Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2011 19:48:18 -0700
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Help the chimp avoid getting crushed
In-Reply-To: <4dead757.814de50a.605b.5747@mx.google.com>
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Sigh.
You're right, of course. I'll set studs in front of the ramps.
Grumble, grumble.
On Sat, 2011-06-04 at 21:09 -0400, David Beierl wrote:
> At 08:18 PM 6/4/2011, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
> >But I still don't see the problem. Maybe I'm simple.
>
> No, you're trusting.
>
> People get hurt when stored energy gets released in an uncontrolled
> fashion. What you're saying in effect is that you trust yourself -
> with your life - that every time you work around this beast you will
> not make a mistake and there will not be a material failure allowing
> that release. That's what we all do, it's what you have to do; and
> there are inherent risks. But you're loading the dice against yourself.
>
> You're entirely right that the chance of a ramp slipping is low,
> probably extremely low - at least if the concrete isn't too
> smooth. The stuff on garage floors tends not to grab well enough to
> get the beast's weight up onto a metal ramp in the first place
> without it being restrained. So is the chance of a ramp cracking at
> the bend and unfolding. Or one of the ball joints suddenly letting
> go so a wheel folds up. And you're *certainly* right that as long as
> you don't do any jacking things are much more secure.
>
> But. People do make mistakes and material does fail. Chocks pop
> out. And you don't get do-overs with this one. People under Monty
> Python's 16-ton weight vanish, but people under cars die
> horribly. Leaving an unsecured - and anything held by its own
> friction on a flat surface is unsecured - horizontal force vector
> hanging over your head attached to a vehicle with wheels and 5,000 lb
> of weight supported by springs and complicated suspension joints is
> leaving a continuous multiplier waiting to suddenly complicate things
> when some other unlikely event picks today to strike. People used to
> get killed by garage door springs, did you know? They just sit there
> looking innocent...until one day one breaks and then all hell breaks
> loose. Now we loop a length of cable through them to catch the
> pieces or at least slow them down a lot.
>
> It's your life. But long before OSHA came along people decided that
> working on vehicles on a hill was imprudent in ordinary human
> terms. If you're going to do it, is seems to me that eliminating
> those risks that reasonably can be is a good idea. YMMV so I'll be quiet now.
>
> Yours,
> David
>
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