Canberra’s a car-tipping kind of town

Hi Johnboy @ 1pm, Hume southbound lanes blocked in part past the Hume Service Station (B-Double over and SITA Truck damaged), I hope both Drivers are okay.

A powerpole down, Firies and Police in attendance, however a diversion could have taken place between Queanbeyan and Hume with traffic turning left into Hume the back way as opposed to waiting and adding on to the already queued up traffic approaching the Service Station Lights where it is blocked off. This led to worse waiting times for traffic coming from Queanbeyan. Had those drivers known by ACT Roads or the Police diverting the traffic left, this would have reduced local travellers waiting times by about 20 minutes instead of waiting 45 minutes.

For instance, a StarTrack B-Double waited on the queue returning to his Depot for 25 minutes whereas had he known about the accident from a ‘diversion sign’ at the first set of lights near Hume, he could have turned left into the back of Hume instead of turning left at the next set of lights!

Just a thought!

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

devils_advocate said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Once had to move a car around that size in civic. A crane was booked in for first thing in the morning and parking spaces blocked off the night before but some serious bell end still decided to move the barricades and park there over night. It was one of them suburu utes. 5 of us picked it up and moved it just enough out of the way. I’m guessing one or two extra peeps would make tipping a small car simple.

LOL if you had a crane at your disposal, why not just move it with the crane when it arrived…

Hahaisuggested that but the crane driver would not be in it. Not to mention he would have to set up first and block the road while he did so. Hence the reason for blocking parking space the night before.

Damn spoilsport. Could’ve played some variation on top gear caravan conkers.

devils_advocate said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Once had to move a car around that size in civic. A crane was booked in for first thing in the morning and parking spaces blocked off the night before but some serious bell end still decided to move the barricades and park there over night. It was one of them suburu utes. 5 of us picked it up and moved it just enough out of the way. I’m guessing one or two extra peeps would make tipping a small car simple.

LOL if you had a crane at your disposal, why not just move it with the crane when it arrived…

Hahaisuggested that but the crane driver would not be in it. Not to mention he would have to set up first and block the road while he did so. Hence the reason for blocking parking space the night before.

I think it would be entirely reasonable to secure the flippin idiots to the side of the cars they flipped and then flip it as punishment!

This would explain some of the recent bad parking photos…

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Once had to move a car around that size in civic. A crane was booked in for first thing in the morning and parking spaces blocked off the night before but some serious bell end still decided to move the barricades and park there over night. It was one of them suburu utes. 5 of us picked it up and moved it just enough out of the way. I’m guessing one or two extra peeps would make tipping a small car simple.

LOL if you had a crane at your disposal, why not just move it with the crane when it arrived…

PantsMan said :

For anyone having trouble, with the aid of some blocks of wood or other props and chocks, you can utilize hydraulic rams or mechanical screws (such as a car jacks) to progressively lift the vehicle in steps, not all at once.

Gives you greater control, and makes it a one man job!

Yeah but would be way too slow.

Once had to move a car around that size in civic. A crane was booked in for first thing in the morning and parking spaces blocked off the night before but some serious bell end still decided to move the barricades and park there over night. It was one of them suburu utes. 5 of us picked it up and moved it just enough out of the way. I’m guessing one or two extra peeps would make tipping a small car simple.

NellyBean said :

engines aren’t all totally fond of being tipped upside down, maybe someone with a motor on their last legs would consider using this flipping spree as a cover for some insurance fraud..

I doubt with dented panels and a bent roof an insurance inspector would bother starting the engine to see if it had issues before the tipping.

They will now!

For anyone having trouble, with the aid of some blocks of wood or other props and chocks, you can utilize hydraulic rams or mechanical screws (such as a car jacks) to progressively lift the vehicle in steps, not all at once.

Gives you greater control, and makes it a one man job!

Tetranitrate said :

Deadlifting the back end of a car is very very different to flipping it over. Once you’re at the point where you’re locked out you simply cant get higher, and in no case is that going to be high enough to tip the car over. It’s not like they’re going to be power-cleaning cars.

Yeah but with a power clean the weight stays the same through the lift (even though momentum is used at various points to raise the weight). Contrary to what has been said above, I don’t think the “tipping point” or the point at which the car is evenly balanced on two side tires is actually that high. After hitting the tipping point, the effective weight would start to reduce very quickly. Of course, this depends on the centre of gravity of the car. Tipping a lancer with soft suspension, for example, would be way easier than (say) a 200sx of equivalent weight.

