so......... yeah.......... i almost died today............

[08kgraves]

tittle says it all. almost happened. i was at work (ford quick lane) which is basically the fords seperate building where they do all the oil changes, tires, and other little work.

i have a drive on car lift which uses hydraulics to go up and down. well then theres 2 center parts that lift up and down to lift the vehicles off the rack. well both use seperate big air bags. like what you would see on a semi truck almost. well.......... i was lifting the back end up on an F-350 super duty about maybe a foot away from the bag rougly, maybe 2 feet. but at almost full lift which has the highest amount of air pressure in these bags it decided to hate life and explode in my face.............

the force of the sound wave given off and the amount of pressure was enough to shoot me backwards onto my butt disoriented and everything else. My ears were ringing horribly and i was noticing a loss of hearing in my left ear. well my ears just now stopped ringing (mostly) and all about 7 hours later. i went to the emergency room about 2 hours after it happened to make sure my hearing would be ok. they said it looks like i was lucky and there was no fractures in my eardrum at all and that my hearing should come back and ringing would stop within a couple of days.

ill tell you what though. that was one of the scariest things thats ever happend to me. seeing an airbag explode with debris flying at your face and a 10,000lb truck dropping towards you all at once is pretty horrifying to say the least. i was pretty much just hands shaking unconrtollably until i got to the E.R.

when i was 16 i hit black ice going around a corner doing 75mph and flipped my truck into a field and that was nothing even then compared to this.

well thats the end of my day. hope you guys had a better one than me.

[revoman78]

its good your ok

[Daddykins]

Glad your home safe in one piece, especially not losing any hearing/damage to the eardrum

[TraxxasSummitCrawler]

Is the super duty ok? I hope so! Lol. But in all seriousness, glad your ok and will be better in a few days!

[Stephan81]

Crazy man, good to see your ok

[TheRCMan]

Glad you are ok man. Those kind of things are REALLY scary besides sometimes hurting you.

[ithrowstones]

I think it's time for you to retire and collect stamps and coins.. hehe..

Glad your okay. I think flipping at 75 would be more scary but I haven't done anything remotely close to these things..

[Jimmie Neutron]

I have seen a few of those bags blow... it isn't pretty.
Glad you are ok!

[08kgraves]

well im a gearhead and a speed freak so the flipping was actually kind of a fun ride believe it or not.......... well other than my truck being totalled lol.

but yeah, im just glad im ok to.

[TraxxasTuesdays]

What kind of lift? It's a 2 post with air bags? Not sure I've ever seen one. Glad to hear you're ok though!


Sent from my iPad mini

[08kgraves]

no its a drive on 4 post lift. ill try and find a pic of one to show you.

[1979chevy.]

Man that's scary, I thank God you're ok man.

[TraxxasTuesdays]

Ohhhhh. It's a 4 post. Are the air bags part of the actual lift or are they jacks once the car or truck is lifted on the lift?


Sent from my iPad mini

[TraxxasTuesdays]

Like this?


Sent from my iPad mini

[hemi-75]

well thank god your OK

[08kgraves]

Like this?


Sent from my iPad mini

yes. thats what the bag itself looked like. the mounting was different but that bag is what exploded in my face.

heres a similar lift to what i have. this is at a family friends shop. he was doing exhaust work on my old dodge in this pic

[08kgraves]

if this pic works........... this is what sits between the two lanes of the rack that houses the big airbag behind the x brace

http://www.targetlifts.com/products/.../8500rbj-1.jpg

[TraxxasTuesdays]

That's crazy. A kid in my shop class exploded a water bottle with compressed air and it was easily twice as loud as a gun shot. It completely disoriented everyone and deafened the people closest to him for 10 to 15 seconds. I thought that was terrifying. I can only imagine how that air bag experience must have been


Sent from my iPad mini

[08kgraves]

well im no a woos (however you spell it) by any mean. i mean im 260ish lbs grew up playing football, power lifting, racing bmx, swimming the whole nine yards. ive taken some hits that would have left others unconcious or severely injured like they didnt even phase me. and it knocked me over and disoriented me............... so if that gives you any idea. the guy like 25-30' feet away at the tire machine felt the blast hit him in the back............ and pretty much everyone from both ford buildings came running over to see what happend lol.

[Nitronaught]

I've seen a couple air bag system failures.. I won't use any form of them, I'll go to a hydraulic system any day in comparison... And I don't do mechanics for a living and have seen enough of them to say,, noway.. Get me a hydraulic system or a mechanical system... Air bags have no safety's when they go,,, they go...

Glad you are OK and no serious injuries... Yup you could have been killed easily if that truck slipped off the lift.... I don't care what sports or build you have, no match against an F-350 IMHO... They win hands down..

