Poverty / Ghetto Car Ramp ideas?

[GRW]

Ah 'the death trap' thought by some on here haha.
Did you ding the link.
It worked a treat.

Just had a look.
I like your lifting solutions- especially the large Acro-prop axle stands! (Funnily enough I'd been thinking something similar, as a builder mate has loads of Acro's, and I've seen just how much weight you can lift & support with them).

I've been looking at Air Bag Jack's too as a quick lift solution.... but never laid eyes on one let alone used one.
Are they good?
(I was thinking they'd be good to get height, then pack under wheels, drop bags, pack under air bag jack - repeat till at desired height etc).
Air bag jacks seem like they might be good - no idea if I've enough cfm/Air though (I have a 1972 IR30, 150L, and/or a 100L Clarke belt-drive.... the latter ideally as its a lot easier to move!)

 

[W.olly]

Just had a look.
I like your lifting solutions- especially the large Acro-prop axle stands! (Funnily enough I'd been thinking something similar, as a builder mate has loads of Acro's, and I've seen just how much weight you can lift & support with them).

I've been looking at Air Bag Jack's too as a quick lift solution.... but never laid eyes on one let alone used one.
Are they good?
(I was thinking they'd be good to get height, then pack under wheels, drop bags, pack under air bag jack - repeat till at desired height etc).
Air bag jacks seem like they might be good - no idea if I've enough cfm/Air though (I have a 1972 IR30, 150L, and/or a 100L Clarke belt-drive.... the latter ideally as its a lot easier to move!)

I find them great. The one on wheels and handle.may be better but the ones I have can get further under when needed. I cant remeber the air spec needed but I would think your compressor will.dotnhe job. Mine are the cheapo ones from.....I forgot now but the well.known cheapo tool.suppliers.
I got more higher with the blocks I made.from 4x2.

 

[Gareth J]

I reckon that if you're after a cheap and easy solution and have a ready made hole in the ground with concrete all round, you'll struggle to beat two block built piers.

There will be a bit of outlay, and labour for the blocks/mortar, but once it's there, it's done. For decades.

A lift might come about cheaply, but wiring, installation, maintenance, testing? Etc will cost in the long run.

 

[GRW]

If you're on a budget buy a trailer and a mixer, get some material from the quarry yourself and get mixing

I have a Mixer and done plenty of that in the past. The price of sand, cement and duff now though is alarming..... I'd have to calculate how much area first, & compare the costs.
If there's little in it (& it's a big enough area) then no point busting your hump for hours for negligible benefit.

 

[GRW]

I reckon that if you're after a cheap and easy solution and have a ready made hole in the ground with concrete all round, you'll struggle to beat two block built piers.

There will be a bit of outlay, and labour for the blocks/mortar, but once it's there, it's done. For decades.

A lift might come about cheaply, but wiring, installation, maintenance, testing? Etc will cost in the long run.

It's certainly a thought I had, yes.... though when I started thinking about the silage pit, the thought started to percolate about how that might be used as its halfway there.
I need to go up there with a tape measure and look at it a bit more - do some of that thinking stuff.

RSJ's I suspect would be eyewateringly pricey - but could railway sleepers be used I wonder?
Anyone knowhow much weight a Sleeper can carry if it was elevated, with supports either end (or indeed in the middle as well - I imagine even a 4x4" post in the centre would increase strength & safety by a large amount)?

 

[sako243]

Personally I wouldn't trust a sleeper unsupported. No basis but just makes me cringe.

Last time I had subbase which is sort of ballast was £18/t but 20mm clean af the same time was £23.50 which is now £27 so probably about £25/t now on that basis for type 1. Sand I'm guessing is about £20/t on the same basis.

Steel is circa £1k/t so once the beam is sized then you could estimate based off that.

 

[Smallfry]

I have a Mixer and done plenty of that in the past. The price of sand, cement and duff now though is alarming..... I'd have to calculate how much area first, & compare the costs.
If there's little in it (& it's a big enough area) then no point busting your hump for hours for negligible benefit.

Cost way more to mix your own concrete than buy ready mix. We will need some too and I am quoted £130 per M3.

What I do with the Master van, is run the front up on ramps, then jack the rear up one side at a time (DO NOT JACK A MASTER 2 IN THE CENTRE OF THE REAR BEAM AS YOU WILL BEND IT) and put the rear wheels on a pair of wheel rims. I have welded a flat plate on them for the purpose. Nice and stable and gives about 18 inches clearance

 

[armalites]

I have an aversion (rightly or wrongly) to 2 poster (or indeed single poster) lifts. Plus atm I've nowhere with a good enough smooth flat concrete floor to use one.
Despite the advantages of wheel & suspension access - I don't like lifting vehicles by the body if I can help it, and 4-posters just provide more confidence, where a car on a 2-poster just looks.... unsafe.

