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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
Comments: To: David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
In-Reply-To:  <4dead757.814de50a.605b.5747@mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

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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