Hey, Starting to do my own alignments on my cars. I am looking for four "wheel stands" that I can lower the car on too that will get it about 8 inches in the air so I can set toe. Basically the uppermost flat section of those drive up ramps without the ramp. While I am getting by doing it with the car on the ground, it is a real PITA and I can't get the bolts locked down totally without raising the car. Any one know of anything like this?
I'm a rep for Hunter engineering and the only stands I know of are a little higher than what you want. They are actually several feet off the ground with turn plates on them. You definatly needs turns plates on the front ans rear of hte car to get proper measurement and adjustment
These won't get you 8" off the ground but they are what you would want to use I'm thinking......http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45742
I use the platforms with wheels on them that many people use for storage. Just put your jackstands on them.
No offense, but that sounds like a recipe for disaster, if not downright deadly. If even one somehow rolled out from under, it would topple the whole shabang. he has to be able to get underneath the car and wrench on things, the car has to be totally stable. When I was a kid my Dad dug a pit and built a platform with heavy planks to drive the car up on. The planks were like 6X18's, about 15 or 20 foot long. He found heavy timbers and built a structure with ramps to drive up onto it. You could have drove a 2 ton truck onto that thing. I doubt the pit was 3 feet deep, and the car sat about 3 feet off the ground. My point is that you could build a simple structure strong enough to support the car, and find some slide plates to get the front wheels onto. But whatever you do dont Mickey Mouse it, its gotta be absolutely safe. Perhaps a scrap yard would have some steel ramps off a hoist or something simular you could make use of.
I actually saw a quad set of these in a friend's garage. He welded them up himself and they worked fantastic. I was impressed by the way you could move the car aound. He was a great welder though. He got the idea from those wheeled wheel jacks that you can get in a lot of places, including Ebay. - which would be no help in setting the alignment. Should not be a problem to fab a dolly that you can bolt or weld the jack to, but I have looked for them pre made and came up with zilch.
I remember those pits in a lot of garages before they were made illegal just about everywhere. Something about being dangerous, but I don't remember anyone being killed in one... I remarked on it when I saw a rerun of Bird on a Wire where Mel Gibson was a Chicago mechanic working in one.
Thanks for the help guys. I am going to talk to a fabrication guy I know and see what it would cost to have him build me some. Was really looking to avoid shelling out for intercomps scale platforms, but if nothing turn up, will probably go that route.
Carbon monoxide is heavier than air. Apparently quite a few went to sleep down in those things. The other problem was guys would build them deep and narrow or in unstable soil and they would colapse. They are still legal but only under very specific constraints. A lot of the oil change shops, truck stops, and bus garages have pits. Lots of ventilation though.
