Speaking of car ramps

Ramps are great for oil changes etc, but totally uiseless for changing tires, doing breakes, front suspension work etc. I have a set of plastic ramps that work well for getting under the car and the truck. Used to have a set made ot of 2X12s and 3/4" plywood.

Looks like a good idea, but they are not easy to make.

i

Sears sold jack stands like that, you put them under a solid point then used the special jack to lift the vehicle up.

Looked like a neat idea. They sold them less than a year. I'm guessing they discovered they were unstable while lifting.

These look better.

I've never had a problem using jack stands under the frame, and I would never trust anything that used the wheel to support a vehicle I was planning on getting underneath.

That having been said, the stands in the video are pretty cool looking, but I'd still rather stick to jack stands underneath the frame.

Jon

I prefer jack stands, leave the hydraulic jack in place, push on the bumper to see if anything shifts, and if I'm going to be pulling hard on large rusted bolts, stack up 6x6 cribbing. And still I've had some close calls.

-jsw

A cool idea for raising a car if you're not doing tire or wheel related work - however:

Looking at a slightly closer view of their construction at their web site I would be concerned about putting myself under an auto that is supported only by a couple of (perhaps easily sheared) bits of round bar stock.

No pricing information - a very new product with no track record but definitely could be useful with proper safety precautions & design review.

Carla

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Many jackstands have even less supporting the vehicle, so that's a non-issue with me. The big issue for me is when you jack one end, the other end HAS to moce, so you cannot have a FWD cat locked in park with the hand brake on without putting tipping strain on the stands, and the tops need to be well dished to keep the tires from rolling ou. You cannot readilly turn the steering to get the linkage out of the way or into position for repairs, and you can't take a wheel off. For me, the Vast majority of repairs requiring lifting are wheel work - so not terribly usefull. A GOOD set of jackstands is a lot more usefull, and every bit as safe unless you have such a rustbucket that the jack stands come through the frame/floor (I've had a few of those - scrapped them when I couldn't put them up on a hoist anymore!!!

I use a combination of ramps and stands when I can't bum some time on a friend's hoist.

My first set of jackstands used flared a round bar stock held in place with a metal pin, but the holes were flared out to give it a bit more strength. The ones I use now are the kind that have the ratchet and pawl engagement, which I think is a bit more secure.

Jon

Speaking of hoists and the effect of using a jack to lift one side and then the other to place jackstands, every time I go to do this I keep thinking to myself that I need to get a chunk of square bar the width of my frame, and place the jack underneath it to raise the front end of the vehicle symmetrically, at one time, without the need to do one side and then the other.

Obviously, once raised, jackstands would immediately be put into position, and the car lowered onto them. I think the trick would be to determine the proper center of mass for lifting a particular vehicle, then welding on stops to keep the bar in the correct position on the frame to ensure repeated balance, once that point was determined. This also assumes a fixed (welded) position for the floor jack; mine uses a hole to locate the lifting cup, so that would be easy enough.

Jon

Cute!

One improvement would be pneumatic bottle in each one to allow them to lift themselves to top height.

P.S: The guy should have set his emergency brake before making that lift. Did you see the vehicle rock front to back as he lifted and dropped the jack? Unsafe!

Yeah, it might take him a whole _day_ to build all 4. Cut, weld, clean, prime, and 2 coats of paint.

A hearty +1 for that idea, mon.

Use of whatever I could wiggle up into there was indicated. Usually an

18" breaker bar and a 6-point impact socket does it.

-jsw

SIGNIFICANTLY better jack stands. Angle iron legs too, instead of just slitting a 2 1/2" pipe every 120 degrees and spreading the resullting legs, holding them in place with a poorly welded strap of metal.

The 4 leg angle iron stands with the forged ratchet and socket assembly and forgedjacks are increadibly strong and safe.

Beware of cheap cast iron Chinese knockoffs.

But this assumes an "engineered" solution for each and every vehicle. If your vehicle had a solid engine cradle or other substantial crossmember you can already raise the entire front end at once with an hydraulic trolley type floor jack,

Huh? Who's going to be pulling wheels while the car's jacked up on 'em, Gunner? I had a 3/8" air ratchet, but never even heard of a

1/2"er. I saw that 1/4" air ratchets came out after I quit the biz. 6-point sockets saved my hands a whole lotta times, Jim, back in the hand-wrenching days.

Gunner Asch on Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:25:16 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

I had an ... experience, many years ago, in Germany ... with jack stands/ Raising a bus to get at the rear wheels. Jack up the right side, insert jack stand. Crawl under left side, sit up, insert jack, start pumping. I hear this little tiny "creak". Lay back down and roll out from under. Sit up next to a bus 'bouncing' on the springs. What can I say, I was younger, skinnier, and a bit faster in those days. Seems that a jack stand can concentrate the whole weight of a bus on one single cobble stone. Which is basically setting on 'dirt'. So the dirt compacted under the weight, just enough to tip the jack stand past "too far". So, if working on gravel, or other unsolid surface: put down at least a piece of _flat_ wood with will hold all the feet of the jack stand, and then some. Still no guarantee the thing won't tip over, but I have not have that problem since.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

Gunner Asch on Sun, 10 Aug 2014 23:33:26 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Reminds me of the story told in various dry spots of the world. "You recall the story of Noah, and when it rained for 40 days and nights, right? We got an inch ..."

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

I've heard that you can lift the rear of a pickup with a jack centered under the differential. I never risked trying it.

-jsw