Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2011 16:28:43 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Help the chimp avoid getting crushed
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8"; reply-type=original
whew..
either way ..
you can't have it pointed downhill and jack up the rear..
that only increases the slope angle, so to speak.
( I suppose mass-wise it's the same...but it sure seems that if you want to
help something roll downhill...
lifting the uphill end really helps . ) Actually, the mass does shift in
the wrong direction as you lift the uphill end.
but take the other way ..
the rear end is downhill...
and you're jacking that end up ..
then you are under the downhill side ..
and you can barely chock the front wheels from turning well enough ..( I
suppose someone could sit in the driver's seat holding on the brakes hard
..but continual steady brake pressure on the MC is not that good a thing to
do either ..and their leg might get tired )
which is why I mentioned the giant chain only half in jest.
I would semi-approve having it point uphill while you work under the rear
down-slope end..
ONLY if there were AT LEAST TWO giant chains well attached to the uphill
front end and then to something that can not move no matter what.
if you were local ..I'd say come over here and we'll do it.
super easy actually, rear shocks on a vanagon.
With air tools in a real shop ..
10 minutes per side. Even 2 minutes per side 'slam dunk.'
I'm always saying one of the 'world-class good' things about vanagons is how
easy to they are to work on.
They are really ...the easiest shocks to change in the entire car world. It
could not possibly be easier.
bear in mind ..that when a car with an auto trans is in Park , and it has a
conventional open rear differential ( no peloquin yet I imagine ) ....if one
rear wheel is free to turn ..the other rear wheel won't hold things from
rolling. The parking brake will of course..
but in Park only ....it depends on equal traction on both rear wheels, to
not roll.
it's only 19mm hex nuts and bolts.
and a bottle jack.
The FLAPS parking lot is not that bad a idea ..
surely somewhere there is some 'no man's land' of flat level pavement.
You'd be outa there in half an hour too, as long as there isn't some glitch
like horribly stuck bolt etc.
you need a FLARS..friendly local auto repair shop.
Really ..
an easy going shop would do it for a six pack or two of the local micro
brew. It's that easy and quick a job.
it's only about a four and a half hour gorgeous drive over here.
go through Crater Lake Park even, if the north entrance is open.
There's another nice route too, from near Chiloquin past Rocky Point ..
3 different routes..
all really nice. 20 bucks, and that's giving it away.
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rocket J Squirrel" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2011 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: Help the chimp avoid getting crushed
> 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)