Tetranitrate said :

The 7 or so number zeitel gives sounds plausible though.

Mythbusters!

While we’re at it, it would also be fantastic to finally figure out once and for all who wins in the 40 midgets vs tiger conjecture.

devils_advocate said :

Tetranitrate said :

How would they actually do this in the first place? Most of those cars are smallish, but apart for the KA will still weigh more than a ton. (1.25 on new Corollas according to Toyota and I’d guess the early-mid 90s models that are still floating around would be higher).

Well they’re not actually lifting the entire weight of the car, they’re just slipping it on its shortest axis. One of Schwarzenegger’s famous party tricks at the peak of his career was deadlifting the back end of a buik (much heavier car on its longest axis). It would probably also be possible to “cheat” by generating some momentum using the suspension (i.e. rocking it back and forth and just tip it over at the end).

So they could be looking for one massive dude or 4 or 5 moderately strong adult males.

Deadlifting the back end of a car is very very different to flipping it over. Once you’re at the point where you’re locked out you simply cant get higher, and in no case is that going to be high enough to tip the car over. It’s not like they’re going to be power-cleaning cars.

engines aren’t all totally fond of being tipped upside down, maybe someone with a motor on their last legs would consider using this flipping spree as a cover for some insurance fraud..

I doubt with dented panels and a bent roof an insurance inspector would bother starting the engine to see if it had issues before the tipping.

AAMC said :

Tetranitrate said :

How would they actually do this in the first place? Most of those cars are smallish, but apart for the KA will still weigh more than a ton. (1.25 on new Corollas according to Toyota and I’d guess the early-mid 90s models that are still floating around would be higher).

It’s a simple dead lift (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlift) movement, 5 or 6 people can flip a car; they aren’t actually lifting the whole car. I would guess that the amount of lift required to flip a car is probably less than 50% of the total car weight. i.e. 1000kg car requires 500kg of lift divided by 5 people =100kg dead lift each………well within the ability of you average 17-55 year old male. but each car is likely covered with finger, palm, forearm, face(cheek) prints all which can be used to identify these people…….

Yeah I know what a deadlift is, but actually flipping a car requires lifting it much higher. An average young man off the street can certainly deadlift 100kg, but he can’t lift that any higher, can’t bench 100kg (unless he actually trains), and sure as hell can’t lift 100kg over-head.

Moving a small car around with a group of people would indeed be fairly easy, but actually lifting one side up all the way past the tipping point would not be, IMO.
The 7 or so number zeitel gives sounds plausible though.

devils_advocate said :

Jivrashia said :

Check popular social media. I think the answers will be there.

I think all the answers are here now.

Most importantly, we have set out in detail several plausible methodologies on how bored teenagers might successfully engage in a spate of car tipping without exposing themselves to debilitating back injury.

Next week: How to circumvent engine immobilisation devices.

LOL! This made my day

Time for a good ol’ fashioned lynch mob. Find the culprits, get some bikies to hold em upside down – see how they like it. No canberra teen will dare tip cars after that

A car was tipped over in my street about 2 weeks ago, a person down the street saw about 7 people and it was a small car. Dumb pricks have no idea how there ‘fun’ affects the people who they do that stuff too, its really sad to think about.

Jivrashia said :

Check popular social media. I think the answers will be there.

I think all the answers are here now.

Most importantly, we have set out in detail several plausible methodologies on how bored teenagers might successfully engage in a spate of car tipping without exposing themselves to debilitating back injury.

Next week: How to circumvent engine immobilisation devices.

Tetranitrate said :

How would they actually do this in the first place? Most of those cars are smallish, but apart for the KA will still weigh more than a ton.

With a concerted effort.
My guess is that the group would have to be around ten to lift some of the cars.

I’d be looking at groups of bored teenagers from reasonably well-off families.
And I wouldn’t be surprise if they are doing it with a sense of justice.

(why that particular car out of many others in the car park?)
(why aren’t there further damage to the car, like thugs would do?)

Check popular social media. I think the answers will be there.

Tetranitrate said :

How would they actually do this in the first place?

They must be students of physics