Getting car up on ramps

[Muttley]

I was just wondering what tricks others might use. I normally like to change the oil with the front of the car up on ramps. A front wheel drive is easy - just drive it up, but when I try with the commodore, once the front wheels get up on the ramp, it just pushes the ramps along the garage floor, or even worse, shoots the ramps out from under the car.

Are there any tricks people use to stop this happening?

 

[VT-565]

dynabolt the ramps down? the only problem with what you're doing is that when the oil is draining out, you will alwys leave a little bit in the sump because of the angle the car is on. i use a jack, i cant drive my car onto ramps at the front, it's too low. so is the back come to think of it...

 

[L8N]

Muttley as EcotecManiac your car should be level when you change the oil so all of the old oil comes out. a small trolly jack and four axel stands would be the easyiest way NEVER GET UNDER A CAR SUPORTED ONLY BY A JACK.

i cant drive my car onto ramps at the front, it's too low. so is the back come to think of it...

same here. the other day when my dad and i changed the oil in my car it took so long to get the car up its not funny. we couldnt even use a jack (but it was a massive jack not one of those small trolly jacks) cause you could get the front up but you couldnt get rear up or vise versa, so we had to use some blocks of wood drive it up on to the wood even that took awhile needed a bit of a run up. then when it was on the blocks we could get the jack under and jack it up and put it on jack stands.

 

[michaelw]

Two tricks I use.
1)Put a towel under each ramp. The problem with the ramps is that they are solid metal and on a solid concrete (or worse brick) ground there is only a few points of contact. With a thick rag (towel) under each ramp the towel will compress as the weight comes on, speading the load and increasing friction.

2)Run FE2's which mean that the front bumper is too low for most ramps, so infront of each ramp had a block of 4X2" so that the tire hit that and raised the bumper enough to clear the ramps.

HTH

Mike

 

[Muttley]

Hadn't thought of the towell. That's the kind of trick I am looking for. Might give it a go. Even stock standard the front fouls on the ramp so last time I used a couple of pavers in front of the ramp to drive up on first to get more clearance. Ended up just leaving it up on the pavers when the ramps exited from under the car and had just enough room to get under it to the sump plug. I would never get under a car that was just up on a jack.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[matty88]

CHocking the rear wheels also helps to stop the front ramps from sliding out underneath the car

 

[FCCOOL]

two tricks I figured out a few years ago working on smooth concrete floors. No 1, drive up with the hand brake dragging then use it for brakes, dont use the foot brake period unless your handbrake dosn't work, this usully works well and the guys at work were always amazed by my then secret method, other was if that was failing I would also stick old rubber floor mats under the ramps.
It used to be funny watching guys at work try to get up the ramps, then I would jump in and get up first go with the handbrake.

 

[vtss5spd]

I reverse the car up on the ramps, ( my old man welded extensions on the bottom so the rear just gets up) and then jack up the front and slide another set of ramps underneath, easy

 

[smithy73]

I know with my VP SII V6 - I can undo the sump plug from the top - under the bonnet.
Therefore no need to jack it up or ramps. Checking for an oil leak is another story.

 

[MarzVP]

I changed my oil with out ramps or jacks on my VP and i can drive it up the ramps without the bumper hitting or anything else bad happening.