Hey all,
Finally got my Kwiklift ramps set up in my short and narrow garage space. These are going to allow me to do a few things:
1. In their "lay flat" mode, I won't scrape my exhaust when I enter the garage - I go up from the sidewalk to get into my garage, then it quickly levels out. I regularly scrape the transition lip with my exhaust, and prior to this I simply laid down a mix of plywood and sheetrock scraps to raise the front tires a little more as I came in. Now, when I drive on to the ramps, the front will continue to rise up so I'll clear the transition.
2. I'll be able to get under the car in a limited fashion while it's in "lay flat" mode, and when I can jack it up, I can get completely under the car. I can leave the creeper underneath the car at all times so I don't even have to move it into position. The jack will always stay under the Kwiklift crossbar.
3. I got the crossmember that allows you to place a bottle jack under the suspension or to change tires while the car is still up on the ramps. It's also a nice platform for the oil pan for oil changes (already did one on my regular driver, and it was an easy drive-up-the-ramps affair) and it provides a movable support for transmission, or exhaust, etc.
4. Unit is pricey, but for my situation where I'm scraping when I enter the garage and have very limited space to work in, it's worth it. I'll eventually save money by doing more work myself.
5. For friends and girlfriend who worry about me working under the car, I can claim "hey, even if the ramps fail, the worst thing is the car falls flat on the collapsed ramp and the car is still about 5 inches or so higher than it would be otherwise."
6. I laid grip tape ($60 for 60 foot or so from Amazon, and used the rest on some stairs) on the ramps for better grip in the wet, and used rare earth magnets from Edmunds Scientific to make the approach ramps stay put but still be easy to take off when I use the other lay-flat ramps. I'll put magnets on those too.
pics!
Finally got my Kwiklift ramps set up in my short and narrow garage space. These are going to allow me to do a few things:
1. In their "lay flat" mode, I won't scrape my exhaust when I enter the garage - I go up from the sidewalk to get into my garage, then it quickly levels out. I regularly scrape the transition lip with my exhaust, and prior to this I simply laid down a mix of plywood and sheetrock scraps to raise the front tires a little more as I came in. Now, when I drive on to the ramps, the front will continue to rise up so I'll clear the transition.
2. I'll be able to get under the car in a limited fashion while it's in "lay flat" mode, and when I can jack it up, I can get completely under the car. I can leave the creeper underneath the car at all times so I don't even have to move it into position. The jack will always stay under the Kwiklift crossbar.
3. I got the crossmember that allows you to place a bottle jack under the suspension or to change tires while the car is still up on the ramps. It's also a nice platform for the oil pan for oil changes (already did one on my regular driver, and it was an easy drive-up-the-ramps affair) and it provides a movable support for transmission, or exhaust, etc.
4. Unit is pricey, but for my situation where I'm scraping when I enter the garage and have very limited space to work in, it's worth it. I'll eventually save money by doing more work myself.
5. For friends and girlfriend who worry about me working under the car, I can claim "hey, even if the ramps fail, the worst thing is the car falls flat on the collapsed ramp and the car is still about 5 inches or so higher than it would be otherwise."
6. I laid grip tape ($60 for 60 foot or so from Amazon, and used the rest on some stairs) on the ramps for better grip in the wet, and used rare earth magnets from Edmunds Scientific to make the approach ramps stay put but still be easy to take off when I use the other lay-flat ramps. I'll put magnets on those too.
pics!
