crowz

Oh hole in the ground trumps ramps. But the ramps are the next best thing.

The ideal setup is the pit you drive over and then work in complete safety.

Christi@n

Yeah i meant pit for "hole in the ground" just didn't know the right english for

SJW

Here's what I use:







Superior safety, relatively easy to use, and fits in nearly any garage.

Live well,

SJW

Mishawaka

I used a lowboy floor jack with the item pictured. Ugly weld but it was a quick job with a stick.

9T3VETTE

^^Great idea for the rear. I am now going on a I-beam scrap metal search at work

ClaudioC4

Where can one purchse one of these!

auggy

Hockey pucks work good

Mishawaka

I have a new setup with I beam but haven't had a chance to use it yet. I figured that would be the best since it has web material. FYI, I drilled and tapped the the jack as to make it steady and I can remove it if needed, like for the front cradle.

SJW

Right here:

http://www.kwik-lift.com/



Live well,

SJW

Tom400CFI

I don't "get it". Bare raw steel, it's $1100.00. Painted (coated), it's $1400. It gets your car, what, 18" off the ground? Can't do any wheel/brake work w/the thing.

For very close to the same money, you can get a REAL LIFT...and even park another car underneath.

crowz

Actually there is a bar that goes with it that allows for jacking up the car to get the wheels off for break work etc.

SJW

I have two of the cross-bridges (visible in the photos). For the Corvette, I've found it easiest to use the factory jack and jacking points when I need to remove a wheel. The jack doesn't care whether it's resting on the pavement, or on the ramp. The cross-bridge is essential for other chores, such as supporting the rear of the engine when the transmission is out of the car.

Live well,

SJW

SJW

Believe me, Tom, I'd much rather have a real lift. In fact, I was going to buy a four-post. But, I measured everything, and found that it just wouldn't work out in my garage (you can see the blue masking tape on the floor in the photos, marking where one of the posts would have been).

I don't have enough ceiling height to raise a Corvette more than about four feet above the floor (even with the car on the Kwiklift, I can't raise the hood all the way without it contacting the ceiling). That, combined with the lack of surrounding space, led me to abandon the idea of a real lift. The posts would have made it very difficult to move around in the garage, and since I'd be left with sitting under the car or rolling around under it on a creeper anyway, I just punted on the idea, and bought the Kwiklift instead. A two-post lift will not physically fit in my garage. It's just impossible.

The Kwiklift is a poor substitute for a two-post or four-post lift. But, within the confines of this too-small garage, it was the best I could do, and it has been very useful. For oil changes, I don't even have to lift the rear end. Just drive up onto it like a pair of small ramps, and I'm all set. And it is so much safer (and easier to use) than jackstands. BTW, the Kwiklift raises the car 20 inches -- about the ideal height for use with a creeper.

Live well,

SJW

Paul Workman

that except maybe for safety, the two-poster is the best all-round lift: nothing comes to mind that one can't do from a two post lift.

A close 2nd would be the 4-post lift; advantage (perhaps) being safest except for the "pit". The disadvantage to either the 4-poster or the 'pit' is that to change tires, etc., it requires some sort of jack in addition. But, BOTH the 2 and 4 post lifts afford the ability to stack cars; handy IF you have the ceiling height.

The next one on my list (I've been considering this very question for a while) is one like the Kwik-Lift (sp?).

Pros:

• Quick and safe; especially convenient if the car is otherwise stored on the ramps anyway.
  Somewhat less expensive than "a real lift", but can be the only option if ceiling height is an issue
  Relatively easy to move to a new location (compared perhaps to a 2 or 4 post lift)

Cons:

• Cost is 80-90% of either of the other two post lift options, I find.
• You're still lying on your back to do work: getting up and down from the floor is tough on old bones...
• limited height adjustments and essentially on one end only, and to change the height requires the vehicle be removed to make the change (as I see it). Limited height/clearance can be a PIA for some jobs.
• Separate lift (jacks, etc) required if the wheels have to be removed.

The wood cribs:
Aside from the initial fussing to build them and to use them look to me to be, as others have said, "comforting". But, again one is on his back to do work, and then there's the getting up and down from the floor (for this old salt) that becomes an issue (changing transmissions or engine pulling or the like!

Ramps:
Ramps are convenient to a point. But, height adjustment means having the right lumber handy, and all the fussing involved with that. Safety is good tho, but it was the inconvenience of the quick height adjustment issue that moved me away from tamps; that and if I need height AND taking a wheel off, e.g., rear-end changeout, the ramps were just a PIA (to me).

Jacks and jack stands:
Pros:
quick to set up, especially when using a pair of hydraulic jacks or a special tandem jacking bar (designed for the purpose).
easy height adjustments w/o having to take the car off the stands to do it.
very easy to move jacking system around, especially convenient if the vehicle(s) are not easily jockeyed around to be lifted.
Cheap.

Cons:
lying on your back to do work; getting up and down...a real PIA by the end of the day!!
limited room for some bigger jobs; some requiring extra height extension, which leads to
safety concerns (I always leave BOTH of my hydraulic jacks under the frame in addition to the jack stands...just in case! )

As for vehicle jacking points, the pinch-frame locations are what I use most for jacking and jack stands. But, after one of the rocker panels suddenly cracked due to contact with the jacking pad (hockey puck), I use pinch locations further under the frame. (Somebody offers a special little disc welded to a pin that fits into the typical hydraulic jack pad fixture. The disc has a V-groove cut into the diameter of the disc, and the disc itself is small enough to avoid interference with the brake lines etc that may be in close proximity to the jacking points.)

Safety: I guess it goes w/o saying, the surface the jacks (especially the two-post lift) sit on need to be level; one of the biggest contributors to lifting stability (personal experience). And, I would NEVER crawl under a car supported by jacks alone; hydraulic or otherwise (after seeing a couple people that had paid with their lives for doing so).

Tom400CFI

Thanks for the replies guys. I was genuinely curious, as I'm about to pull the trigger on the Atlas 2 poster pictured....and I wanted to make SURE that I wasn't completely oblivious to some important aspect. Garage size most certainly would drive lift choice.

My joists are 9'6" up, so I can just barely fit that lift in my garage, height wise.

Thanks for the good, clear responses.

TorchTarga94

This is what I use on my 94' except mine are made out of 2x12's and have no gaps in them. 5-2' pieces of 2x12 screwed together with deck screws. Very safe. I do not trust jackstands when working under the car. I use them brakes, etc...

pkincy

The pinch welds work until they don't. Then they bend or tear. After my first tear I got several very low profile aluminum jacks and would use the rear differential for the rear and the cross member for the front or if only going for one side of the front would use the bottom A Arm.

Admittedly the bend/tear was on a car I was jacking up weekly to rotate or change tires for competitive reasons, so I likely was stressing those pinch welds way more than most would.

DGXR

Don't the exhaust pipes pass directly underneath the differential? At least that's how they are on my 1995. "Competitive reasons" indicate possible modifications/ custom exhaust.

hcbph

I bought the Jackman's jack adapter for raising the back of the car using the batwing. I did end up modifying it a little. The bolt to hold it onto the jack didn't fit mine. I tried sitting it on the cup of the jack but it could slip. Instead I picked up a piece of metal that fit inside the cup of the jack. I drilled and countersunk a hole and bolted it onto the jack adapter. It now works well, doesn't slip-and-slide and drops into the cup in just a second. It's the piece on the right in the picture, the addon is in orange. The other piece is something I built to change out u-joints in a press by pressing on the cross shafts rather than on the caps.