Is my driveway suitable to lift my car up on?
Discussion
Hi all, I want to start doing my own work on my car again currently an NC mazda mx5 but soon a CL7/9 honda accord which is bigger/longer, I plan to get a set of ramps, chocks, stands and a jack for maintenance, repair and modifications.
However I do not have a garage only a driveway, my house is perpendicular to a hill so my driveway has a slight slope downwards in 2 directions, it's flattest towards the top corner closest to the house/fence and gets more sloped running down to the corner furthest from the house facing down the hill towards the road.
With the jobs i have planned and can foresee, If i needed to work under the car i plan to use wheel chocks and ramps to lift either the back or front of the car respectively, If i needed to work with the wheels off I plan to use a jack and stands to lift either the back or front respectively. I would not get under the car when it is on stands like this as i would only be working on brakes/suspension i would only be working under the car when on the ramps and i do not plan to lift the car fully so that it is on stands on all 4 corners.
Based on the slope there are 2 options that i can position the car, either parallel with the fence or with the house as can be seen in the images.
I am thinking parallel with the fence looks flattest but would either of these positions be safe to use ramps or jack/stands as mentioned above to work on a car? i understand the slope is not very steep and i may be overthinking things but i would like to do everything by the book and be as safe as i possibly can be.
Hope this makes sense, thanks
I am unable to post links directly it seems so i have uploaded the pictures to Imgur which can be viewed here imgur.com/a/X4wahMY
However I do not have a garage only a driveway, my house is perpendicular to a hill so my driveway has a slight slope downwards in 2 directions, it's flattest towards the top corner closest to the house/fence and gets more sloped running down to the corner furthest from the house facing down the hill towards the road.
With the jobs i have planned and can foresee, If i needed to work under the car i plan to use wheel chocks and ramps to lift either the back or front of the car respectively, If i needed to work with the wheels off I plan to use a jack and stands to lift either the back or front respectively. I would not get under the car when it is on stands like this as i would only be working on brakes/suspension i would only be working under the car when on the ramps and i do not plan to lift the car fully so that it is on stands on all 4 corners.
Based on the slope there are 2 options that i can position the car, either parallel with the fence or with the house as can be seen in the images.
I am thinking parallel with the fence looks flattest but would either of these positions be safe to use ramps or jack/stands as mentioned above to work on a car? i understand the slope is not very steep and i may be overthinking things but i would like to do everything by the book and be as safe as i possibly can be.
Hope this makes sense, thanks
I am unable to post links directly it seems so i have uploaded the pictures to Imgur which can be viewed here imgur.com/a/X4wahMY
If you're jacking up one side, do it with the car in the orientatin you show in the picture. It doesn't matter which side you jack up - the slope isn't enough to matter.
If you're jacking up one end, turn the car through 90 degrees. This ensures the car doesn't try to slide off the jack.
If you need to work on either of the rear corners, don't ever jack them both up at the same time and bear in mind that the handbrake gives you a lot of stability when you have two braked wheels on the ground and very little when there's only one.
If you're jacking up one end, turn the car through 90 degrees. This ensures the car doesn't try to slide off the jack.
If you need to work on either of the rear corners, don't ever jack them both up at the same time and bear in mind that the handbrake gives you a lot of stability when you have two braked wheels on the ground and very little when there's only one.
GreenV8S said:
If you're jacking up one side, do it with the car in the orientatin you show in the picture. It doesn't matter which side you jack up - the slope isn't enough to matter.
If you're jacking up one end, turn the car through 90 degrees. This ensures the car doesn't try to slide off the jack.
If you need to work on either of the rear corners, don't ever jack them both up at the same time and bear in mind that the handbrake gives you a lot of stability when you have two braked wheels on the ground and very little when there's only one.
Thanks, can i clarify which orientation you are talking about when lifting one end at a time as my pictures show with the car parallel to the house and parallel to the fence? If you're jacking up one end, turn the car through 90 degrees. This ensures the car doesn't try to slide off the jack.
If you need to work on either of the rear corners, don't ever jack them both up at the same time and bear in mind that the handbrake gives you a lot of stability when you have two braked wheels on the ground and very little when there's only one.
and if lifing either side as you mentioned (assuming you mean the full left and right) how would you get jack stands under both of the front and rear sill jacking points on the left or the right side if one point would presumably being used by the jack to lift the car?
Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff