Wood Ramps

I thought having a lift in my garage would be cool. Then I researched it some more and after reading every post known to man about lifts, now I am not sure what type should I choose: 2 post, 4 post, scissor or kwiklift. Simple things like oil changes, jacking up one end put the jack stand underneath, jack up the other side, do the same. Need to replace both my trust pad and transmission mount and have been procrastinating... Hate the usual jacking up routine... I can get underneath ok, but once underneath I find myself not wanting to get up for no reason unless there is no one home to bring me a wrench or two I forgot... Even my 8 and 10 year old now once they see me going into the garage, they wear headphones... "sorry daddy, didn't hear you screaming again "can some please bring me an extension for a half inch drive?"

Three 2x6 x12 as the back bone. Twelve 2x6 spacers about 3" thick on either side for a total of 24. Spaced every 12". Top is a single (for now) 2x12x12. 300 4" screws all together. Ramps are made the same way, topped off with 3/4 5ply plywood. 4ft long, used a basic wheelchair ramp table for the incline angle ( I was sitting right next to a cute brunette the day we were learning about the Pythagoras Theorem, so the table worked fine...)

As of right now, with the single 2x12, I gained about 7" plus the height of the car, which in my case is about 7" depending on where you measure. I am working on attaching the loading ramps to the main ramps and also adding some led lights underneath so I can see. I used a bathroom scale to see how heavy it is and it hit the "to be continued" mark instantly... I will also need a mirror installed head on so I can see when I am driving up the ramps. I am basically making a "poor mans" Kwiklift. $1500 shipped and I will have to pick it up 50 miles away with a rental trailer... I have about $90 into it so far, most of it went to screws... Everything was pre drilled and counter sunk. Will sand it, prime it, then paint it. The thing is, I can adjust it and use it on every car, mainly for servicing, grease jobs, the Riviera is so long, with the front wheels chocked, the rears are still on the ramp, barely but while on all the others I can chock the rears and remove the ramps, I can't on the Riviera...

I parked on the ramps tonight. I must have gone up and down 20 times. No creaking, no movement, nothing. The hardest thing is the up and down without some sort of guidance. As far as the construction, the wood was dry, as straight as anyone can expect HD wood to be, it is wide enought at 11" to drive on and off. I started saving for the lift, but for now, until I figure out what I need and not what I want, I thought this will be fine. I will use jack stands underneath also, but this time it will be a lot easier to jack her up. Also, if a jack stand ever failed, the tire will hit the wood before me, or at least that's what I want to believe.

Opinions are welcomed...

Nice job! Looks sturdy enough. What do you do if you want to access the underside from the side?

I knew I would have no access to the underside from the sides when I built them. My main goal was to get the car high enough in order to slide a jack and raise it. I do have a low profile jack, but still I had to go from side to side, to side to side. This way it is high enough to slide the jack under the rear end raise it. Same for the front end. I can always make some cribbing and add to it. But there will be no side access. I can get to the sides from either the front or the rear. As it sits right now, it is almost to the height I had it when I replaced the torque tube seal a couple of years ago. Anything from this point forward will be an upgrade...

Make the center section removable after the car in on?

Cut a hole in the garage floor and dig a service pit like mine?

(I can help with the 'missing tool' vocabulary)

Willie

Make the center section removable after the car in on?

That was my first thought.

Cut a hole in the garage floor and dig a service pit like mine?

Gawlee, that seems like a lot of work. I will let you know positives and negatives about each kind of lift later...

(I can help with the 'missing tool' vocabulary)

Willie

Heard 'em.

Hi,

Digging a hole for a pit has its own set of dangers. Collapse of the sides is one, but even worse is the accumulation of fumes in the pit. They can kill you before you know you're in trouble. There are OSHA regulations that you may wish to follow, not to make OSHA happy, but because they make sense.

--Tom

Hi,

Digging a hole for a pit has its own set of dangers. Collapse of the sides is one, but even worse is the accumulation of fumes in the pit. They can kill you before you know you're in trouble. There are OSHA regulations that you may wish to follow, not to make OSHA happy, but because they make sense.

