Alternative to Jack Stands

Posted by JeromeSolberg On 2017/6/22 20:32:00

I was going to do this long ago, but got talked out of it by my friend, and earlier by my father.

But I finally broke down and did it.

What I found is that I felt very unsafe putting the car up on jack stands to do things like clean the oil pan, check the transmission fluid level, check the brake fluid (hard to get to from on top).

What I did was purchase 4 heavy-duty ramps (flat on top, with a little stop), they are plastic but rated each for 3000#, they come in pairs. You can buy them at OReilly's or Autozone or what-have-you.

Then you jack the front of the car up and put the ramps under the front tires, with the stop to the front.

Then you jack the rear of the car up and put the ramps under the rear tires, with the stop to the rear.

Now the car cannot roll off the ramps, is perfectly level, and is much, much more stable and safer than the equivalent arrangement on jack stands, especially considering how high you have to get the car off the ground to work comfortably.

To get the car down, reverse the process, though you could just only remove the rear ramps and roll backwards. I prefer to just move the car up and down vertically, it's not that much more trouble.

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