that the truck will go up level. I put it up and I'm bolting the drivers side running board back on, then all of a sudden I hear a BOOM and see the truck shift pretty fast. It was the weirdest thing... I didn't even think about anything I just immediately dropped down to the ground and rolled out from under the lift. Everything was like slow motion and I could see the truck falling as I was rolling out from under it. This all took place in prob a split seconds time. I get up and analyze the situation.... the LR tires are sitting on the ground in the middle of my stall almost on the sidewalls, the RR tires are probably 5 feet or so in the air, the truck is sitting at about a 45 degree angle cocked to the left, the cab came completely off the frame EXCEPT for the 2 body mounts that I had just tightened in the very front, so it's tilted forward and to the left. Very bottom part of the cab was about level with the top part of the truck bed. When the frame popped the LR lift arm out from under it and the rest popped out after, they all caught on the cab and held it. The ONLY thing holding the frame/engine/trans/etc up in the air in the front were those 2 rubber body mounts. In this pic, it's the 2 studs sticking up in the front just behind the bumper. When you lower the body down there's an 18mm nut that goes onto each from the top. That's all that was holding the entire front of the truck from crashing down on top of me Had those 2 mounts not been tightened, the cab would have completely seperated from the frame, and the whole truck minus cab would have come straight down to the ground and squished me flat (remember that's 10,500 lbs). I GOT FU*NG LUCKY!!!! The funniest part about this whole thing.... the truck was running the entire time. Seeing it sitting there all discombobulated and pointing every which angle, cab off the frame, and it's just running along like no big deal..... clak clak clak clak clak clak clak, hahahah. I finally had to climb up and shut it off. So.... that was my excitement for the day, definitely got my heart pumping! I really did get super lucky not only that I'm alive, but didn't even get hurt at all. After a little intestivating I've found that the extender feet that they use on these lifts are super cheezy and loose. They have a big threaded nut welded onto the end of the arm, then the little foot screws down into it. Then there's the extenders, which I have to use on these trucks, which slides over that 'foot' and has yet another nut welded into it with another foot screwed on. So by the time they're fully extended there's so much play in it that it can lean quite a ways! Which is what happened here... it was fully under the frame where I placed it (where it's supposed to be), but when I picked it up it cocked the whole extended foot piece, and the weight of the frame just pushed it right out from under it. Works fine for cars and stuff, but definitely a very poor design for big heavy trucks like these. I'll definitely be talking with my boss tomorrow about a different style of arms for my lift __________________ -Jared Black/Red '04 CBR 600 F4i - 253,500 miles and counting Black '89 Accord LX-i sedan - 435,200 miles still going strong States visited on my F4i** facebook.com/thirdgenlxi

09-09-2009, 01:09 AM	#2
derf token jewboy Join Date: Nov 2008 Moto: CBR 900, KLR ugly ass duckling, Gas Man Posts: 10,799	That sounds like fun. I dropped a car off a jack stand a foot off the ground and tried to catch it by grabbing under the brake disk (didn't quite work as expected), anyway, i had a hard enough time with a 3k lb car, let alone a 5 ton truck __________________

09-09-2009, 06:55 AM	#4
Gas Man Trip's Assistant Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Imported from Detroit Moto: 2009 HD Street Classic Posts: 12,149	Crazy What damage done to the truck? What did the boss say about it? __________________ -Chris "Why pay somebody else to fuck up your bike?" Run Amsoil Product

09-09-2009, 11:09 PM	#10
101lifts2 WSB Champion Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Anaheim, CA Moto: 2009 Kawi ZX6R Posts: 5,570	Before going to engineering school, I was a tech for 3 years. I used to do most of the used vehicle inspections and put up many big trucks like that on the little side post lifts designed for small imports. Shit would make me nervous just standing under those big ass trucks. I've also had the legs slip out a few times, but I usually rock the vehicle just off the ground to make sure shit didn't slip out. You mean you cannot pull the heads off with the engine in the frame and the body on? Seems like pulling the entire cab off is overkill (steering shaft, A/C lines, wire harnesses etc. etc.) and leads to many more issues. But hey... __________________ Train Hard Ron Paul - 2012 Mark of Excellence GM

09-09-2009, 01:21 AM	#3
Captain Morgan Let's do another U-turn Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Indiana Moto: 2009 V-Strom Posts: 3,816	Glad to hear you're ok. Any damage to the truck? Dealerships insurance cover it, or what? Again, glad you made it out alive

09-09-2009, 01:12 AM	#7
Antwanny WERA White Plate Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Maryland Posts: 1,047	FUCK THAT go buy a lotto ticket it is your lucky day.

09-09-2009, 10:39 PM	#8
racedoll AMA Supersport Join Date: Nov 2008 Moto: '04 Kawasaki ZX6RR Posts: 3,392	Damn lucky!

09-09-2009, 10:41 PM	#9
MILK The cows want you dead. Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 2,087	Just like the move in Sky High! Kids movie, sorry I have a 7 year old... Glad you are OK Jared!