--Tom

????Collapse?...not if the floor and sides are concrete. What is the source of those deadly fumes? There must be a lot in mine after 35 years. ????

To build a pit today, assuming one seeks a permit, requires complying with all kinds of regulation; expensive regs dealing with drainage, electrical, fumes, etc. The compliance makes it almost cost prohibitive.

I thought that KwikLift went out of business? If so, then only used would be available.

I have, and prefer a 2-post. It is a lot of extra work to change a tire on a 4-post?

http://www.kwik-lift.com

I think they were bought by this guy and they are back in business. I would still have to get the center link bridge though. There will be no tax since I am in TX but it will cost $125 to ship to a remote location, more if I wanted it home.

"To build a pit today, assuming one seeks a permit, requires complying with all kinds of regulation; expensive regs dealing with drainage, electrical, fumes, etc. The compliance makes it almost cost prohibitive."

​Permit, compliance what Blue state do you live in ? You dig a pit, line it with concrete and you have a place to work for a long time. Take a trouble light down the ladder with you. You don't run the car with you in the pit and if it fills with gas fumes you get a fan and stay out of it.

Damn government has their hands in way too much stuff for my tastes. What ever happened to live your life and leave me alone ?

HEAR,HEAR! I am with you, Bill.

Ben

​Permit, compliance what Blue state do you live in ? You dig a pit, line it with concrete and you have a place to work for a long time. Take a trouble light down the ladder with you. You don't run the car with you in the pit and if it fills with gas fumes you get a fan and stay out of it.

Damn government has their hands in way too much stuff for my tastes. What ever happened to live your life and leave me alone ?

I can guarantee you that in my city, if I attempted to do as you say, city inspectors would swoop down and hit me with a ton of violations.

They would do so, not because of concern for my personal safety, but because the permits cost money = generate revenue. Hell, they even require a permit to park your car in front of your house overnight. Ah Milwaukee, WI, gotta love it; NOT!

Hi,

The safety concerns of auto mechanic pits are very real. For the same reason that excavated trenches have to be buttressed to prevent collapse on a worker, an auto pit should be adequately built to prevent collapse. Unreinforced concrete may not be enough to hold up. The pit should be engineered to assure that it is safe for a person to be in.

The fumes concern is that petro-fumes can and will accumulate in the pit, and the person down there can be rendered, unknowingly, unable to respond before he can get out.

This is not an advertisement for OSHA--as a businessman in the construction industry I have little fondness for OSHA--but it IS an advertisement for not making a one-way trip into a mechanic's pit.

As a private person in your own garage, it's your decision. As for me, I chose not to dig one.

--Tom

Just my point of view . I have seen lifts for as low as $1500 new. You deduct the expense of a reinforced concrete pit and it's a little less. If you decide to sell your house you'd need to fill that pit(unless you found someone looking for a garage pit) or remove the lift and put it in your new place. Just saying.

I got home late yesterday, drove straight to HD and got another 2x12 and laid it on top. I do have now a little over 9" of height, there is no rubbing going up or down and other than a half inch adjustment width wise, both the old girl and the Riviera fir perfect, for now at least. I haven't tried the 37 as of yet, will try it today at some point.

I have seen Willie's pit and it is sweet! Serves its purpose and it is built well. My concrete foundation is 12" thick, measured from the back end of the wall outside. No, I did not drill to find dirt from the inside, but the slab measures almost 12" from the dirt up... I have 12" ceilings, no drywall at all, (which I like, because it is like an empty canvas) and two doors that their tracks are in the way. I priced a single roll-uo door and it was about $600 installed. It can wait. I have enough height for either a 2 post or a 4 post lift, but the top car will have to go arse first to clear the door tracks and the door opener, as it sits right in the middle. I liked the Kwik-lift idea, but I am not 100% sold on it. That's why I tried the wood ramps idea first. I have about $120 invested and I do have the primer and paint... Best thing, the are Made In Texas!

