Brain pickin' time

Alan S

Alan S

Well-known member
1000+ Posts
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
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Location
Queensland, Australia
I am about to get an(other) extension on my garage. As the majority of cars I own/intend keeping are Citroens and have the habit of sitting on you when you work under them (known affectionately as the "Clucky Chook Syndrome" by those who have survived blush clown :rolleyes: I have visions of installing a ramp/pit so that I can work with a bit of safety as I don't move real quick these days & wobbly axle stands are to me a bit of a worry regardless of how well you think you have them placed.
I'm looking for suggestions, preferrably based on experience on how to design such a beast without ending up driving a car through thr roof rafters or taking up half of the garage floor space with the run on ramp.
The three options I am looking at are;
#1 In the new swction which will be 40 ft. long by 12 foot wide but which will have a roller door at each end BUT only an 8 ft. ceiling.
#2 Build it in the existing garage which is 40 ft long by 30 ft wide with a drive through (2 roller doors) on one side but not the other which has a 9 ft ceiling, but in this case, how do I attach the raised section & run on ramp to existing cured concrete?
#3 Build it outside so that I don't have a ceiling height problem but then I have the worry of having to work out in the weather mainly the scorching hot summers & wouldn't have access to power, lights, tools etc without resorting to extension leads and gear getting dropped all over the show as well as if we ever come back to a proper weather pattern, rain for weeks on end as well as run off water from dams etc.
With the inside options, I don't intend to make them at stand up underneath height, but by the same token, I can see problems with them being fixed to the existing floors.
Anyone got any suggestions or advice to offer?
Be a bit of a worry if the thing was unstable when it had a car on it eek!
Any access to drawn plans of course would be the ultimate :D
Alan S
 
Alan,

I've been contemplating this one myself (as I'll hopefully be building a shed later this year).

I think I'll go the 'standard' height which rules out ever picking up a 'cheap' 2post hoist. Buying 'high' sheds is very expensive! I'm thinking a shallow kneel down pit, with some high full length ramps. The only problem I see with ramps is they'll have to stay there as they'll be way to big to shift/store. This means any car parked in that section will have to be put on the ramps.

The problems this causes are. A: I don't won't Angela attempting to park in a shed where she'll have to get onto ramps, and I don't want her trying to get out of a car parked on ramps (wwwhhhheeee, splat!....) eek! eek! If the car get immobilised once it's on ramps the bloody thing'll be stuck there due to it's shitty ground clearance.

A DEEP pit, well I hate deep pits, they are dangerous, always fill with water and I hate working with my hands held above my head. I'll probably go for the ramp idea and a kneel down pit. I'll just put it at the back of the shed in an area that'll never be likely to be used on a daily bassis. I'll just park one of my 'restoration' (read shitheap:D) project cars on it.

I'm thinking of building a 12x7meter shed up the back yard. I think funds may be a 'little' short this year, so I may start by just expanding the existing shed backward with enough room for two more cars. :confused:

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Alan

If I remember correctly, Dad had a wheel alignment ramp thingy installed in a servo he owned years ago. It was a drive on affair and was bolted to the existing floor of the workshop with dynabolts etc. This may be an answer.

If you are worried about ramp length for drive ons etc, is is not possible to have the ramps themselves built as removable? That way the ramps could be attached as required (with some blocking device to stop enthusiatic sons reversing a car off the thing without said ramps in place) and therefore the length of the drive on sections need not be so important when calculating whether the setup will fit in the garage.

Of course you would have to ensure that the height of the garage door opening allows for a car to be driven up the ramps on to the raised section.

My 2 cents

clown
 
Hi Alan,

are you going to buy a kit shed?? I was thinking if I could get the plans it'd be easy enough to weld up a frame for a small double garage easily enough?? Should be quite cheap to make your own if you just buy materials & use 1 single door (Then I could get the 'big' shed later :D )

Maybe I'll just look at another double garage and just 'copy' it's structure :confused:

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Shane,

I have a mate who owns a few building companies including one that does sheds from garden sized to industrial.
My present garage is a 40ft X 30ft with drive through one side (drive car & boat in and car only out-then connect car to boat to take it out to save reversing etc.) on one side & a roller door with workshop/storage space alongside and bathroom as well as "clean work" area at the rear. By clean work I mean computers & electronics etc. Out the back there is a 20 ft by 10 ft carport. What we intend doing is pulling the windows out of the existing side (40ft) wall and putting up a 40 ft long wall which is 12 ft wide with roller doors front & rear, and extending the roof across. This way I can possibly seal this section off to be used as a spray painting bay without getting overspray all over the rest of the garage. :cool:
The existing garage is gyprock lined, has a 9 ft ceiling but the extension will only have an 8 ft ceiling. I have storage space in the roof of the existing garage but there will be no room for that in the extension.
I designed the original garage & I think I still have the plans for it which if I can dig them up, you are welcome to.
I did most of the yakka with the original one as regards slab pouring etc. Maybe that's why I'm stuffed now :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Alan S
 
Alan,

your shed sounds very intersting, wonder how much that'd cost to build. Wouldn't mind a look at the plans, though they probably are copywrited :p

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Hi Guy's
It's feasible to make a drive on setup with removeable ramps that actually fold dowm flat when not in use. I looked at truck chasis rails several years ago whilst making my trailor,the supports for the rails are hindged like a parallellogram to the floor & being hardened steel only supports at each end would be needed, ones i looked at were about 15feet long & a U channel 4" x 12" there were various lengths available. The floor would then be accessable for parking. When i was looking the rails were available for $50 in 1999 at a truck wreckers in Bendigo Vic, the whole thing could be put together for under $400 if you have the welding & cutting equipment
 
Hi guy's, excuse my ignorance, but arnt pits illegal, isn't there something about pits of any depths being illegal and also not insurable. I remember as a kid a few friends fathers had them and were all ordered to fill them in. I remember it being a really big deal at the time even in private homes, I think a drive on ramp like a wheel alignment ramp would be the go.

