It was way in the back on the passenger side and that spark plug didn’t want to break loose. I was standing on a plastic milk crate to reach the spark plugs and it didn’t really seem to matter since the spark plugs had all come out pretty easy up till that point. This last spark plug was giving me a hard time so I grabbed my extra long 3/8 drive extension and started to brute force the spark plug out.

Do you know what happens when you apply enough force twisting a long 3/8 drive extension?

It torques, meaning the extension absorbs a lot of the applied force. So what do I do? Apply more force until the spark plug breaks loose!!

When that spark plug broke loose, so did the plastic milk crate. All the torque in the 3/8 extension exploded when the spark plug came loose, it sent me shooting to the ground

I was lucky, I only had cuts & bruises. I have since read stories about other mechanics that had been standing on a milk crate and fell. But they broke a leg or had to have knee surgery. I didn’t think I was lucky, I was pissed and hurt.

There had to be a better way! So I set out to find a safe step stool for a mechanic. I thought I had found one on a tool truck so I bought it. I was using it in the shop one day shortly after purchasing it and had set it next to a vehicle that I was working on. The vehicle was on the lift and when I was lowering the vehicle the lift caught the corner of the step stool and crushed it. The step stool was ruined.

I really didn’t care for that step stool because it would slide out from under me (the step didn’t have any rubber pads on the bottom) when I was working in the engine compartment and leaning on the fender of a truck. So I decided right then and there that I would design a step stool for mechanics that was durable and that would not slip or tip over. I also realized that mechanics and trucks come in all different sizes and shapes so I would have to design this mechanics step stool to be adjustable in height too. I sat down with my engineer and after several designs we came up with what I thought was the safest adjustable step stool for mechanics. It is the original “L” Shure-Step®. You buy 2 of these steps (One set) to place around the complete engine compartment of a truck or you could stack the 2 Shure-Step®s one on top of another to grow the height of the step from 10 inches to 16 inches.

Today the “L” Shure-Step® is used in every Ford Training center in North America. But It didn’t take long to realize that this Shure-Step® model was too big for some repair shops so we designed 2 other smaller Shure-Step® models for mechanics.

The Shure-Step II which measures 2 feet long and the Shure-Step III which measures 3 feet long on the top surface. Now both of these Shure-Step® models are stackable jus t like the original “L”. What keeps these mechanic’s step stools from sliding and tipping over like the milk crate? On the bottom of the Shure-Step® we installed 6 large rubber pads to keep it from sliding. The Shure-Step® design is a pyramid shape, the bottom is bigger than the top so the mechanic’s body weight is centered over the middle of the step, not over the edge of the step like a square milk crate.

All Shure-Step® products are rated for 500 pounds. In lab tests these steps were subjected to an applied load using a 4 x 4 block of wood placed on top of the Shure-Step in various positions. The block of wood had up to 2750 pounds of weight applied to it. At 2750 pounds of load the block of wood was pushed into the Shure-Step®, but the step never broke! After releasing the load and letting the Shure-Step set overnight, it almost completely returned to its original shape. It had a slight indentation where the block was, but it was still functional as a step stool. Show me another mechanic’s step stool that can take this kind of abuse, you can’t.

When you have a Shure-Step® working for you in your shop you know you have the safest most durable mechanic’s step stool money can buy! It comes with a lifetime warranty so you know you’ve got a quality product and it’s made in the USA.