lifting car on driveway with very slight incline

[homec]

So I'm totally new to working on my car but I just gutted and rebuilt half my house with very good results so I figure I can learn the car stuff. First thing I'm going to replace are tie rods and serpentine belt on my ford edge. Looks simple enough..

My house doesn't have a garage but does have a nice concrete driveway. The driveway is at a very slight incline so that water runs off. The land is otherwise flat so it's probably close to the minimum grade possible to allow for runoff. I've read that's about 1/8" of rise per foot. That converts to an angle of less than 1% (arctan(1/96)). But for arguments sake since I don't have anything to measure it and I'm on a train right now, lets say angle was actually more than that...

I'm always readying about putting cars on jack stands on a flat level surface. Would you do it at 1% angle,3%, 5% angle?

Only other option is the street but that's got its own issues... I'm guessing lots of people work on cars in their driveways... I'm going to get high-end (thinking US Jack) 6 ton jack stands, put blocks behind wheels not being raised, and put the wheel under the car.

Thanks

 

[ChaseDE]

Put it in park, engage parking brake, chock the wheel your not lifting at, and jack it up.

Use jack stands. Once you happy with the lift give the car a little shove to make sure it's stable.

 

[ItsNemo]

Typical garages are 1-2% you could probably go to 3-4% on jack stands without much trouble. Just make sure brake is set, wheels are chocked (both sides) and that you carefully put it on jack stands. Leave your jacks propped up under it as a backup and throw wheels under the frame/chassis as a second backup.

Consider a set of wheel ramps for any jobs that don't need the tires off, they will be a bit more stable on a slope.

 

[bwringer]

I do this all the time, and my driveway is likely more sloped than yours.

Get two pairs of good chocks and use them. I generally chock both sides of the tire, not just the "downhill" side, and whenever possible I chock two tires.

Use real chocks -- don't substitute chunks of wood, concrete blocks, rocks, etc. And get chocks sized appropriately for the vehicle. Chocks intended for an RV or truck will just slide off when used on a small car.

 

[piker28]

What is the driveway paved with? Be careful since I have had mine sink before using just the floor jack.

 

[bwringer]

What is the driveway paved with? Be careful since I have had mine sink before using just the floor jack.

Good point. I sort of assumed concrete, but an asphalt or gravel driveway has to be treated much differently.

 

[ItsNemo]

What is the driveway paved with? Be careful since I have had mine sink before using just the floor jack.

Can you not read? He wrote concrete in his post.

 

[homec]

Ok thanks guys. Your responses make me feel better about it. And yes, it is actual concrete and not asphalt. Can't wait to get started once tools and parts arrive.

 

[rlitman]

I do this all the time, and my driveway is likely more sloped than yours.

Get two pairs of good chocks and use them. I generally chock both sides of the tire, not just the "downhill" side, and whenever possible I chock two tires.

Use real chocks -- don't substitute chunks of wood, concrete blocks, rocks, etc. And get chocks sized appropriately for the vehicle. Chocks intended for an RV or truck will just slide off when used on a small car.

I do the same here with sloped concrete (I would emphatically insist that this is NOT safe on asphalt).

There are two things to take into consideration.

The first is that the slope will make the car want to roll. Chocks (real ones) are imperative, not optional. I have enough slope that chocking the uphill side is pointless. I'll also either kick the chocks into place, or release and re-engage the hand brake to make sure the chocks are well "set".

The second (and at least as important) issue is that the jack-stands will not be standing straight up. They are designed to support vertical loads, and spread that load across all four (or three) feet evenly. With them standing at an angle there is a component of the load that is "horizontal" that can bend or fold up flimsy stands, and the downhill feet will carry more of the load than the uphill feet to make up for this "torque". That difference may be enough to get the downhill feet to punch through asphalt.

In my case, I make up for this by using well oversized stands. A better solution I've thought of, would be to make a set of solid "ramps" that provide a horizontal surface for the stands to rest on, and that have a grippy underside to prevent sliding.

 

[Professur]

When working under a car, you're going to be hauling pretty hard on wrenches some times. When you get it up, haul at least as hard on a fender to make sure it's not going anywhere. While underneath, do your best to always pull your wrenches in line with the car, and not in a direction that will destabilize the car. If you don't need the tires off, ramps can be a good option ... but remember that they're not infallible. And inspect those ramps and jack stands before trusting them. The time to discover that your missus knocked that stand off the shelf and dented it is before you drop half a ton of car on it. Those old steel ramps that your dad trusted for so many years may be as rusty as the cars he worked on are now. There are only two levels of caution. Paranoid and insufficient.

 

[csp]

With only 1% of slope it's a non-issue. Use your head and you'll be fine.

 

[homec]

I do the same here with sloped concrete (I would emphatically insist that this is NOT safe on asphalt).

There are two things to take into consideration.

The first is that the slope will make the car want to roll. Chocks (real ones) are imperative, not optional. I have enough slope that chocking the uphill side is pointless. I'll also either kick the chocks into place, or release and re-engage the hand brake to make sure the chocks are well "set".