[08kgraves]

oh yeah, had the truck came off i would have been screwed for sure. well needless to say im now using a 2 post hydraulic lift, and trying to talk my boss into letting me just stay on that lift because its way safer and im faster on it anyway. the other 2 drive on lifts that use airbags have a different setup than mine. theres has a bag but theres a steel shell around it to the point where you cant even see the bag at all. so if those ones were to blow it would still make alot of noise but be much much much much more contained.

[TraxxasTuesdays]

You guys only have 1 2 post lift?


Sent from my iPad mini

[08kgraves]

well no. i work in the quicklane building though. theres 2 2 post lifts. on the one side then 2 drive on racks as well. on the other side of the main center wall theres another drive on lift then 2 more 2 posts lifts. those 2 posts lifts by the one drive on are for the tech who works in our building to handle all the more major work like brakes, ball joints, tie rods, alignments and all that happy who ra. all the lifts were occupied until recently as the one guy is like in the middle of transfering into managment. hes inside more than the shop now so his lift is pretty much open all the time. he was on one of the 2 post lifts though.

[08kgraves]

so its official..............

im no longer on the sketchy drive on rack. im staying on the 2 post hydraulic rack. which means no more huge trucks for me pretty much, and im faster now to. busted out 10 cars today in 8 hours and im still getting used to the rack lol. and i dont have to duck every 2 seconds now either so my back has been hurting less lol

but yeah, we moved our tool boxes around today first thing and all

[TraxxasTuesdays]

That's great. Glad to hear you're somewhere you enjoy more now. 2 post lifts are so much more convenient IMO. 4 posts are only good for giant trucks and storage.


Sent using 8.4 volts of NiMH power!

[08kgraves]

it was a giant truck that caused my 4 post to blow the airbag right in my face

today when i was mounting tires the beads poped loud when they seated and i about hit the deck lol

[TraxxasTuesdays]

Scares me every time too. I can only imagine after you just experienced an air bag blowing out. I'd be scared of anything pneumatic for a while lol.


Sent using 8.4 volts of NiMH power!

[BomberSTi]

Yea def not a pretty site when one lets loose, and you happen to be next to it...I wrench on semi's and had a tire blow on my as I was kneeling next to it. Right before it went I checked it and was only at about 80 p.s.i. needless to say it blew me back bout 10ft or so. And I hate working next to airbags on trailers especialy loaded trailers and it has a blown one and your on the side of the road and using the other three bags to lift it up....lol...Never a fun time....But glad to hear you'll be ok tho...

[PMDRACER]

I worked at a huge chain tire store (to go unnamed) when I was 19. They guy next to me was putting together some split ring rims and tires. He was airing up one of them and the split ring came loose. Thought a bomb went off. Thankfully he had it in the cage, unlike the old-timer of a boss that I worked with tended to do.

[ArturoLeonard]

tittle says it all. almost happened. i was at work (ford quick lane) which is basically the fords seperate building where they do all the oil changes, tires, and other little work.

i have a drive on car lift which uses hydraulics to go up and down. well then theres 2 center parts that lift up and down to lift the vehicles off the rack. well both use seperate big air bags. like what you would see on a semi truck almost. well.......... i was lifting the back end up on an F-350 super duty about maybe a foot away from the bag rougly, maybe 2 feet. but at almost full lift which has the highest amount of air pressure in these bags it decided to hate life and explode in my face.............

the force of the sound wave given off and the amount of pressure was enough to shoot me backwards onto my butt disoriented and everything else. My ears were ringing horribly and i was noticing a loss of hearing in my left ear. well my ears just now stopped ringing (mostly) and all about 7 hours later. i went to the emergency room about 2 hours after it happened to make sure my hearing would be ok. they said it looks like i was lucky and there was no fractures in my eardrum at all and that my hearing should come back and ringing would stop within a couple of days.

ill tell you what though. that was one of the scariest things thats ever happend to me. seeing an airbag explode with debris flying at your face and a 10,000lb truck dropping towards you all at once is pretty horrifying to say the least. i was pretty much just hands shaking unconrtollably until i got to the E.R.

when i was 16 i hit black ice going around a corner doing 75mph and flipped my truck into a field and that was nothing even then compared to this.

well thats the end of my day. hope you guys had a better one than me.

You had narrow escape. I have these escapes twice in my life and i am fortunate to be alive. Congrats. Enjoy life

[piedigger]

and then i say i had a ruff day when i go to SCHOOL ! ! !

[BanditTransit]

I'm sure glad you didn't die... Otherwise I wouldn't have a new track buddy!