Ramping Advice

[MajorClanger]

With all this talk of crawling underneath the car, has anyone got any recommendations for what sort of equipment to use to work underneath a Chimaera?

I've heard that you have to be careful with what sort of ramps you use (I'm not rising/moveable ramps that are used in garages, just drive up one) because of the low ground clearance. Are the rubber ramps (Rhino Ramps) from Moss International any good? Any other advice welcome!

MC

[Bob the Planner]

A trolley jack and axle stands usually solves my problems - or bricks if you are nicking the alloys - sorry you cannot do that with ramps as there is a load on the wheels. Seriously though - I would always use stands as they are generally considered safer than ramps. If necessary get 4 to stand the whole car and use wooden blocks/offcuts as jack buffers.

[beljames]

I used ramps for the recent chassis work as they raise the car that little bit higher. However, given the shape of the car you will need to use axle stands for any work on the back end.

I have a set of fairly high, heavy duty ramps, but ground clearance is a problem when mounting them. I dealt with this by putting two wood panels on the ground in front of the ramps, driving onto them, and then onto the ramps. I also padded the inner edge of the ramps as the front still just scrapes on them.

As I am paranoid I also chock the rear wheels and leave the thing in gear. I then forget that I have chocked the rear wheels and spend upwards of two hours trying to free the handbrake because the car won't move off the ramps.

I have no front spoiler / splitter on mine, but you would definately need to remove it before mounting them. Fortunately this is dead easy to remove. Just head down to your local Tesco's and accelerate over the ramps leading to the car park. You will find that the splitter will come away quite easily. The same technique can also be used for removing the exhaust. Just drive a bit quicker.

JB