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Post by motorhead on Sept 14, 2019 18:28:01 GMT 1
The driveway at my current house is old tarmac and appears thin. This wasn't a problem at my previous house as it was concrete driveway.
When I used my smaller trolley jack the other day and started lifting the corolla the wheels started sinking into the soft tarmac.
I'm thinking of playing it safe now and using mild steel plate to put the axle stands on so there is more weight distribution on a large sheet of mild steel per axle stand.
I service a few cars throughout the year, the heaviest being a landrover freelander.
As I take my safety and well-being seriously I was thinking about buying 5mm mild steel plate. What do you reckon? Over the top or that will do fine?
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remmington
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Post by remmington on Sept 14, 2019 19:15:19 GMT 1
10mm sheets of plywood is what you need
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2019 20:05:37 GMT 1
I'm talking here from practical experience and not guessing what might be. I have a driveway and half of it is flagged and the remaining half is tarmac. I had a VW Transporter van back in 2016 and the engine was serious coked with carbon build up. I was also renewing the front lower suspension arms bushes on both sides at the same time. I was always a believer that safety must come first and never leave a vehicle supported on a trolley jack ever. I used two fairly large heavy duty axle stands not available from the average car motor factors. Having properly located the axle stands under the vehicle structure and let the weight of the vehicle sit on them I was confident and happy that I had done the correct thing using axle stands.
The problem came later when I was working on the van, luckily I was not underneath it when the stands sunk into the tarmac and obviously did not sink evenly into the tarmac thus ending up tipping to one side and the van was almost off the stands, but as luck had it I managed to get the jack under and lift it before the van completely fell off the stands.
The moral of the story, any surface that is slippery, likely to crush under heavy load, or allow the axle stands to sink or pivot that could end in disastrous circumstances unforeseen (not understood) properly at the time the job is being done should not be started. The surface used must be solid and supportable beyond doubt. Properly laid heavy duty flags or concrete is the order of the day for me.
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remmington
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Post by remmington on Sept 14, 2019 20:40:03 GMT 1
I'm talking here from practical experience and not guessing what might be. I have a driveway and half of it is flagged and the remaining half is tarmac. I had a VW Transporter van back in 2016 and the engine was serious coked with carbon build up. I was also renewing the front lower suspension arms bushes on both sides at the same time. I was always a believer that safety must come first and never leave a vehicle supported on a trolley jack ever. I used two fairly large heavy duty axle stands not available from the average car motor factors. Having properly located the axle stands under the vehicle structure and let the weight of the vehicle sit on them I was confident and happy that I had done the correct thing using axle stands. The problem came later when I was working on the van, luckily I was not underneath it when the stands sunk into the tarmac and obviously did not sink evenly into the tarmac thus ending up tipping to one side and the van was almost off the stands, but as luck had it I managed to get the jack under and lift it before the van completely fell off the stands. The moral of the story, any surface that is slippery, likely to crush under heavy load, or allow the axle stands to sink or pivot that could end in disastrous circumstances unforeseen (not understood) properly at the time the job is being done should not be started. The surface used must be solid and supportable beyond doubt. Properly laid heavy duty flags or concrete is the order of the day for me. Or spread the weight with wooden packing.... We use axle stands under 7.5ton lorries on mud - bit we use large sheets of 18mm plywood stacked on each other...
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Post by valhalla on Sept 14, 2019 22:24:55 GMT 1
Or spread the weight with wooden packing.... We use axle stands under 7.5ton lorries on mud - bit we use large sheets of 18mm plywood stacked on each other... Spreading the load into a decent thickness of wood is the order of the day. I use to use short offcuts of scaf-board under the stands and the jack when I was under my 7.5tonne DAF, even when working on a rock surface. You cannot be too careful, but certainly it is better to have one decent thickness of wood if you are dealing with short pieces, so the laminars of wood cannot slide over one another in the rain.
For recovery work, I carried oak blocks to go under any steadies or jacks, and these things would be 4" thick, so they were not going anywhere - I never had an issue in peat or mud when venturing offroad to get a vehicle into the loadbed.