Hi,

Your 12" depth of concrete measurement is likely inaccurate. The perimeter footer of a slab is typically much deeper than the slab itself. You can measure your slab's thickness by drilling a small (1/4") hole through it somewhere other than the perimeter (maybe 2 feet in from the edge) and seeing how deep it goes before you run out of concrete.

--Tom

Stavros,

Your slab will be 4". All residential slabs built since (at least) the 50's are that depth unless specified differently.

I have done several jobs in Willie's pit. A pit is similar to the four post lift with several disadvantages. "Oops, I forgot the tool up top" - being number one. "I have to pee" - being a close second. I don't know the legality of it, I won't get into that. I don't know if the labor and concrete costs in 2015 dollars would be any cheaper than either pro lift.

I have a 2 post and two 4 post lifts. It truly does make a difference what you do most of the time. Since I clean numerous old cars per year, I prefer the 2 post for that job. The underside is clear, so I can scrape and blast the underside without the driveway ramps under. The other disadvantage to the four post is that I am constantly banging my head on the runway. The four post lifts I have can be moved, so you don't have to bolt them to the floor. They feel more secure and "safe". I purchased the hydraulic lift option for $600 when I bought my four post. Well worth it! You can park under a four post. You would never want to park beneath a two post for two reasons, the first being I wouldn't trust it. More importantly, there are drip pans that you can install the entire length of the four post so minimal drips will get on the bottom car.

I don't think a Kwik lift or any midsize lift would be of any use other than in a tire shop scenario, but even then, think about it. Big tire stores still use real lifts. Cheap tire stores use jacks. I would vote against either of these lifts, personally.

Lastly, I don't think any true lift will be comfortable in under 12 feet.

Great post Mike! It's nice to have a "users" perspective when their experience includes the two styles in use.

As Mike states: "It depends on what you want to do ..."

I agree with him that 12' is not a luxury, but a necessity. To me there is no sense in having a lift if I cannot stand up straight underneath it while working. To do so mandates 12 feet of clearance.

I do disagree about parking under a 2-post lift. Perhaps it depends on the lift? I do not have a $1,500 special. Mine is a Mohawk A-7' albeit used. Even used it cost considerably more than $1,500.

It seems to me if one feels it is not safe to park a car under a 2-post lift with a car on it, then logically they should not feel safe walking under a car on that same lift?

I do agree about the drip situation. To address that I clamp a plastic tarp to the underside of the car on the lift.

Both the lift and tarp have served me well for years now.

Also let me add: Opinions are like noses, everyone has one!

Mike, I believe has the best setup combination. One other disadvantage of the 2-post is with convertible flex...I'll bet he never puts his convertible on it now that everything is adjusted.

One more advantage of the the pit is that you can work below, but can still lean over a fender to work.

One disadvantage is the injury hazard if you fall in. One early morning I went out to my shop and found the side door open; inside there was blood in the bottom of the pit and on the ledge on the side along with some tooth fragments. "Midnight requisition" was interrupted :eek:. The car I usually have parked over the pit was in the body shop.

Stavros should have enough room now for a creeper. He probably should not dig a pit since his socialist HOA would not approve if found out.

Willie

Great post Mike! It's nice to have a "users" perspective when their experience includes the two styles in use.

Agreed ....

Useful information by the OP ...

Jim

I do not disagree, Dave.

My two post lift is rated at 7,500 lbs. the slab in my garage was poured at up to 5 1/2" thick. It was designed by the previous owner to basically be a commercial property. I just don't feel as secure working under the two post lift. I use tall auxiliary jack stands when I work on any car. Much the same way as I would if working under a car with a hydraulic floor jack. It just "feels" safer under a four post. Yes, I have seen failures of four post lifts in advertisements. Nothing is 100% safe.

NOW with that said, another reason that I can't park under my two post is that even though the car's roof is at the same level relative to a four post, the suspension is loose to dangle. I can't even drive under my two post if a car is on it.

I knew I forgot something...