For me its Rhino ramps to get high enough for my Jack, Jack on the frame, onto the jackstands at the Jack pads.

Works well

 

Yeah, after reading the thread title, I thought you were going to try to replicate the C6 commercial in memoriam ...
I guess, if you've seen the movie Collateral you could try it with jersey barriers, too.

 

Thanks for all of your replies.

After deliberating, I thought I'd buy the ramps and two jack stands for flexibility. So, I just went to Autozone and looked at the Rhino ramps. Unfortunately, the Rhin Ramps only afford 6 inches of lift, and I want more room than that, so I decided against them.

I went to Kragen and bought some 4-ton ratcheting stands (Autozone only had the 6-ton model which requires you to get the car 16 inches off the ground before you can even get them under the car, while the 4-tons only require 13").

I then stopped at Depot and bought a 10ft. 2x10, and an 8ft. 2x6. I'll try driving up onto 18" sections of the 2x10 first, as some of you suggested, to see if I can then get my jack under the car. If not, I fugre I'll just make steps out of the 2x10 by stacking the 18" pieces onto 36" pieces. As a matter of fact, stacking 3 this way would give the same height as the Rhino ramps, at less than 1/3 the cost.

Since the manual says NOT to jack the car from the center of the cross-members, I'll make sections of the 2x6 long enough to cover the span between the crossmember jacking points (crossmembers are 5" wide). By making the 2x6s long enough, I should be able to just place the jack stands under them next to the jack instead of making separate blocks for between the jack stands and crossmembers.

At this point, I also think the jack stands will give me more flexibility. I mean, what can you really do with ramps? You can't do wheels and brake stuff with a ramp, and with 6" of lift, it seems you can barely even to an oil change, right?

Anyone think of anything I might be missing? I guess I'll find out within the hour.

 

2 more jackstands will definitely come in handy sooner or later, and don't worry about jacking in the middle of the crossmembers -- just don't support the car that way for a long time. Jack it up, slide in the jackstands, let 'er down.

 

Thanks for the reassurance. I learned today that you can do just that. I actually cut a 2x6 24 inches long to span the members, and jacked under that just to be sure.

I also learned that you can indeed safely jackup the front using the front-most crossmember. I went for that one after I noticed that when jacking the rearward front (oxymoron) crossmember that doing so would make it virtually impossible to drain the oil. I didn't change oil today, just lubed swaybar bushings once I got my raising routine figured out. It caused me some concern using the front member so at first I just went up easy, and eyeballed everything carefully in case something started flexing.

 

YESYou are making this way too hard on yourself.

1) Get the Rhino ramps.

2) Drive up on the Rhino ramps, it will push your front spoiler back but it is made to do this.

3) Secure your front tire with a chock on the ramps.

4) Place a jack under the rear differential in the center.

5) Raises the rear to the desired height. (I always go all the way up)

6) Place jack stands under the rear carrier about where the urethane bushings are.

7) Go around front, raise the front up to level height.

8) Place jack stands under the front near the urethane bushings.

I take my wheels off 3-4 times a year to clean behind them, clean the suspension and then scrub the underside of the car. I attend 20+ Corvette shows a year and it is a true daily driver. This plus oil changes means she's up in the air a lot.

I have done this for at least 7 years on this car with 50k+ miles and have zero problems.

Jacking from the side puts too much stress on the body, you can see the gaps closing when you lift it.

I know this is what the manual says to do but watch you gaps close up when you lift it

The car normally rests on the suspension and is use to the pressure applied in this area during driving.