The other beauty of a 4 post is it doesn't matter which way round the vehicles goes. My 2 post has spreader bars on the uprights but when you modern units it's scary. My local MOT place has 6t two posts that lift big vans and campers and they have a footprint of probably 40cmx40cm.

I ran with a 4 post only for years. If like to work on your own vehicles it's a no brainer if you have the space. They are cheap too as long as you go in with your eye open. Avoid anything with faults unless you are 100% confident you can he the bits.

 

[Erie Fred]

I reckon that if you're after a cheap and easy solution and have a ready made hole in the ground with concrete all round, you'll struggle to beat two block built piers.

There will be a bit of outlay, and labour for the blocks/mortar, but once it's there, it's done. For decades.

A lift might come about cheaply, but wiring, installation, maintenance, testing? Etc will cost in the long run.

Yup ^ also, don't cheap out or "ghetto" something that can kill you....just because you saw some fool on the "toob" doing it.

 

[Gareth J]

It's certainly a thought I had, yes.... though when I started thinking about the silage pit, the thought started to percolate about how that might be used as its halfway there.
I need to go up there with a tape measure and look at it a bit more - do some of that thinking stuff.

RSJ's I suspect would be eyewateringly pricey - but could railway sleepers be used I wonder?
Anyone knowhow much weight a Sleeper can carry if it was elevated, with supports either end (or indeed in the middle as well - I imagine even a 4x4" post in the centre would increase strength & safety by a large amount)?

Concrete railway sleepers. Cheap, overkill and grippy

 

[gaz1]

with me having the concrete low pit ive had a wish of height sometimes

now i used to drive up a set of ramps that was positioned on the concrete blocks just to get higher

but even these would come in handy for my low profile pit

 

[GRW]

Concrete railway sleepers. Cheap, overkill and grippy

If they were unsupported except near the ends.... would they support a 3-tonne vehicle?
(I know sleepers are v strong & carry 100's of tonnes of train... but they are laid onto ballast).

 

[GRW]

It dawned on me last night, that after Storm Darragh I will have to "shorten" one of my folks' place Dutch Barns, as one end has partially collapsed..... potentially freeing-up a pair of steel rail tracks that were uprights.

If these were laid across the silage pit (if they are long enough, memory says they might be).... then would steel rail be strong enough as lintels to support concrete sleepers and a (say) 3-tonne vehicle?

(My thoughts are that such an arrangement should be massively strong given the rails are much thicker than the steel used in the manufacture of vehicle 4-poster lifts.... but if anyone has more info.....)

 

[Gareth J]

If they were unsupported except near the ends.... would they support a 3-tonne vehicle?
(I know sleepers are v strong & carry 100's of tonnes of train... but they are laid onto ballast).

Absolutely not. A second hand item of unknown history, used out of context for its design can't be relied on.

If you wanted to make an educated guess though, look up what size prestressed concrete lintel the job would require and compare...

 

[DanZac]

It dawned on me last night, that after Storm Darragh I will have to "shorten" one of my folks' place Dutch Barns, as one end has partially collapsed..... potentially freeing-up a pair of steel rail tracks that were uprights.

If these were laid across the silage pit (if they are long enough, memory says they might be).... then would steel rail be strong enough as lintels to support concrete sleepers and a (say) 3-tonne vehicle?

(My thoughts are that such an arrangement should be massively strong given the rails are much thicker than the steel used in the manufacture of vehicle 4-poster lifts.... but if anyone has more info.....)

It's not so much the material thickness, as the way it's designed that gives it its strength. Rail track is designed to carry a compressive load and is supported every 12" by the sleepers, as such the bending load it carries is only ever over the gap between sleepers. Whilst your vehicle weighs a lot less than a train, your span is going to be considerably more than the 12" between sleepers and as such your into unknown territory for the material.

Likewise the sleepers are designed to carry a compressive load, with support from the ground. As soon as you hang them in the air they are under a different load and will behave in a completely different manner to that designed.

I'm all for invention and getting the job done, but I wouldn't be getting under a vehicle that was balanced on a bit of unknown material of unknown strength.

