Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Good afternoon all,

This post is far from the usual (semi)light-hearted one for me, it involves the death of someone I loved dearly and its effect upon me.

I seek you advice and support in regards a problem I have.

In 2004 my partner/girlfriend, Ciara, was fatally injured when a jack collapsed under a car she was working on. Obviously I dont want a lecture on the subject, (I was actually on the way to a motor parts store to get axle stands when Ciara decided to preform a 'quick-fix' under the car.)

The result of this is that I have been unable to work under cars since then, even in a modern workshop with a state of the art,four post,'qualrouple' lock safety system.

Obviously, I need to get on with my life and need to 'do things' under my cars. I dont have a pit and I would not trust a lift. I recently bought a pair of drive-on ramps, as heavy-duty as possible, but I am still am terrified of using them. While I am normally a confident person, I am reduced to a nervous wreck at the thoughts of getting under a car.

This link,http://shop.difflock.com/heavy-duty-extra-wide-vehicle-ramps-p-100.html, will bring you to the ramps I bought, whould you have a look and tell me your thoughts on them? While I know the weight of my Packard, will someone independently tell me if they are suitable to safely carry my Packard?

I trust the people here more than anyone else for unbiased advice and opnion....

Yours truly,

Pat.

Thank you for that, good reports there. I need someone to do the maths as regards weights,ie, the Packard and the max. limit of the ramps, for my own resurance.

Pat.

Well-made ramps are probably just fine, but I've never felt comfortable with them; I discarded mine and went back to hydraulic rolling floor jacks and very heavy duty jack stands. Even with the front or rear end (or both) on jack stands, I still position the jacks "just in case". Just a personal preference, not because of any unhappy experiences with ramps.

Pat, If these ramps will support 3000Kg safely I see no problem. I never get beneath a car trusting on one lifting device. I always support whatever end of the car I have up on the ramps with either the 3 ton floor jack or else an additional pair of heavy duty jack stands along the frame and sometimes all three. Once supported I also rock the car back and forth to test the stability of the supports. I am not a big fan of ramps and prefer the floor jack and heavy duty jack stands but I have a set and use them occasionally but never without an additional support. I also "chock whatever set of wheels are on the ground and if the rear wheels I set the e-brake as well to prevent roll back.

Pat, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, and I completely understand your fear of getting under a car, as I share it with you. Several years ago, I was changing a tire on a car using a bumper jack. The car slid off the jack towards me, and of course the tire was off. I was wearing cowboy boots at the time, and the drum landed on the heel of the boot. I was able to get my foot out of the boot without injury. If the car had slid any further out, it would have landed on my ankle and of course crushed it. From that day forward, I put wood blocks, jack stands, and anything else that's solid under a car before I get anywhere near to crawling under it. And when I'm done with that, I give the car a good shake to make sure it's solid and won't budge. I ALWAYS do that before getting anywhere near it. A 4500lb Packard is not very forgiving if it falls and you're under it.

All this talk makes me want to rent a jackhammer and build my own pit in my garage.

I understand your fears. When I was in high school a guy I knew was crushed by a car in autoshop class because we failed to use the jackstands correctly. That has stuck with me for many years.

Here's what I do/did. First I bought over the top jack stands (6-ton rated), and four of them.If i have the front off the ground, and will be under the car, then I also put my hydraulic 3 ton jack under the engine cross member. As a 2nd safety, if the front wheels are off the car, I lay them down right under the frame.

Then I rock the car back and forth to make sure everything is stout.

Also one thing I learned by watching way to many required shop safety videos is to jack up the car first without the parking brake on, and then set the parking brake. I guess it's to help the car and tires settle or something like that.

The only jack mishap I've seen involved a bumper jack and a hill. I was driving up the Scranton Expressway and saw a car parked on the shoulder with the trunk open, a tire on the ground and a man waving frantically at everyone driving by. I stopped, but by the time I walked across the highway someone else had stopped on his side. He had jacked up the rear of his car to change a flat and the car had started rolling forward as he was on a hill. Not thinking, he grabbed the top of the bumper jack to hold car still and it pinned his hand against the car. He couldn't let go so he was waving for help. Luckily, he hadn't been there for long or that could've done some real damage to his hand.

All of the above recommendations are excellent.
Noone likes ramps but they don't say why.

Ramps are LIMITED use. They are inconvenient for many service procedures performed on a car.

Jack stands are most suitable for all under car sevice procedures.

Setting the parking brake or not setting parking brake is somewhat of a moot point especialy with automatic transmissions. What if the car has NO parking brake??? Maybe the brakes are to be serviced.

The car should only be lifted on a LEVEL HARD surface so the parking brake is a non-issue.

I thank you all for your words of wisdom.

I suppose we at some stage of our lives did something stupid or hasty, I only takes one moment for our gamble to go wrong. I fact this is the first time I have written about that fatefull day. The horror of it is too mind mumbing to verbilize it but writing here to people I have never met but feel a close bond with helps a lot.

I have deleted most of this posting as I started to write about how Ciara died and as a very capable person, It was becoming a sad and heart renching affair. I think the thing that really stays with me is the fact that I, as a capable person, was totally unable to stop this tragedy from happening.

Ok back to the matter hand, I was brought in the good old days of Imperial measurements, so if the manufacturesof these ramps state 'These ramps are tested to 1,500Kg each or 3,000Kg per pair when evenly loaded.', what does my Packard weigh in Kg? Also given the large engine at the front, I assume there is a larger loading on the front wheels than on the back, would it still be within the limits of these ramps?

Pat.

1 kilogram is 1000 grams; a pound is 453.6 grams, so a kilogram = about 2.204 lbs (US measure).

Your 34 Packard 1101 club sedan weighs about 4730 lbs dry weight. Add about 200 lbs gasoline, water, oil etc., so the "wet" car weight is about 2235 kg.

EDIT: I've never seen any Packard data on fore-to-aft weight distribution, but I'd take a guess at about 55:45.