Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2011 15:55:51 -0700
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Help the chimp avoid getting crushed
In-Reply-To: <4deaac09.504de50a.5908.56f2@mx.google.com>
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On Sat, 2011-06-04 at 18:04 -0400, David Beierl wrote:
> At 11:53 AM 6/4/2011, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
> >Would such a jack be helpful when working on a not-level car? I find
> >that when all four tires on on the ramps, the van seems mighty stable
> >and high enough off the ground for me to feel comfortable.
>
> It's more stable than before...probably. If you've spiked those
> ramps into the ground then definitely; otherwise you're still
> depending on ramp-to-ground friction with the same vectors
> involved.
Ground is concrete driveway, not notably spikeable. Once the vehicle is
up the ramps, you can push on it all you want from any direction and it
doesn't seem to pay attention.
> But. From your numbers I'm guessing you have to raise the
> wheels about six inches to level the vehicle. That means your
> driveway is about a thirteen per cent grade, or a bit under four
> degrees.
8 inches, more like, the height of the ramps. About 6 degrees, according
to the bubble level screwed below the driver's seat window. But your
analysis still applies.
[snip]
> I'm with Scott. Find or build a flat place to work, or get out from
> under. Not that we care about you or anything, but reading gory
> stories can ruin your morning. ;-)
Indeed and I thank you for your consideration.
I'm pretty much tied to working on the driveway. The street is a busy
one and last year someone driving down the street plowed into a parked
car in front of our house. If it had been on stands and someone under
it, they would have been in serious condition. Likewise if you want to
stick your feet out from under the vehicle -- curbside won't work, and
traffic side would be worthless. So the street is out.
The only level place in the front of the house is the front lawn and I
guarantee that Mrs Squirrel would not take kindly to me parking the van
there to tinker with it. When we first moved in, when the front had no
grass, and was just dirt, my son parked his Jeep there. Once. She let
him know that while the front of the house wasn't landscaped yet, that
was no excuse to make the place look like hillbillies had moved in.
Jonathan Poole's suggestion to pack everything -- tools and parts -- up
and move location to someplace flat with resources, like the parking lot
in front of a FLAPS is a good one, but better suited for the kind of guy
that doesn't need to take six trips from the van to the tool cabinet and
back again just to get the right tools and bits to replace a light bulb.
I'm not that kind of guy. I have never walked out to the van with the
right tools, there's always something -- or a lot of somethings -- that
I need to fetch.
Really -- the van is really stable atop two or four of those steel
ramps. More stable than it would be on jack stands or a floor jack.
Floor jacks have wheels and that would not be helpful on a concrete
driveway with an 8-degree slope.
This is just the way it's going to have to be. It is, as they say, my
funeral.
--
Rocky J Squirrel (Jack Elliott)
