car ramps

[kartone]

Shopping for car ramps for a 1980 GTV, any thoughts?
Is 210mm the max height available?
Supercheap, Autobarn or Repco?

[DHDamo]

I just bought some from super cheap - 80 for the set I think. Only went the 185mm ones tho as front bumper is 210ish off the ground (84gtv). You might be right with an '80 and less plastic.

[colcol]

I have some thoughts, i haven't used mine in 20 years, because driving the car up the ramps, the ramps would move forward and you would have to back down and start again, a tad dangerous.
Older cars with lots of air under the front bumper don't drag on the ramp, such as my old 74 Passat, but my newer car such as the 33 the spoiler catches on the ramp.
Then when you get the car up on the ramps without any injury, there is no working room around the ramps.
You can't take your wheel of to get at that suspension component.
I would spend the money on a good hi lift jack and a set of chassis stands, as they give you more working room around the car.
And if need be you can always take off the wheel, while it is up on the stands, to give more working room.
And with chassis stands there is less of a chance of belting your head on something like ramps that stick out.
Didn't know you could still buy ramps, haven't seen them for years, and they take up more room to store, my two cents worth anyway, Colin.

[Darryl]

To deal with approach angle problem just use those old hardwood stair treads you have laying around (well we do in Qld in Qlders)... Also reduces "ramp skate" problem.

To just do a quick oil change etc much less hassle than jack + stands imho.

Of course, as with all tools/equipment - you can never have too many or too many options... In particular if you want to get the car up of the ground at both ends its nice to have one end on something stable like the ramps and the other on stands...

[poohbah]

I bought some a few months ago for my 156, but as the car is lowered, it is impossible to use them, unless it is to access the rear underside (by backing onto them).

So how useful they are will depend on your ride height and front overhang.

[LukeC]

I still have a set that I make as a foreign order when I was an apprentice fitter back in about 1984. Unlike a lot of tools, they have been boomarangs: given them away twice, and they keep on coming back. Once in a while, they are awesome, so I now keep them for those once in six month occasions!

Funny thing though was when I made them, I was "working" in a coal fired power station. I was busy welding away on my ramps behind a welding screen when the general manager does a walk around. He pauses in the middle of the workshop, looks around to survey most of the boilermakers doing S-F-A, and says out aloud:

"At least someone is working....!"

[Duk]

Funny thing though was when I made them, I was "working" in a coal fired power station. I was busy welding away on my ramps behind a welding screen when the general manager does a walk around. He pauses in the middle of the workshop, looks around to survey most of the boilermakers doing S-F-A, and says out aloud:

"At least someone is working....!"

GOLD!!! 

I'm another who reckons axle stands are better than ramps. I had some ramps years ago (I still don't know what happened to them. And don't care...........  ) and more often than not I'd jack the car up to slide the ramps under the wheels......................

[colcol]

To stop my ramps going forward when i drove up them, i used to place them next to the grooves in the concrete and put some timber / wood / screws / etc in the concrete grooves and place the ramps hard up against the objects placed in the grooves and that would mostly stop them taking off away from the car, was going to do something better like put some loxins in the concrete.
Then Hydraulic jacks got cheaper and more compact and chassis stands got cheaper, so now i have 8 chassis stands......as i have 2 Alfa Romeo's, sometimes you jack em up to do something and they end up being on the stands for weeks while you are waiting for time / motivation / parts to arrive, Colin.