Buying a Garage Ramp
Discussion
Now I know that a lot of people like me have dreamt of owning their very own ramp in their garage. I've thought about this for years, especially when I spent two months on my back under the old Chimaera. And this year the bonus was finally better than expected and I splashed out. I bought a scissor lift from Automotech Services (google them) which all in cost me about £1600. It lifts the motor about one metre which is plenty to muddle about beneath and leaves enough clearance to mess with most things. Anyway - I thought I'd write something about the process to help others who may want to do the same.
Choosing the ramp was the first thing. Ideally I would have had a two poster, but they require 6 inches of concrete to root them in and I don't have that. Also I don't have a great deal of clearance. Finally I wanted it to be relatively movable, and a four or two poster is not especially. I also looked at the Hamer lift, which looks like a great piece of kit, but I discussed with my wife if she would be happy to help me to operate the jacks. It didn't take long to realise that this was not going to work either. I also looked at some of the smaller hydraulic lifts that are advertised as fully portable, but they look terrifyingly unstable. So in the end I plumped for a scissor lift, which allegedly is quite movable with some kind of kit.
Then I had to choose a supplier. There's quite a lot of these that you can find through Google. The best for us DIY'ers seems to be Strongman Tools. Take a look. Very impressive. But expensive. So in the end I wound up with Automotech. Just about the cheapest, and seemed quite helpful on the phone. As a man who judges others by how much they are willing to help, how professional their website looks and how cheap their wares are, I felt very comfortable ordering from them.
The lift arrived in 48 hours. Not bad. Installing was, well, to be honest, difficult! First of all the thing arrives and the Polish bloke driving the truck says "Where's your forklift mate?". Anyway he turned out to be a very fine man, who helped me employ two trolley jacks, a woefully inadequate tail lift and some good old fashioned grunt to get the sodding thing off the truck. Once it was safely positioned in my garage and the man had gone, I had to work out how to get it off the pallets it came on. Sounds stupid, but think about it - how the hell do you get half a tonne of metal off a 4 inch high solid pallet? In the end, I simply destroyed the pallet with a hammer and a crow bar. This took some length of time, created much swearing and many splinters, but it seemed to work.
Next I had to screw it all together with the control unit. If you're the kind of person that wants to lift up your car for some kind of maintenance activity, you'll be the sort of person for whom none of this is difficult. For electricity I wired a dedicated 16A spur from the garage fusebox with a Type C MCB (which operates slower than a normal one and compensates for the motor surge on start up) and stuck a commando plug on the end. I also put a single plug in line for the compressor that the safety locks need (yes - you need a compressor, although it only needs very light pressure so a cheapy DIY job would do fine). The motor surge still pops the garage RCD once every ten lifts and the MCB maybe once every 20. I could fix this, but I'm okay with it. I'd rather this happened than I experience some kind of colossal electric shock.
Then you need to do some light commissioning. It needs filling with hydraulic oil, which you can buy from your local motor factor. In theory the thing will then work fine once set up, but I suggest you raise it and lower it a few times. On mine the bolts all needed tightening and I had to mess with the safety lock mechanism to ensure it was, well, safe. All of this is, again, really quite intuitive to anyone who can, say, change a wheel, or scratch their arse.
So, after a few test lifts and some panicked modification of the garage door runner mechanism. I gingerly put the MX5 on the ramp, positioned the polyurethane pads under the car and swallowed hard, and began the lift. All went well, until I had to lower the car. One of the safety locks did not disengage meaning the car was stuck in the air. Following a nerve racking time with a spade and some brute force I released it, and then watched with some horror as the car dropped at a frightening pace and sort of crashed to earth.
More commissioning. The reason the lock did not engage was that the lift had not risen far enough in the lowering cycle to take the load of the locks. So a quick modification of the motor 'run' time fixed that (a dial I found on the circuit board) and then I found a release valve on the pump, which could be easily tightened to slow the descend time. You need to bear in mind that the support in the manual is not that great unless you are a Chinese O level student, but Automotech have continually been great on the phone.
Now, one month in, I am very happy, and would thoroughly recommend one of these for anyone. Some pictures follow (if I can get this thing to work). If you need any advice or help, please feel free to pm me.
Choosing the ramp was the first thing. Ideally I would have had a two poster, but they require 6 inches of concrete to root them in and I don't have that. Also I don't have a great deal of clearance. Finally I wanted it to be relatively movable, and a four or two poster is not especially. I also looked at the Hamer lift, which looks like a great piece of kit, but I discussed with my wife if she would be happy to help me to operate the jacks. It didn't take long to realise that this was not going to work either. I also looked at some of the smaller hydraulic lifts that are advertised as fully portable, but they look terrifyingly unstable. So in the end I plumped for a scissor lift, which allegedly is quite movable with some kind of kit.
