Low car ramps and jacks

I have a pair of sand ladders a bit like this

I ended up buying a low profile trolley jack when one of the kids had a silly lowered Pug 106, it has been quite useful from time to time (for example jacking up vehicles with a flat tyre).

This any good?

Do they actually give you much support? I would have expected they would sag, so all you get is the inch or so extra thickness? Would you recommend buying for this purpose?

I came across:

Theo

It seems to me that the slightest amount of side load would cause them to jam. One steel tube sliding inside another is fine for axle stands - whose height you adjust with no load on them. But under load - no way!

The first set will be fine.

Whenever I borrow my father's ramps, I also borrow the extensions - simply two lengths of aluminium channel about 3-1/2" wide and (quite thick). Place the ends right up to the tyre and the other end between two of the "rungs" on the ramp. Works perfectly every time.

SteveW

on 26/10/2017, Steve Walker supposed :

I use a pair of off-cuts from planks, with a bit of angle screwed across the ramp end, so locate in the ramp rungs. A bit of strong material fixed to the other end of the plank, stops the ramp moving/ sliding back as you attempt drive up them.

I also have an electric/hydraulic lift able to lift a side or one end of the car upto 1 metre. That is like the forks on a fork lift truck.

Problem I find with ramps on the front wheels (RWD car) is it tends to push them along rather than climb them. Back is OK.

For the trolley jack, just drive it onto two bits of wood - enough to get the jack under?

Dave Plowman (News) explained :

Some material looped around the lower rung and stretching back far enough that the tyre comes onto it, before the ramp, stops the ramp sliding away. A strip of old carpet works well for that.

Yes - there are ways. But can get messy if working outside. Or get oil on them. I find it easier to just lift the car with a trolley jack and use axle stands. Especially since so much requires a wheel to be removed anyway.

I thought this was like normal axle stands. When you want to let them down, you jack up enough to take the weight off the stands, remove them and let the jack down. Similarly here you jack so most of the weight is being taken by the bottle jack and the tubes are unloaded. You take out the pin so they slide freely and let down the bottle.

Or am I missing something?

Theo

True. Maybe the problem is the stands I have - the jack has to go to essentially maximum height before I can get a stand underneath, which doesn't feel very stable. If it was straightforward to use them, it might be easier than ramps.

I see there are ratchet stands available - are there any pitfalls?

Perhaps you have a very small trolley jack or very tall axle stands?

I've got some nice fold up axle stands - as I have a problem with storage space for such things. The trolley jack I have - again not a big one as it is stored in the cellar - will take the car up to their maximum height.

Problem is that the wheel is sitting on a platform on top of the bottle jack. Unless the weight is *exactly* centred on the axis of the jack, there will be some side load trying to topple it. This has to be reacted by the tube in tube axle-stand-like bits - which may not then be too happy to slide.

With a normal axle stand, you extend it under no load - and no side load

- to the desired height, and then lower the car onto it.

For this thing to work smoothly, the tube in tube bits need to be replaced by proper linear bearings - which would of course increase the price more than somewhat.