 

[gaz1]

no point bodging it and having something unsafe

the cheapest method is concrete blocks laid on there sides with a bit of sand and cement mixed for building the structure

that will give you 18" width either side of the wheels to play with the last fitted block needs to be trimmed so you can use wood inbetween or even angle iron i never did as wood beams are cheap enough even left out in the rain

 

[DanZac]

no point bodging it and having something unsafe

the cheapest method is concrete blocks laid on there sides with a bit of sand and cement mixed for building the structure

that will give you 18" width either side of the wheels to play with the last fitted block needs to be trimmed so you can use wood inbetween or even angle iron i never did as wood beams are cheap enough even left out in the rain

Unless you've got a source of free concrete blocks I don't agree with this.

By my maths to build a wall 1m high by 4m long needs 100 blocks when laid on their side. Plus you need about another 50 blocks to build a ramp up to your wall to drive up.

Playing on the Conservative side that's 2 packs of blocks per wall at £130 a pack and you need to do that twice, plus, sand, cement and foundations, plus a lot of graft laying 300 blocks.

By my guess that's going to set you back at least £600 and probably more.

And for that you get a ramp that's only 1m high and you've got to somehow drive your vehicle up without falling off the 215mm wide blocks, and then you'll need a glamorous assistant with a ladder because your now stuck in your vehicle 1.3m off the ground.

If your vehicle won't drive you can't get it on the ramp, and if you want the wheels off, you've now got to balance a jack on your 215mm wide wall to jack it up, plus lower the wheel down from chest height and get it back up again at the end of the job.

Of course you could only build your walls 50cm high for half the cost, but then you'll still be laying on the floor, and you might as well save £300 and buy a decent jack and axle stands.

Or for £600 courtesy of e bay you can have a fully functioning 4 post lift that will require the same foundations as your block wall and allow you to do pretty much every job on whatever vehicle safely.

I know what I'd be doing if I had the space and it wouldn't involve laying concrete blocks.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[gaz1]

if you want to know what mine would be



but ive already got a small pit its also dry no matter if it rains as the garden has a land drain

if i wanted to bridge a gap id build pillars using the blocks and just buy girders and lay them on there sides and weld some corners on so i wouldnt puncture the tyres but thats if im spanning something

4 posters are better than 2 posters as ive worked under both on cars not keen on that 2 poster

 

[Dapph2]

Come on guys don't over think things.
Four x four ton home made tube axle stands built like pyramids with low level braces or a 4mm steel foot plate & a holed central tube and pins for various heights and a suitable high lift trolley jack to lift one end at a time .... say a 3 ton long reach ( is a fairly cheap ) is a simple way of lifting onto axle stands .

I worked using them that way for 15 years in HMF as a mechanic in REME and also for several years after I left the mob .
I even took them out into the woods on six week long exercises placing pit boards under the stands to stop them sinking in the ground .
Even these cheap £13 eBay # 133979871092 ones can take about 3 tons safely each at 450 mm high and a three ton truck will only be putting roughly less than a ton on each stand .


A new jack is not that hard on the pocket and it's warranted

Save 25%

SGS 3 Ton Trolley Jack - 460mm Max Height​

Product Code: SFJ3

(62)
£89.99
£119.99
(£74.99 ex VAT)
In stock - Order in 12h 36m for delivery on Wednesday

Even the old second hand four or ten ton screw bottle jacks can be used in safety , check out loads of the smaller websites offering second hand goods there was a Lake & Elliot screw jack we used in the 60's & 1970's that could lift 10 ton

 

[ajlelectronics]

Come on guys don't over think things.
Four x four ton home made tube axle stands built like pyramids with low level braces or a 4mm steel foot plate & a holed central tube and pins for various heights and a suitable high lift trolley jack to lift one end at a time .... say a 3 ton long reach ( is a fairly cheap ) is a simple way of lifting onto axle stands .

I worked using them that way for 15 years in HMF as a mechanic in REME and also for several years after I left the mob .
I even took them out into the woods on six week long exercises placing pit boards under the stands to stop them sinking in the ground .
Even these cheap £13 eBay # 133979871092 ones can take about 3 tons safely each at 450 mm high and a three ton truck will only be putting roughly less than a ton on each stand .


A new jack is not that hard on the pocket and it's warranted

Save 25%

SGS 3 Ton Trolley Jack - 460mm Max Height​

Product Code: SFJ3

(62)
£89.99
£119.99
(£74.99 ex VAT)
In stock - Order in 12h 36m for delivery on Wednesday

Even the old second hand four or ten ton screw bottle jacks can be used in safety , check out loads of the smaller websites offering second hand goods there was a Lake & Elliot screw jack we used in the 60's & 1970's that could lift 10 ton

Not from them it isn't. They have their own ideas about what constitutes warranty terms and are under the illusion that they supercede the law. Make sure you pay by credit card as you may well need Section 75.