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Pit or Ramps ?


Arjan

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8 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

This is a good reason not to put a 4 poster in a recessed floor, or you can't put another car under it with it in the air. 

Another good reason not to recess the floor is so that you can easily roll a transmission jack, tool trolley etc about underneath the ramp

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15 hours ago, reb78 said:

How do you mount your jacking beam Sam? Your ramp is a very similar Bradbury to mine but I wasnt sure how a jacking beam would mount to it. 

Not sure what your ramp is like but the wheels free beams (1 fixed and 1 movable) have a flat top. The jacking beams run on these on sprung loaded wheels that lift up when weight is put on them. Will take a picture

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52 minutes ago, L19MUD said:

Not sure what your ramp is like but the wheels free beams (1 fixed and 1 movable) have a flat top. The jacking beams run on these on sprung loaded wheels that lift up when weight is put on them. Will take a picture

Interesting! I've never seen a jacking beam put onto the wheels free beams as you'd need to take the jack off to use them. I don't think its normal to have both on a lift is it? Edit to add the only jacking beams I've seen run on the edges of the ramp's runways.

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6 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

Interesting! I've never seen a jacking beam put onto the wheels free beams as you'd need to take the jack off to use them. I don't think its normal to have both on a lift is it? 

You would have to take the jacks off yes. Probably not normal! Jacking beams are a lot easier to use than the wheels free as you have to get the fixed beam in exactly the right pace to use them. In reality i hardly use the wheels free now.

It is useful to use when painting a chassis though as it makes the access better 

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17 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

This is a good reason not to put a 4 poster in a recessed floor, or you can't put another car under it with it in the air. 

Very happy with my 2 poster, only thing is it doesn't quite go high enough to get the other Range Rover under, a car or the trailer would though.

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12 hours ago, L19MUD said:

Not sure what your ramp is like but the wheels free beams (1 fixed and 1 movable) have a flat top. The jacking beams run on these on sprung loaded wheels that lift up when weight is put on them. Will take a picture

That is interesting. Both of my wheels free beams are moveable, but I was wondering if the jack could sit on top of them. It definitely wouldnt run on the ramps because, as Ross says, they are ribbed and I dont think it would run smoothly on them.

I need to modify the ramps at the front of my lift - they are too steep the way it is setup, fine for 4x4s but cars with lower suspension can bottom out as they drive up, a shallower angle with longer ramps would help.

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On 3/27/2021 at 4:05 PM, FridgeFreezer said:

Only wrinkle with a ramp is if you've got the headroom, and a solid enough floor, but if you're building the workshop to suit it's less of an issue.

TBH if I was starting from scratch I'd be tempted to dig a pit anyway, you can always leave it covered and not use it if you prefer the ramp.

A friend of mine bought a house with a pit in the garage, has no interest in working on cars. Its now a wine cellar :)

I was looking at the future and how to build a garage high enough for a lift and still stay within the planning-free build option, i can't see it. (flat roof limited to 2.5m or pitched 4m)

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Never seen that wheels-free style of lift, looks funky o.O

We made our own drop-down jacking beam for the four-poster. Looks like I never took a good picture, but it's just some box section welded in a --\_____/--. Fits between the wheels of most cars, and makes it possible to put a bottle jack under everything that can drive onto the ramp.

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16 minutes ago, elbekko said:

Never seen that wheels-free style of lift, looks funky o.O

We made our own drop-down jacking beam for the four-poster. Looks like I never took a good picture, but it's just some box section welded in a --\_____/--. Fits between the wheels of most cars, and makes it possible to put a bottle jack under everything that can drive onto the ramp.

The wheels free works by leaving the normal ramps on the floor, you do that by driving the car on then sliding plates on the end of each ramp back onto the ramp so they do not overlap the main frame then when you lift it up the ramps stay on the ground and only the two cross beams move up

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23 minutes ago, HoSS said:

I was looking at the future and how to build a garage high enough for a lift and still stay within the planning-free build option, i can't see it. (flat roof limited to 2.5m or pitched 4m)

Can you not use the raised tie, scissors or raised tie scissors trusses to get the height you need?

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Or, the double inverted?

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1 minute ago, L19MUD said:

The wheels free works by leaving the normal ramps on the floor, you do that by driving the car on then sliding plates on the end of each ramp back onto the ramp so they do not overlap the main frame then when you lift it up the ramps stay on the ground and only the two cross beams move up

Yeah. I saw a picture when I googled it:

https://www.gemco.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DM-C-Ash-Ltd-Web2.jpg

Looks like it gets horribly in the way for 90% of what you'd use a ramp for tbh...

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2 minutes ago, elbekko said:

Yeah. I saw a picture when I googled it:

https://www.gemco.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DM-C-Ash-Ltd-Web2.jpg

Looks like it gets horribly in the way for 90% of what you'd use a ramp for tbh...

Interestingly mine is also a Bradbury but the beams are not intrusive like that. The ramps that the wheels run on are shaped so that the wheel free beams push partly underneath them so they do not get in the way. In my picture above the ramp has not been pushed up tight to the wheels free beam

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33 minutes ago, HoSS said:

... I was looking at the future and how to build a garage high enough for a lift and still stay within the planning-free build option, i can't see it. (flat roof limited to 2.5m or pitched 4m)

Faced with the same problems I was thinking of a pit under a lift, possibly a large pit so 'half' the height of the lift would be below floor level.

I decided that getting a floor pad built to the required configuration would be too much struggle, and thought 'did I want to be walking down into the pit, and up again, every time I wanted to do something?'. If you include a safe stairway at the ends or sides a lot of floor space is lost, to say nothing of covering the stairway over, for safety, when it's not in use.

I decided against that configuration. I'm now thinking of a conventional Permitted Development building, with an adjacent concrete pad and 4 post lift mounted outside. Fortunately I have the ground area, but have yet to progress to the 'final solution'!

Regards.

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46 minutes ago, L19MUD said:

The wheels free works by leaving the normal ramps on the floor, you do that by driving the car on then sliding plates on the end of each ramp back onto the ramp so they do not overlap the main frame then when you lift it up the ramps stay on the ground and only the two cross beams move up

The ones I've used have the wheels free on separate beams front and rear so you lift the car as normal, lock in the wheels free beams and then drop the ramps away from it. 

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1 hour ago, HoSS said:

I was looking at the future and how to build a garage high enough for a lift and still stay within the planning-free build option, i can't see it. (flat roof limited to 2.5m or pitched 4m)

Was it you @simonr that put the 4 post lift outside and built some kind of shelter on it so it goes up with the lift? Someone on here has done it that way.

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19 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

Was it you @simonr that put the 4 post lift outside and built some kind of shelter on it so it goes up with the lift? Someone on here has done it that way.

Yeah it was simon i think, i remember it on here somewhere. Dont want that though, nice cosy dry workshop please.

 

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2 hours ago, JohnnoK said:

Can you not use the raised tie, scissors or raised tie scissors trusses to get the height you need?

Problem as i see it, is say vehicle height is 2.5m and i want to raise it 2m, thats already over 4m.

I think it will have to be a planning consent build...

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1 hour ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Alternative option, fit portals to the truck and then you can just sit up underneath while you work :D

I already have them, and i've often mused i could probably pitch a tent under there..

(apologies for thread drift) Actually the way it seems to work where i'm talking about, rural location is that barns/stables seem to be allowed. One went up around the corner in a previously empty field a few years ago so that a townie that moved in could keep horses. Thats a 6m high industrial type thing. I just need to say i'm putting 150 horses in it (or whatever that is in kW) ;)

 

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