Those wheel ramp things for raising a car
I notice that steel ramps haven't been mentioned yet. Just looking at them should set off a warning alarm. Put simply: What starts out as a flat piece of steel, shall want to turn back into a flat piece of steel when enough weight is applied against it.
Granted, these are the worst of the worst units from Harbor Freight, but equally horrible are stamped steel ramps with bolted-in crossbraces. The steel above or below the brace is simply going to find another way to fall in on itself. Don't get me started with the two-piece folding design either.
The only way I'd consider either of these two remotely safe is if both sides had a thick piece of steel plate continuously welded to each side, with equally thick, solid baffles welded on the inside from side to side, and to the top surface.
It's possible to build these properly, and this is what they should look like (provided they have gussets/baffles as explained above):
Just the same, as promising as they look, they're aluminum. No thank you. Build the same thing in steel, and then I'd bother to look.
-Kurt
I notice that steel ramps haven't been mentioned yet. Just looking at them should set off a warning alarm. Put simply: What starts out as a flat piece of steel, shall want to turn back into a flat piece of steel when enough weight is applied against it.
Granted, these are the worst of the worst units from Harbor Freight, but equally horrible are stamped steel ramps with bolted-in crossbraces. The steel above or below the brace is simply going to find another way to fall in on itself. Don't get me started with the two-piece folding design either.
The only way I'd consider either of these two remotely safe is if both sides had a thick piece of steel plate continuously welded to each side, with equally thick, solid baffles welded on the inside from side to side, and to the top surface.
It's possible to build these properly, and this is what they should look like (provided they have gussets/baffles as explained above):
Just the same, as promising as they look, they're aluminum. No thank you. Build the same thing in steel, and then I'd bother to look.
-Kurt
