Why do we need these?

 

Many dealers and shops use frame hoists to raise a car. I'm sure you've seen them. The car is driven onto and over the hoist ramps but ultimately ends up with the tires on the ground. Then they raise the hoist without having to "adjust" anything, like lifting arms on a 2-post or 4-post lift. The rails of the hoist just raise up and contact the rockers/frame rails of the car to lift it. The weight of the car is supported on the rockers/frame rails. Not usually a problem with steel cars but.....with a Vette it usually ends up cracking the plastic rockers under the car. Now, that may or may not mean anything but most owners don't want a car with cracked rockers. So, a few hundred dollars later they get repaired.....but whose dollars? Yours or the shops? It's almost always a fight and we don't always win.

So, the prudent thing to do is insert lifting pads or pucks in the frame rails. The pads/pucks extend below the rockers so that "those kinds of hoists" will contact the pads/pucks first and the weight of the car will be supported on them, transferred to the frame rails, instead of the plastic rockers. They mount in the 4 shipping slots, 2 on each side of the car between the wheels.

Many here buy special billet aluminum pucks or BMW pucks (yes BMW has the same problem apparently) for tens of dollars. They are very nice. But many of us just make our own out of hockey pucks and eye bolts for less than $10. Here's one thread that will give you an idea.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...ort-store.html

 

Also, FYI, some of us put in the lower profile BMW pucks and just leave them there all the time in case the car would be towed or otherwise end up at a repair shop without us there to babysit how it is lifted.

It doesn't guarantee the shop will lift the car with the pucks but increases the chances. We can always call them and let them know to further increase the chances.

 

Don't assume everyone knows how to put a C5 or C6 in the air without cracking the rocker panels. Buy the GM pucks, keep them in your car, and place them on the front seat before servicing. Have the service writer sign off that they'll be used. When you get your car back, check for cracked rocker panels. Most dealers will deny they did anything wrong. A good percentage of Chevy dealers don't know how to lift a Corvette, and for sure no one else has a clue. If anything, they'll tell you the doors have to be closed before the car goes up, and while that's true of C4s, it doesn't apply to the much-more-rigid C5 and C6.

Pucks are cheap. Buy a set.

 

Nice thing about the BMW pucks is that they've got flanges that "lock" into the slots in the frame rails & will stay in place. I've had mine in my '05 since new & have never lost one. As others have noted, if your Vette is being serviced on a frame lift, you absolutely need to be sure that the Tech knows to center the lift pads under the pucks.

 

Me too!

 

That just about says it all.