Saving Kiloran's 940

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Ever onwards, good luck with sorting the teething shakedown issues.

At least it should be a simple fix.

Cheers
Steve

How bored would we all be if there was nothing wrong with them

[kiloran]

I can't believe it but I'm seriously considering getting a portable hydraulic scissor lift, with three cars in the household it would pay for itself in service and repair costs pretty quickly. Thing is, if I get one it will inevitably lead to a car port, and who knows what else. When we moved here our second choice property had an attached double garage with a pit, oh to have that now.

[griston64]

Originally Posted by kiloran

I can't believe it but I'm seriously considering getting a portable hydraulic scissor lift, with three cars in the household it would pay for itself in service and repair costs pretty quickly. Thing is, if I get one it will inevitably lead to a car port, and who knows what else. When we moved here our second choice property had an attached double garage with a pit, oh to have that now.

I'm thinking along the same lines ! I'm coping ok with ramps etc but if I could get something to lift the car to a sensible height in the garage I would consider it

[Steve 940]

Oh, it's not just me then 😀

Just before I bought my barge, I was even looking at four point lifts that can go outside!! Not really viable I understand.

This has in turn now turned to extending our single garage into a large double, just awaiting planning 🤞 unfortunately we've used permitted development area in extending the house some 20'years ago.....Just want somewhere dry, with concrete floor, and space to work around the car.

I believe the diagnosis is Man Maths as SWMBO has implied😀

Cheers
Steve

[stephend]

And me...

There is a company (I forget the name right now) that does a drive-on ramp using four farm jacks to get a 4' lift, enough to sit under. I've sorely tempted by one of those.

Or CJ Autos do a system with four hydraulic ramps, where you drive on with them flat then pump to raise them. They look a bit higher than regular ramps.

But they're both over a grand, and so far all I've done is drool!!

[kiloran]

I'm fortunate that my partner suffers from "man maths" too. We set aside a budget for house maintenance every year - garden, fences, shed, patio, pointing, guttering etc and then need to choose which we do. Or in her case, just get on with it and plan the lot! It's taken me a while to adjust to the fact that her grand schemes change frequently and often we end up spending no money - quite fortunate that trying to secure tradespeople is about as tricky as finding a heater control valve for a RHD 940. Every conversation starts with "Don't worry, this doesn't mean we're actually spending the money"

Pretty sure therefore that if I mentioned it a lift would be approved. Portable ones are around a grand and there's enough old car nuts in school who'd be happy to chip in on a group purchase. Hmmm. Time to sound them out I think.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by stephend

And me...

There is a company (I forget the name right now) that does a drive-on ramp using four farm jacks to get a 4' lift, enough to sit under. I've sorely tempted by one of those.

Or CJ Autos do a system with four hydraulic ramps, where you drive on with them flat then pump to raise them. They look a bit higher than regular ramps.

But they're both over a grand, and so far all I've done is drool!!

I believe the CJ Autos quad hydraulic ramps are 16"/400mm lift. Not entirely convinced about using 4 farm jacks to get a 4' lift, i assume there's also some sort of safety system involved?

I'm currently working on a design for my own ramps, not dissimilar to the basic mechanical lifting ramps that CJ Autos produce but with a couple of major differences so that i can't be accused of copyright infringement. How many different designs can you come up with for an adjustable height ramp though? Not many! Inevitably there will be similarities of course.

Before i moved here my driveway had a 4' deep pit in it which was extremely useful and much safer - if it's not lifted it can't fall!

[kiloran]

Dave, Dave, Dave - you're going to cost me a bloomin' fortune! I was unaware until now of the joys of CJ Autos. Just need to find the tradeoff between portability, stability, and lifting ability.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by kiloran

Dave, Dave, Dave - you're going to cost me a bloomin' fortune! I was unaware until now of the joys of CJ Autos. Just need to find the tradeoff between portability, stability, and lifting ability.

Far be it from me to deprive you of those joys Alan!

https://www.cjautos.org.uk/phdi/p1.n...ocument&part=2

Enjoy!

If nothing else it gives you a few ideas of what to look for and what's available.
Others are available from Twinbusch but they tend to be £OUCH and then some :

https://www.twinbusch.co.uk/

At the bottom end of the scale are these things too :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393703544526

Very undecided if they're a good idea or not, it can still be tricky getting a low car onto a standard set of ramps whereas the CJ Autos offerings seems to be lower to start with. Then there are these on fleabay at the moment :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154698540894

Look like an older version of the CJ Autos mechanical adjustable ramp with a 16" total lift. This type also appear on ebay every so often :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124978597564
(That's a recently completed listing so the link may disappear quicker than "live" listings)

Couple something like that with a pop-up garage from Machine Mart and you will get round the planning permission problem and save a bit of money on the building.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/c/sheds/

There are loads of options out there, all depends on individuals' budgets, needs and so on. Just needs a bit of thought as to what would work best for the person - i'm still deciding, it's only been 9 years so far!

[kiloran]

Never been a fan of conventional ramps because so much car maintenance is wheels, hubs, brakes, suspension bits, etc. Now I'm getting on a bit I'd appreciate the extra height but something which uses the sill lifting points seems a better option. Also those of us with tiny B200Fs have so much access from the top of the engine there are fewer reasons to have to get underneath.