New Aldi trolley jack and cast iron wheels.

Agreed, but even grey cast iron would be fine provided the design and manufacture were good. See, for example, the iron bridge at, er, Ironbridge.

(alternatively a bit of carpet *under* the ramp).

No, that didn't work for me.

I've heard of using ratchet straps, too.

Easy way around that is to fold a length of carpet around the front rung and lay it in front of the stand. Once the wheels are on the carpet it stops the ramp being pushed forwards as you proceed on to them.

Mathew

Oops.. should've read the rest of the thread and I would've seen my carpet advice had already been given!

Not sure why it didn't work for you though? I've found it foolproof.

Mathew

I simply glued some rubber matting to the base of mine. Only snag with that is they no longer stack on top of one another.

Presumably when it starts to leak you have to throw it away and buy a new one?

Do they all leak eventually or only the cheap ones? What causes this? Does a seal fail with age?

I bought a trolley jack about ten years ago I should think. It had metal wheels but I've not had any problems with them. Like the OP I was surprised by this, not having had a trolley jack before, but I guess metal wheels last longer in this use?

The one I bought was a Hilka model from Argos (IIRC). It only gets used to change brake pads and to move new tyres to the back when the garage doesn't ;)

The trolley jack is too heavy and too bulky to live in the boot, so I keep it at home. I don't like the scissor jacks that come with cars, so I did wonder about a compromise and getting a bottle jack to keep in the car but the ones I looked at (not many) were taller than the car was, so no use to me!

TIA

I would think that is true of all jacks; not just the trolley type?

The problem I have is that the jacking points are clearly marked, so I know where to put the jack but I'm never too confident where to put the stand. The picture in the handbook is many shades of grey, so not very helpful.

Bottle jacks are in general fairly useless for wheel changing etc as they don't have enough travel for a modern car. Fine when you could actually jack up the axle.

lay it in front of the stand. Once the wheels are on the carpet it stops the ramp being pushed forwards as you proceed on to them.

I never had that problem. I bought my (only) pair of ramps from machine mart, only they look something like these:

I've just looked on the MM web site and that type is not sold any more; they now sell the ones with discrete rungs, like everyone else does. I guess these use less metal so are cheaper to make and lighter to transport. Is there any advantage to have the rungs "covered" or is it just cosmetic?

The auction url is not my ramps. I was concerned that my ramps have some bubbling of paint but seeing these, I'm reassured that mine are nowhere near as rusty!

I've never yet found a vehicle where you can't position a bottle jack under a suspension component, so jack it up without having to use up the entire suspension travel.

Securely? I'd say it's more rare to find one you can. I'd far rather use the maker's jack designed for the purpose. For wheel changing 'in the field' obviously. At home, I'd use my trolley jack - but used the lifting points designed for this.

Sure.

Not on either of my cars - or most others I can remember. Except under a beam axle. Perhaps I'm more scared than you. ;-)