The subject of this post is not carjacking, as in hijacking a car, but rather a jack used to lift up a car when changing a tire. A few weeks ago I stopped to help a man who looked like he was having trouble changing the rear passenger-side tire on his retardedly-large SUV. He looked to be in his mid-30's, was a bit doughy and out of shape, and didn't appear to be able to use his jack with any degree of expediency, probably due to poor physical fitness correlative with his aforementioned appearance, i.e., he didn't just look overweight and out of shape, he was overweight and out of shape.
So I asked if he needed help, and he more or less assented. I began cranking away on the handle of the jack, and the SUV was up in the air a few inches. He removed the tire, pulled out the spare, and then he went to put it on, but the SUV was not high enough. (The flat tire had brought that corner of the vehicle down considerably lower than where it normally sat.) So I cranked away and the SUV lifted up. Then it fell. Oops.
I removed the jack from underneath, tried placing it elsewhere, and began jacking up the SUV again. The SUV started moving again. For some reason, when that corner would lift up, the car would roll forward slightly. It's probably normal, and I had a realization that assuaged my guilty thoughts of having caused his SUV to fall by some action of my own. Why on earth was the jack that came with his SUV smaller than a portable bicycle tire pump? I mean, it was miniscule. I've seen asthma inhalers larger than this thing. The base was about 3 inches by 4 inches. Who on Earth would think that a jack with a base that small would stably hold a behemoth SUV up in the air?
And what, praytell, was the purpose of designing an ultra-small car jack for an SUV with trunk space larger than my bathroom? Just put a real freaking jack in there. It's like worrying that a bucket of paint takes up too much room in a garage. Honestly, when looking at his vehicle, I kept thinking about the Canyonero.
Anyway, Yilin and I went to a nearby tire inflating/changing/repair place about a block away and convinced one of the attendants to bring one of those large jacks that you can't even lift (it has wheels) to help this guy out.* Heck, that's the kind of jack the makers of the SUV should have included in the first place. Seriously, you could have fit half of an auto body shop in the back of this thing it was so large, yet they include the dinkiest car jack ever. Given that the road where he was parked was actually quite flat, I wondered if this jack had ever even been tested in the lab before its inclusion with the vehicle. Typical engineers. ;)
*He didn't want to leave his SUV because it was in the middle of a bus stop, and I wouldn't be surprised if he'd have gotten a ticket if he turned his back, despite the obvious difficulty in driving a vehicle with only three wheels.
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4 comments:
Was the SUV in Park? Was the hand brake enabled? (not sure if the handbrake is for all four wheels, or just the rear wheels). Perhaps the wheels could've been turned toward the curb to limit forward movement? It probably wouldn't have mattered, but was the jack placed in one of the notches on the base of the car/monster truck?
Before being home for a month, I forgot how 'ginormous' SUVs in the US are. I see a Hummer/big SUV here and there in Paris (and never have seen the limo version) but it's not a normal thing. These SUVs wouldn't fit on most streets, nor in most underground parking garages, nor in parking spots on the street!
Your post made me laugh, and hit close to home. I've copped out and now have AAA :) I think I changed a tire once in driver's ed. (I just realized... I've become one of "those" suburbanite with an SUV and no idea how to change it's tires!!! AAAHHH!!! )
Of course I do every bit of work on my car as you know. I always always always pay very close attention to the jacking process so nothing happens like you've experienced. It often takes every bit of a half hour to make sure it's high enough for me to comfortably work underneath. As far as the jack you'd be surprised of the lifting capacity of some ultra tiny hydraulic jacks. If seen one lift the front end of a full size fire truck. But the surface area on the base of the jack was so small (and weight of the fire truck was so high) that within a minute or so the jack was being bushed into the asphalt (a 3-5 inches).
Vijay, I have no idea if it was in park or not. Perhaps I shouldn't have assumed it was, given that this guy seemed a little clueless.
Ains, it's OK that you don't know how to change your tires. I still love you. :)
Phil, the jack was strong enough to lift it no problem, but it was so small that it wasn't very stable. Imagine if he was using his SUV like an actual SUV: on a dirt road. Forget it; that jack would've sunk so far into the dirt that he'd have to find a flat rock to place under it. That'd make it only more unstable.
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