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Post by Karl on Sept 14, 2019 22:36:56 GMT 1
Tarmacs nothing
Try on grass
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Post by Karl on Sept 14, 2019 22:40:09 GMT 1
Changed a mates gearbox on a gravel driveway once
Young and stupid
That’s all I’ll say
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Post by rhyds on Sept 15, 2019 10:38:09 GMT 1
Lifting my Focus on my Tarmac/gravel drive I use a set of old steel shelves as spreaders, however from this thread it looks like I'll need to find something better!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2019 13:12:30 GMT 1
The very first encounter I had with a vehicle that could have killed me was a truck. The truck was something like a 20 tonne that was used to carry goods. The company asked me to service the brakes and I asked where was I going to carryout the job. The company said we have our own yard we park our trucks in so you can do the service in there. The truck was parked in the yard when I arrived and yes that yard was gravel based. I thought nothing off it and jacked up the rear of the truck and placed axle stands under the chassis supporting sections. While I'll was working underneath the truck and thinking that the truck was adequately supported and safe, the axle stands moved due to the gravel moving and the truck started to slide sideways. My heart sunk and I immediately got out from under the truck as fast as I could, I thought the truck was going to crash into the floor but as luck had it, the stands got caught on an angle and the truck did not fall on this occasion. I did manage to support the truck back on the jack and put the wheels back on before moving the truck to the front of the warehouse and jacking it on concrete. Everybody has their own opinion of what they believe is safe, but my real experience tells me that the foundation must be solid and beyond doubt before jacking vehicles. I read this a few times on this forum and fully agree with it no matter what; Safety first no matter what, no point saving a few quid if you die trying, reference studabear. And I did not need to look it up on the bottom of his footers either.
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remmington
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Post by remmington on Sept 15, 2019 13:28:31 GMT 1
The very first encounter I had with a vehicle that could have killed me was a truck. The truck was something like a 20 tonne that was used to carry goods. The company asked me to service the brakes and I asked where was I going to carryout the job. The company said we have our own yard we park our trucks in so you can do the service in there. The truck was parked in the yard when I arrived and yes that yard was gravel based. I thought nothing off it and jacked up the rear of the truck and placed axle stands under the chassis supporting sections. While I'll was working underneath the truck and thinking that the truck was adequately supported and safe, the axle stands moved due to the gravel moving and the truck started to slide sideways. My heart sunk and I immediately got out from under the truck as fast as I could, I thought the truck was going to crash into the floor but as luck had it, the stands got caught on an angle and the truck did not fall on this occasion. I did manage to support the truck back on the jack and put the wheels back on before moving the truck to the front of the warehouse and jacking it on concrete. Everybody has their own opinion of what they believe is safe, but my real experience tells me that the foundation must be solid and beyond doubt before jacking vehicles. I read this a few times on this forum and fully agree with it no matter what; Safety first no matter what, no point saving a few quid if you die trying, reference studabear. And I did not need to look it up on the bottom of his footers either. It is part of Lorry fitter or an agricultural fitters job to do repairs on "green field sites".It is just a matter of gearing yourself up and spreading the weight. We do allot of plant repairs - we sometimes have to use a collection of large sheets of 6mm 8mm 10mm steel plates and wood. We don't declare it impossible - we just set the job up in a safe manner. Car - van - lorry - forklift - digger - anything... Chuck the wheels you have taken off the vehicle under the vehicle - always use axle stands - always leave the jack - under the vehicle ready for the worst...
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oli
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Post by oli on May 21, 2021 23:54:14 GMT 1
“Chuck the wheels you’ve removed under the vehicle you’re working on”
That’s exactly what I do, but to be fair I don’t work with other people’s posh alloys. I think despite being a DIYer I’m more on the agricultural/plant side of things and would be quite comfortable lifting a vehicle on a soft surface, but I’d regard my collection of oak blocks and ply pads as being on par with the spanner’s for usefulness. That and a roll of old Lino to keep your back dry and make sliding around easier.
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