Then I had to choose a supplier. There's quite a lot of these that you can find through Google. The best for us DIY'ers seems to be Strongman Tools. Take a look. Very impressive. But expensive. So in the end I wound up with Automotech. Just about the cheapest, and seemed quite helpful on the phone. As a man who judges others by how much they are willing to help, how professional their website looks and how cheap their wares are, I felt very comfortable ordering from them.
The lift arrived in 48 hours. Not bad. Installing was, well, to be honest, difficult! First of all the thing arrives and the Polish bloke driving the truck says "Where's your forklift mate?". Anyway he turned out to be a very fine man, who helped me employ two trolley jacks, a woefully inadequate tail lift and some good old fashioned grunt to get the sodding thing off the truck. Once it was safely positioned in my garage and the man had gone, I had to work out how to get it off the pallets it came on. Sounds stupid, but think about it - how the hell do you get half a tonne of metal off a 4 inch high solid pallet? In the end, I simply destroyed the pallet with a hammer and a crow bar. This took some length of time, created much swearing and many splinters, but it seemed to work.
Next I had to screw it all together with the control unit. If you're the kind of person that wants to lift up your car for some kind of maintenance activity, you'll be the sort of person for whom none of this is difficult. For electricity I wired a dedicated 16A spur from the garage fusebox with a Type C MCB (which operates slower than a normal one and compensates for the motor surge on start up) and stuck a commando plug on the end. I also put a single plug in line for the compressor that the safety locks need (yes - you need a compressor, although it only needs very light pressure so a cheapy DIY job would do fine). The motor surge still pops the garage RCD once every ten lifts and the MCB maybe once every 20. I could fix this, but I'm okay with it. I'd rather this happened than I experience some kind of colossal electric shock.
Then you need to do some light commissioning. It needs filling with hydraulic oil, which you can buy from your local motor factor. In theory the thing will then work fine once set up, but I suggest you raise it and lower it a few times. On mine the bolts all needed tightening and I had to mess with the safety lock mechanism to ensure it was, well, safe. All of this is, again, really quite intuitive to anyone who can, say, change a wheel, or scratch their arse.
So, after a few test lifts and some panicked modification of the garage door runner mechanism. I gingerly put the MX5 on the ramp, positioned the polyurethane pads under the car and swallowed hard, and began the lift. All went well, until I had to lower the car. One of the safety locks did not disengage meaning the car was stuck in the air. Following a nerve racking time with a spade and some brute force I released it, and then watched with some horror as the car dropped at a frightening pace and sort of crashed to earth.
More commissioning. The reason the lock did not engage was that the lift had not risen far enough in the lowering cycle to take the load of the locks. So a quick modification of the motor 'run' time fixed that (a dial I found on the circuit board) and then I found a release valve on the pump, which could be easily tightened to slow the descend time. You need to bear in mind that the support in the manual is not that great unless you are a Chinese O level student, but Automotech have continually been great on the phone.
Now, one month in, I am very happy, and would thoroughly recommend one of these for anyone. Some pictures follow (if I can get this thing to work). If you need any advice or help, please feel free to pm me.
The only thing with these is that they lift about a metre, which is great, but still requires you to work crouched or laying down. And the frame at the bottom puts me off as it makes an uneven surface.
I reckon you could knock up a wooden platform though thatg would give you a nice smooth base to work from.
I reckon you could knock up a wooden platform though thatg would give you a nice smooth base to work from.
Vulgar LS2 said:
I used automotech for my 4 tonne 2 post lift, and they were a pleasure to deal with and quite cheap too.
Any details please , I am moving soon house with a double garage, 2 post lift first thing going in. I will need someone to fit it as well , I take it 6 inches base of concrete for the lift?.Thank you for your time and help.
Ideally I'd want more than a metre but it's a compromise you have to make. It's higher than I can achieve with axle stands, had trouble before just undoing bolts because there wasn't enough space to get a good swing on a breaker bar. More comfortable doing things sitting up than lying down (some things anyway 
). I'd need to raise the roof on my garage before I could lift a car to head height
). I'd need to raise the roof on my garage before I could lift a car to head heightIdeally I'd like to have it more than a metre high, but much more than that and I would have clearance issues. Life is a series of compromises!
I thought about this long and hard. Despite the enormous fun of having a ramp in the garage you don't actually do that much beneath a vehicle unless you are into a serious renovation (and sometimes for that it's better to have a rotator). My first job will be rust-proofing, which would, granted, be better with a four poster. But for most of its life, this is just going to assist with suspension swaps, oil changes, gearbox oil changes etc.
I bought a little mechanics stool with castors, which I can whizz about the garage on. This is perfectly adequate for getting under the car and sitting in relative comfort. It also makes my wife laugh at me.
I thought about this long and hard. Despite the enormous fun of having a ramp in the garage you don't actually do that much beneath a vehicle unless you are into a serious renovation (and sometimes for that it's better to have a rotator). My first job will be rust-proofing, which would, granted, be better with a four poster. But for most of its life, this is just going to assist with suspension swaps, oil changes, gearbox oil changes etc.
