I thought working on jack stands was bad

Yup, hearing the car make groaning noises is definitely a little worrisome when you're under the car! I hate driving up those skinny little ramps, but they get the car reasonably high, are usually out of the way, and are very secure once the car is up on the ramp. I use jack stands most of the time but you can jack up the car and stick the ramps under the tires for a little more safety factor. Toyotas used to come with a foldable wheel chock in the tool kit, and I snagged one from a totaled demo. It was very good at holding the car when it is jacked up but I ran over it with the Sequoia once and so it is mangled and no longer folds flat.

So he is the kind of guy the Fire Department Rescue Squad talks about that think they are quicker than gravity suddenly influencing a dense mass object directly inches over their head when the jack fails, gets hit, or the car slips off accidentally. They clean up a couple around here every year. Sad. My Bend Pak 10000 lb. asymmetrical was $2400 delivered and it's worth every penny. Rated jack stands at the minimum work fine as well IMHO.

Hachiroku wrote:

This is the best bet.

Does anyone make one for "outdoors"? My garage is too small...

Dig a pit, work from underneath.

The manufacturer shows examples of outdoor installations but they must be on a concrete pad. They do make a shorter model as well.

Hachiroku wrote:

LOL! That's the best idea yet!

Actually, an "old farmer" neighbor has exactly that inside an old garage on his farm. I've used it more than once. Works slick, especially being inside, because, around here in the winter, his pit would be a "pool."

Unfortunately, my wife doesn't like the idea for our gravel driveway....

You have to pour a floor, line the pit with concrete blocks, access stairs at one end, and put a step notch on each sidewall so the whole thing can be covered up with 4X8 blocking lumber for safety - the lumber being heavy enough so a clueless family member or neighbor can walk or drive over the pit without themselves or their car falling in.

(Trucks and tractors, you're on your own. You can only make plans to protect passers-by against mild forgetfulness, there are just too many creative ways that full-blown idiocy can manifest itself to ever guard against them all...)

If you really get that much rain, you can put a sump pump in one corner, or a gravity drain line if your land has enough slope.

And if you are worried about hazardous gas buildup, they make little turbine ventilators - put a 6" PVC vent line from the pit over to the house or barn and go up the wall to the roof line, and stick a mini-turbine on top. Instant ventilation whenever there's a breeze.

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Well, maybe that's the way it should be, but his pit is basically a silt trench dug in the dirt about 4 feet deep. That's about all.

Bruce, this is Massachusetts.

Pits have been outlawed.

If you *DO* want to build a pit, you have to get a permit from Town Hall AND the Fire Department. You have to have a FD representative come and look at the proposed site. They give you plans. It can't have a ladder; it has to be open at one end, straight through. A door is permissable, IIRC. Of course, this was years ago. they may have banned them completely by now.

I sincerely doubt they've outlawed them totally. They may well have placed more restrictions on them, or stared requiring the addition of expensive gadgets stuff like continuous flammable vapor sensors and alarms, safety nets over the pit openings at all times, permanently installed explosion-proof lighting (at $200 a light fixture) and the special explosion-proof power receptacles ($150 each, and $50 for each special cord cap), permanently installed ventilation, etc.

Stuff that would make perfect sense if the pit was being built for daily commercial use by employees at a "Spiffy Lube" shop, but total overkill for personal residential periodic use. That's where a well thought out compromise might be reached, and if you really need to build a pit at a reasonable price you petition for a building-code variance to do it per the old approved plans.

(Do your research - the councilman who wrote the new and much more restrictive rules probably owns a heavy truck repair shop as his 'day job' - or got a big campaign contribution from his "new best buddy" who does. Collusion works wonders in government...)

If you own a Class A motorhome, or a bus or truck, a service pit is the only practical way to do under-body maintenance and repair work - I don't even want to think about the price of a 4-post lift or a ramp-style that could handle 30 to 40 tons...

GTE had three or four of the two-post in-floor air over hydraulic lifts for servicing the C60/F600 class Line Boom and Bucket Trucks in our pole yard, with the movable rear-axle post in a covered slit trench. They were probably $25K a piece just for the lift parts, the site prep and installation would be another $25K easy. And they were close to maxed out with some of the pole placing trucks.

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The rulings on pits are State wide, not county or town!