The second (and at least as important) issue is that the jack-stands will not be standing straight up. They are designed to support vertical loads, and spread that load across all four (or three) feet evenly. With them standing at an angle there is a component of the load that is "horizontal" that can bend or fold up flimsy stands, and the downhill feet will carry more of the load than the uphill feet to make up for this "torque". That difference may be enough to get the downhill feet to punch through asphalt.

In my case, I make up for this by using well oversized stands. A better solution I've thought of, would be to make a set of solid "ramps" that provide a horizontal surface for the stands to rest on, and that have a grippy underside to prevent sliding.

Yes, for my own curiosity I'm going to do an actual measurement of the slope and then use that to calculate the component of the load that will be applied laterally due to the angle. But it should be a very small component of the total load because the angle is so slight.

I also considered making an angled ramp as you describe but without getting in to a bunch of stuff that would cost a bunch more money, I figured getting a high quality 6 ton jacks stands where 3 ton jack stands would be an adequate compensation. The US jacks I found recommended in another thread are apparently rated at 6 tons per stand (as opposed to cheaper ones rated per pair). My SUV is approx. 5000 lbs so if I'm just lifting one side at a time, there should be lots and lots of headroom.

Right now I'll just be doing the odd repairs on my car as they come up. My strategy until i have a better idea of what's going on is to use a mechanic to diagnose and then once they tell me what repair is required, to research it, verify that's the case, and then order parts and do the repair myself. In a year or so I might get car that's cheap to work on and has cheap parts and then aim to make it work again. After that, maybe a fun car... I enjoyed doing my house and might make a hobby of fixing up cars.

 

[homec]

When working under a car, you're going to be hauling pretty hard on wrenches some times. When you get it up, haul at least as hard on a fender to make sure it's not going anywhere. While underneath, do your best to always pull your wrenches in line with the car, and not in a direction that will destabilize the car. If you don't need the tires off, ramps can be a good option ... but remember that they're not infallible. And inspect those ramps and jack stands before trusting them. The time to discover that your missus knocked that stand off the shelf and dented it is before you drop half a ton of car on it. Those old steel ramps that your dad trusted for so many years may be as rusty as the cars he worked on are now. There are only two levels of caution. Paranoid and insufficient.

thanks

 

[rlitman]

When working under a car, you're going to be hauling pretty hard on wrenches some times. When you get it up, haul at least as hard on a fender to make sure it's not going anywhere. While underneath, do your best to always pull your wrenches in line with the car, and not in a direction that will destabilize the car...

+1

... I figured getting a high quality 6 ton jacks stands where 3 ton jack stands would be an adequate compensation. The US jacks I found recommended in another thread are apparently rated at 6 tons per stand (as opposed to cheaper ones rated per pair)...

Good move. I've never heard of pairs of jack stands rated per stand, but I looked up US Jack, and their stands look REALLY nice. In most other cases, jacks, stands and ramps are normally rated by the weight of the vehicle. The understanding is that the jack is used by itself, the stands are used in a pair, and that each ramp only holds one corner at a time.

Considering how many of these things carry ratings that are more fiction than fact, I wouldn't consider holding an SUV on level ground with less than 6 ton rated stands, but what you've found seem to fit the ticket.

 

[ItsNemo]

Keep in mind that 6 ton stands are a fair bit higher at their minimum setting. Sometimes that's nice, but sometimes it's too high. The higher up you are, the more risk there is of unsettling things. Your pump jack will also need to be able to lift that high. I own both 3 ton and 6 ton jack stands and have a few different pump jacks...to get my SUV up onto the 6 ton stands using the front center jackpoint, I need to use my 2 ton long reach/high lift jack (lifts as high as 24 inches) as my smaller but stronger 3 ton jack only lifts to around 16 inches and is not high enough.

 

[csp]

People losing perspective that we're talking about 1% of slope here. That's about the standard for any 2 car tract home garage and people work on their vehicles in those every day without issue following basic safety procedures.

I'm all for safety, but this forum could overanalyze a good ****.

 

[theoldwizard1]

3 ton stands are fine for cars. 6 ton for trucks. Not because they weight that much more, but because the are that much higher off of the ground.

Get yourself about 8" chunk of 4x6. It makes a great spacer when lifting a high vehicle. Take you circular saw and rip about 1/2"x1" groove the length of the 4x6. Now you can pick up a unibody car under a pinch weld !

 

[PWC Repair]

Quality set of ramps and wheel chocks. You'll be so glad you bought them. After I'm on the ramps I still put my floor jack up under it and just put some pressure on it as a safety measure. Shortly after I got married, my wife's stepdad was crushed to death at a junkyard when his jack slipped out. He was getting a set of gears for his dirt track car.

 

[APEowner]

You shouldn't have any problem with that slight grade. One thing to be aware of is that floor jacks move in an arc. If the car can't roll then the jack needs to. It's not a problem you just need to be aware of it.