GM "lightness" efforts

[WylieCoyote]

Weight savings perhaps taken one step too far.

GM recalling 135,000 SUVs with plastic jacks that can break

General Motors is recalling 135,400 compact crossovers because their emergency jack can break under load. A GM test driver discovered the problem when he broke a jack during a durability test on a Trailblazer. GM started investigating in April and found 21 claims of jack failures, including...

autos.yahoo.com

 

[philipp10]

Weight savings perhaps taken one step too far.

GM recalling 135,000 SUVs with plastic jacks that can break

General Motors is recalling 135,400 compact crossovers because their emergency jack can break under load. A GM test driver discovered the problem when he broke a jack during a durability test on a Trailblazer. GM started investigating in April and found 21 claims of jack failures, including...

autos.yahoo.com

how was this not caught during development is beyond me.

 

[LenZee]

Still waiting for plastic lug nuts.

 

[ctechbob]

I'm all for alternative materials, but that might have been a step too far, or rather was a step too far. Those things get used in the worst conditions, off center, in gravel, car sitting crooked on the side of the road, etc.

 

[oldhp]

That's nuts. How did that idea even get passed the first "what if?"

 

[555]

Trailblazers have spare tires?

 

[dishdude]

Interesting.

 

[bbhero]

In Nascar light weight Jacks were definitely a thing in the 1980s... At least they were used with no guys going under the car with those Jacks.

I have a real jack in my car. A 20 pound trolley jack rated for 2.5 tons. And a 6 by 6 piece of salt treated wood and a 4 by 4 piece of salt treated wood.

 

[LazyDog]

Saving money a bridge too far!

 

[meep]

A disgruntled engineer at gm just won his $5 bet.

 

[daves87rs]

Just wow….

 

[JeffKeryk]

What were they thinking?

 

[ctechbob]

Even the metal versions of those jacks are super iffy if they're not on dead-level ground, but at least they'll fail (generally) somewhat slower. I suspect those plastic ones fail with a bang.

 

[HonorAndHonesty]

Well Ford has a patent on a polymer composite cylinder head..... Then there was the plastic engine block they played around years ago.

 

[PimTac]

Interesting.

View attachment 61738

That looks about as safe as the old bumper jacks. There is hardly any base on that Jack.

 

[Tomioka]

Daewoo strikes back!

*runs around with tighty-whiteys over my head*

 

[IndyIan]

That is pretty impressive it worked well enough to be manufactured at all. Materials and manufacturing science is progressing. That said sometimes the old tech was just fine!

 

[Jake_J]

I'm sure GM has the engineering capacity to make these plastic jacks work. Modern plastics and composites can be made incredibly strong, I have had a set of plastic Rhino ramps for years and trust them just as much as the steel ramps they replaced.

 

[1978elcamino]

And to think they were contracted to make ventilators.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Even Harbor Freight doesn't sell plastic jacks