A word of "CAUTION" on car ramp usage. When using these ramps, especially the plastic compound type, be sure to place them on a non slip surface or non slip device between floor and ramp. A painted or tiled garage floor is a hazard waiting to happen, so be safe rather than sorry....sigh... I attempted to back up onto the ramps with my 348 ts, made contact with the ramp lips and gave a little throttle to back onto the top and "BOOM" or Blammo or just plain "AW SHI........The one ramp shot under the car like a cannon and the other half suspended on the tire and frame, and there I sat saying bad words and beating my head. The slick epoxy painted floor was like snot with plastic ramps and as soon as the wheel began to rotate, it shot/thrust the ramps under the car. Fortune shined on me and little damage was done other than a couple bent flanged edges on floor panel. I was lucky the other side did not fling completely under the car as well. It did take considerable time to "ground" the car without causing damage when removing the ramps. Use a non skid surface and use approach pads over the lip of the ramps..or better yet, lift the car and slide the ramps under it so you can drive off. That is why I made the lift device shown on another post. Music please......DUMB DUMB de DUMB
I learned the exact same lesson with my brand new 1988 Honda CRX Si many moons ago... Shot the ramp like a bullet across the floor - would have seriously injured anyone in its path. All the best.
What a timely post! I was going to do my oil change and tranny fluid tonite using the black plastic ramps. I have an expoxy floor and also was going to back my brand new (to me) 348 onto them. What I like to do is firmly shove the lip of the ramp under the tire to make sure it is wedged well under the tire before I start driving onto ramps. Another thing worries me is the height of the ramp vs the clearance on the nose of the car. I did some basic geometry and noticed that when the car would sit on ramps with rear wheels, the front of nose will be less than 1 inch from ground (too close for comfort). Hence I was thinking to put the ramps at the edge of the garage where I have about 1 inch drop between the driveway and garage floor. That should help twofold: The ramps will be pushed againt the lip formed by garage floor when backing onto them and also will give me more clearance on the front end.
The issue here is the ramps being shot out/under the car because the floor is not sufficient to hold the ramps...A good example is a baseball pitching machine......grip. The tire has grip, much more so than the floor and wheel spin will spit out the ramp like a melon seed. Best bet is to raise car then set the ramps under the wheel...at least you can drive off when done. Other than that, as suggested, use a jack and stands. The possibility of severe damage to the Red is to costly to save a minute of labor by driving on.
Echo this..............particularly when there is a hot head behind the wheel who drives OFF the ramps with a blip of the throttle - even on a non-slip surface. Make sure that nobody is in the line of fire.
get a couple of strips of carpet, slightly thinner than the ramp. Fold it in half around the entry point of the ramp. As you reverse, the wheels go over the carpet, and the weight of the car stops the ramps slipping so easily...
For garages where real work is done, an epoxy or paint is not a good thing. For garages where bling is king, then a painted floor or tiles are fine.
Let's see if I can describe as I understood it................ Eddie's tip is to use a strip of old carpet in a loop to anchor the ramp as you start to climb up. The strip is narrower than the width of the ramp and maybe six foot in length. Loop the strip around the bottom rung of the ramp and double it over the three feet length that is already on the floor. When the car tyres approach the ramp, they are already bearing down on the "sandwich" of carpet and this stops the ramp from moving away; same happens when you descend - the carpet stops the ramp from shooting out. Great idea.
Thank you. But my head is spinning even more now. I just do it this way....much safer then ramps. Image Unavailable, Please Login
My standard procedure for coming off the ramps with the Lotus is to tap the gas an clutch at the same time and eject the ramps.
I did the same thing a few years ago when I attempted to back my concours winning Jaguar up onto some steel ramps in my garage. Same story, the ramps just slipped on the concrete floor and damaged both rear sills on my car. Not a happy situation.
As you will see, I spent hours preparing a sophisticated illustration of the technique..... Image Unavailable, Please Login