David.
 
David,

That's basically what I'm talking about. Got no intention of diggin' holes in the garage floor-wife 'd bloody kill me eek! eek!
The problem envisaged was how much space would the run up ramp use up & what options would be available to limit the loss of space.
Whilst a ramp would be a great advantage in saving the aching bones having to bend, the loss of a lot of floor space would have hardly made it feasible 8_ball

Alan S
 
I kinda like kneel down pits, wonder if they are illegal, I dug one in my old mans shed when we built it wink

Basicly yeah, I agree they are quite dangerous around idiots (and what do you know, I've 'fallen' into it several times :mad: even though I new it was there and un-covered).

I can't imagine that there'd be such a thing as a 'safe' pit with children around :confused: I certainly would have found a way into it when I was a kid (probably head 1st :) ). I did manage to get into everything else (much to the distress of everyone around me) :p :p

Hmm, maybe I'll just make my own, keep that section of the shed locked away from everyone, and always keep it covered, or a 'Cit' in low rider mode over it evil

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Based on suggsetions to date, I'm starting to think along the lines as Dave & a couple have suggested and am starting to think checkerplate on an angle iron frame. If it goes say 2'6" (800mm?) that is a bit above desk height, that should do I think. You have to watch it doesn't end up neither your kneck nor your knee :rolleyes: as regards height which might make it too low to kneel and too high to lie on a creeper; assuming we settle on that option, that means a removable ramp could be the go but how do we fix the frame to the floor and design it in such a way as to prevent it getting the gollywobbles eek! when you drive a car up on it?
By that I mean both the raised deck as well as the ramp. question

Alan S
 
Alan,

dynabolts, what else. dozen or so of them on each ramp and the only way it'll move is if the shed floor moves with it eek! eek!

seeya,
Shane L.
PS: Just sent those CD's off to you. Not bad only about 6months after you requested them :p :p evil
 
Alan,

I was just thinking about the space/height problem. What if you made two very strong checkerplate ramps that are the length of a D's wheelbase (good 'n' long :D ). Mount them at the front with two really good mounts on pivots (bolted to the shed floor). In normal use, they'd look like just ramps (one end up high, the other end on the floor). Once you have driven a car on them. you have a cross brace at the back of the ramps you can put a jack under, lift the rear of the ramps up from here to the same height as the front and put two solid support under both ramps. Remove jack, cars up, with no additional space used :confused: :confused:

Should work, they'd have to be strong ramps that's take the wieght of a heavy car effortlessly question

seeya,
Shane L.
 
OK, I've now decided what I'm going to do.

I'll get two really, really strong ramps that are slightly longer the the wheelbase of a 'D'.

At the front of the shed I'll dynabolt two large solid plates of metal to the floor. To these plates I'll weld 4 LARGE captive nuts. Have you ever seen the varandah posts on a new steel home?? These are extremely heavy guage box section posts. I'll use some of this (my old man has sections of it in his shed) to make the front ramp mounts with.

I'll bolt to the floor these heavy verandah post sections with a series of holes bored through it. Then with slightly smaller (but still very heavy) box section I'll weld the pivot for the ramp to the top, bore a hole through it and slide it into the section welded to the floor.

Just think how you extend the boom on an engine crane and you'll get the idea. I now have variable height ramps. A heavy box section will be bolted between the ramps at the rear, this is so you'll be able to jack the rear of the ramps up from one point. I'll bolt two big plate to the floor where the rear of the ramp will touch. Here I'll do the same as the front mounts for but use some sort of quick release for the rear mounts, so they are simple to install/remove.

The best bit is with 20minutes work, I can unbolt the box section from the floor (leaving the plates dynabolted there) and remove the ramps and mountings when not needed.

Hmmm, lots to think about. I may see if I can buy some long ramps from somewhere.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
Shane,

I've got a mate who owns a steel garage & house manufacturing business who is also an engineer. I'll try to decipher the instructions & get them down on paper; if I can get one of my boys to draw it up in auto-cad, I'll post it to see if we can improve on it before I go into making it.
And Ang thought you were just a pretty face :rolleyes: :p
Thanx again.

Alan S
 
Another idea, at a trade show many years ago there was a cheap alternative to a hoist that didn't take up anywhere near the room. I can't remember what it was called or even if it's still available but basically you just put it up to the side of the car and it lifts and tilts it over at a 45 degree angle, it was compacted and didn't need any height and you just worked on the car on its side, no good for oil changes but handy for most other work.
Just a thought,

David.
 
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