I bought a little mechanics stool with castors, which I can whizz about the garage on. This is perfectly adequate for getting under the car and sitting in relative comfort. It also makes my wife laugh at me.
Edited by beljames on Sunday 27th March 12:04
SEE YA said:
Vulgar LS2 said:
I used automotech for my 4 tonne 2 post lift, and they were a pleasure to deal with and quite cheap too.
Any details please , I am moving soon house with a double garage, 2 post lift first thing going in. I will need someone to fit it as well , I take it 6 inches base of concrete for the lift?.Thank you for your time and help.
http://www.automotechservices.co.uk/garage_2_post_...
Takes about 4 hours to install, and really easy to do.
You might struggle with height in a domestic garage though.
i think you just wasted £1600!!!
you cant work under that very well, between its so low and the frame of the ramp means you cant lay down either. you could have had a better result, with two block walls sloped to drive on.
and the width of the ramp means you cant do any work to the sides of the car either. so you could never have done your chim on it
or dug a pit.
you cant work under that very well, between its so low and the frame of the ramp means you cant lay down either. you could have had a better result, with two block walls sloped to drive on.
and the width of the ramp means you cant do any work to the sides of the car either. so you could never have done your chim on it
or dug a pit.
T_Pot said:
i think you just wasted £1600!!!
you cant work under that very well, between its so low and the frame of the ramp means you cant lay down either. you could have had a better result, with two block walls sloped to drive on.
and the width of the ramp means you cant do any work to the sides of the car either. so you could never have done your chim on it
or dug a pit.
Tend to agree with this. I fancy buying an old JCB and using it to lift up the front or back of the car. Failing that I could use it to dig a pit. you cant work under that very well, between its so low and the frame of the ramp means you cant lay down either. you could have had a better result, with two block walls sloped to drive on.
and the width of the ramp means you cant do any work to the sides of the car either. so you could never have done your chim on it
or dug a pit.
Need to get working on the Mrs.
T_Pot said:
i think you just wasted £1600!!!
you cant work under that very well, between its so low and the frame of the ramp means you cant lay down either. you could have had a better result, with two block walls sloped to drive on.
and the width of the ramp means you cant do any work to the sides of the car either. so you could never have done your chim on it
or dug a pit.
Agreed. Most grease-monkeys on here would love a lift in the garage, the beauty being that you can stand up whilst working. Just can't see the point of this at all, as you cant stand or lie down. you cant work under that very well, between its so low and the frame of the ramp means you cant lay down either. you could have had a better result, with two block walls sloped to drive on.
and the width of the ramp means you cant do any work to the sides of the car either. so you could never have done your chim on it
or dug a pit.
Very nice write up OP.
I think a few people are massively missing the point of this type of ramp.
For a home mechanic a 2 or 4 poster is way OTT. It also needs a strong enough floor under it and enough height over it, not many domestic garages have this.
Axle stands and ramps do not get you very high at all and plenty of sporty cars do not have the ride height to get on to ramps or even fit a common trolley jack under. Even if you can get your car on them they are dangerous and still don't give you a great deal of space to work in.
Pits are just crap; never deep enough, fill with water if the install is not perfect, fill with fumes if you have a spillage, can leave you trapped under your car, dark and generally dangerous places to be...and you still need to use axle stands to get the wheels off your car!
I think a few people are massively missing the point of this type of ramp.
For a home mechanic a 2 or 4 poster is way OTT. It also needs a strong enough floor under it and enough height over it, not many domestic garages have this.
Axle stands and ramps do not get you very high at all and plenty of sporty cars do not have the ride height to get on to ramps or even fit a common trolley jack under. Even if you can get your car on them they are dangerous and still don't give you a great deal of space to work in.
Pits are just crap; never deep enough, fill with water if the install is not perfect, fill with fumes if you have a spillage, can leave you trapped under your car, dark and generally dangerous places to be...and you still need to use axle stands to get the wheels off your car!
I have had one of these ramps for a couple of years... great piece of kit. Its very versatile and a big advantage for me is that the garage can still be used for 2 cars as i can drive a car either side of the ramps. a 2 or 4 post ramp would have made it a single garage. Also, as been pointed out, most domestic garages simply dont have the height so there is no point in installing a 2 or 4 poster.
I find that although it only goes up just over a meter, its brings the wheels and suspension to the ideal working height. for working underneath, I have a small stool from Machine mart that is on wheels. I sit on this and shuffle under the car. I also use it to maintain my BMW 7 series, which it lifts with ease. a few pictures below...
[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/6tjirbkT[/url][url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/yceYChnp[/url]
I find that although it only goes up just over a meter, its brings the wheels and suspension to the ideal working height. for working underneath, I have a small stool from Machine mart that is on wheels. I sit on this and shuffle under the car. I also use it to maintain my BMW 7 series, which it lifts with ease. a few pictures below...
[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/6tjirbkT[/url][url]|http://thumbsnap.com/yceYChnp[/url]Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff