Shop Safety & Lift Operation
More techs get hurt by lifts and unsafe shop practices than by any actual repair. This module covers the rules that keep your hands, your eyes, and the customer's vehicle whole. Master this before you turn a single wrench.
INTERACTIVE LIFT BAY HAZARD MAP
Click any colored zone in the bay diagram. The red border = vehicle on lift. Green dots = correct pad placement. Amber markers = hazards. Red = emergency equipment.
DID IT STICK?
4 WAYS THIS BITES NEW TECHS
Hydraulic floor jacks leak down. Period. A jack lifts; jack stands hold. Get the stands under the frame BEFORE anything goes under the vehicle.
'Just a quick check' is when techs lose eyes and fingers. Glasses on before you walk under anything. Gloves on for fluids. Hearing protection for air tools.
Every OEM publishes them. Hitting body panels, exhaust, or oil pan with the pads will twist sheet metal, dent panels, or drop the vehicle. Look up the points before raising.
Positive-first = wrench touches ground = arc + burns + drained battery. Always negative-first.
PRINT THIS · TAPE IT TO THE TOOLBOX
REAL-WORLD JOB
First-day tech raises a customer's lifted truck on a two-post asymmetric lift. The arms are nowhere near OEM lift points — pads are on the rocker panel sheet metal. Senior tech sees it, hits the down switch, and walks the new tech through where the actual factory lift points are stamped (in this case, on the frame rail just inboard of the pinch weld, behind the front wheel). Lesson: Every vehicle has documented lift points. Find them BEFORE you raise it. The five minutes you save going by guess is the same five minutes that ends in dropped vehicles.