Pay attention to what you're doing. Or - how I almost killed myself.

[Greg72]

I think i would have my wife or kids hold on to the winch line instead of the gas line. I think severed fingers are better than no house

Oooops! I meant that I loop the cable around the hot water heater instead.

 

[imiceman44]

So, I was lifting my K5 the past couple days. I got the front done and was getting ready to do the shackle flip in the rear. My driveway has a slight slope down to the street. I put the front wheels back on, and just spun the lugnuts back on, just finger tight.

I got my jackstands and jack and got ready to jack up the rear of the truck. I put the jack under the rear diff and started jacking. My jack handle is kinda short, and I was on my stomach under the truck. All of a sudden I decided I should tighten the lug nuts on the front wheels before I forgot about it, got excited to test drive the new lift, and drove off with loose lugs.

As I was tightening the lugs I had a serious OH **** moment. I forgot to chock the front tires. If I had jacked up any further, the truck could have rolled back and smashed my ass. The wheels on my jack roll pretty good. It could have been ugly. I wonder what made me decide to tighten those lug nuts and climb out from under the truck. It was strange, all of a sudden I decided it was very important to get those snug, when I could have easily done it later.

Moral of the story. Before you do something that's potentially dangerous, stop and think about everything that could go wrong, and what you should be doing to protect yourself.

That was why I got a house with a garage, so I can work on flat ground, then I got to where I neded higher so the next house had an RV access, all concrete.
Slope and jacks don't mix well.
Just so you guys don't think I never had problems, I had 3 trucks roll on me on a sloped driveway, each time was different reason, one even rolled over a chock, the 35" tire with the steep slope was too much for the chock especially with me trying to tighten a yoke on the rear axle which put some force to help rollig forward.

 

[k20]

gas water heater right?

 

[K5dreamer]

glad to hear you averted disaster. i learned a good lesson myself with a bumper jack. had the front tires locked, and the tranny in park, with the tcase in 4lo. jacked up the rear, put one jackstand under one side. and went to jack up the other side. bumper jacks arent the most stable things, the whole rear end of the truck shifted with the bumper jack as the pivot. i was smart enough to let go of the thing, but i can only imagine if i had tried to hold it.

cheers buddy, lets hear it for dumb luck

 

[Fabrimacator21]

bigger tires and the axles will go right over you........hey its a reason to upgrade

It's nice to be able to sit up underneath your rig too.