Safe lifting?

Two days ago I put these plywood platforms together. Was wondering what people think

Also these chocks seem rather safe

I see lot of people putting 2x4s etc between jacks/stands and the car. Please don't do that with anything but plywood or hockey pucks (etc?). Regular wood will eventually split down the grain and the car will come crashing down

Those chocks seem a little big...do they actually bite into the wheel or will they just slide forward when pressure is put on them?

Originally Posted by ptrcd003

Those chocks seem a little big...do they actually bite into the wheel or will they just slide forward when pressure is put on them?

They are going nowhere. Their grip on the floor when pushed is very high. I have some smaller race ramps chocks but these bigger ones are far better. Really they are for eighteen wheeler trailers. Several people on pickup truck forums have them and mostly cannot even driver their trucks over these. I did not think they'd fit under a SP BMW but indeed they do.

The chocks are pretty heavy, probably ~10 lbs (~4kg) each. A very long way from those sissy plastic ones.

Yup those plywood piles will work as good or better than tripod stands. Non-professional looking but they do the same thing.
PS I like your floor jack, battery powered impact gun and 17mm socket for protecting good wheels. Where's the torque wrench?

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

Yup those plywood piles will work as good or better than tripod stands. Non-professional looking but they do the same thing.
PS I like your floor jack, battery powered impact gun and 17mm socket for protecting good wheels. Where's the torque wrench?

Thanks DSX!

Torque wrench is out of shot. Only use it when tightening. The protective socket is tops, everyone should buy one.

BTW no one should buy that jack. You'll see them everywhere and they do appear to be 'the business' but there are too many reports of its cylinder failing. That's part of the reason I built these plywood stands... I can use them without ever putting a hand under the car while it's only held by the jack. Eventually I'll buy double cylinder floor jack (~$250) but a sliding jack for my four post lift comes next (~$700, ouch!).

It's only a regular power drill too. Loosened with a breaker then pretend I am a pro with an impact gun I did buy a cheap air powered Campbell Hausfeld impact gun for ~$30 but it was insanely lame and returned the day later. Apparently they work well if one disassembles and rebuilds.. it was brand new so I sent it back.

Originally Posted by MP3_E46

They are going nowhere. Their grip on the floor when pushed is very high. I have some smaller race ramps chocks but these bigger ones are far better. Really they are for eighteen wheeler trailers. Several people on pickup truck forums have them and mostly cannot even driver their trucks over these. I did not think they'd fit under a SP BMW but indeed they do.

The chocks are pretty heavy, probably ~10 lbs (~4kg) each. A very long way from those sissy plastic ones.

Have same - pretty good & don' go nowhere but where you put 'em. Can deform front low wheel well material but it's not sheet metal - flexes right back into shape. NAPA Auto Parts.

Originally Posted by MP3_E46

BTW no one should buy that [floor] jack. You'll see them everywhere and they do appear to be 'the business' but there are too many reports of its cylinder failing.

Milwaukee is the gold standard. About as expensive too.

If you go down to a NAPA store and tell them you're a shade tree mechanic and you'd like to replace your POS they may set you up with a GOOD jack for less than 250. NAPA's jacks have held up real well in my shop, even the lesser expensive ones. Watch for a sale and keep even more money in your pocket.

Thanks for the advise on jacks. I should have bought a really good one years ago...

This dual piston OTC has been in my Amazon cart for about a year now: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XSCEBM

For $200 it seems a good buy + can be transported to track days should I stay with that hobby. Eventually I'd need to change pads/rotors at the track.

Anyway... lost of research will be done before I buy yet another floor jack. Have two here + have given away at least two steel floor jacks in the past (due to moving countries).

Are you missing the plastic jack pads that came with your car? I don't see them in the pictures.

My car is missing the front two. One of them broke off when I pulled the car on to the trailer I hauled it home with (caught on the edge and broke off the little tabs that hold it in place.) The other one was already missing.

I see them on line at various places for between 13-16 bucks.

Do you not need them?

Looks like you have a lift as well (lucky bastard).

Also, you have newer and nicer versions of the same cars I do. You're like me with more money!

How's your hairline?

Originally Posted by BashedBarrique

Are you missing the plastic jack pads that came with your car? I don't see them in the pictures.

My car is missing the front two. One of them broke off when I pulled the car on to the trailer I hauled it home with (caught on the edge and broke off the little tabs that hold it in place.) The other one was already missing.

Nah, they are there. I put a ~10 GA steel plate between them and the platform. From photos they look easy to replace (looks like E90 one are indeed almost 2x the price though); you should probably do it before taking it in for new tires etc as I think shops put their two post lifts under them. That car was bought at 10.3K miles and already had damage to the jack pads: had to trim 'burr' off every one of them before a milled aluminum Jack Pad Adapter would fit in.

Originally Posted by BashedBarrique

Looks like you have a lift as well (lucky bastard).

Also, you have newer and nicer versions of the same cars I do. You're like me with more money!

How's your hairline?

Thanks (lots of stress in my past, finally living a non 100% work life).

Sounds like you have some awesome cars too. Arguably better than the newer versions, though one of mine is 12.5K miles and the other shown 10K miles. Have a Prius nudging 14K too Likely I'll stick with these car a while.. other than the BMW's teething issues they are a superb combination (have a small utility trailer for hauling which the Prius pulls fine). Tempting to get an F360, used Gallardo or similar instead of the MX-5 but I know it won't be as fun.

Hairline has moved under an inch from high school to now (42) but was always high. Lots of people in high school told me I'd be bald by 25.. looking forward to meeting them again... winding them up a little for a suitable response and then telling them to "keep their hair on", lol.

Maybe with all the cars maybe I am like you with less money

Originally Posted by MP3_E46

Thanks (lots of stress in my past, finally living a non 100% work life)

Gotta find a balance and enjoy life.

Originally Posted by MP3_E46

Tempting to get an F360, used Gallardo or similar instead of the MX-5 but I know it won't be as fun.

Yeah, they'd probably not be any more fun than the Miata and if you're like me you'd spend more time polishing and fretting over those "exotics" than driving them. Hard to have fun in an "investment".

Although your choice of those two beauties shows that we really do have similar taste in cars. (How do you feel about petite blondes and east African women?)

Originally Posted by MP3_E46

Hairline has moved under an inch from high school to now (42) but was always high.

Bald guys on both sides of my family tree as far back as I can find photos. I was doomed. I hung on to most of it until my mid-forties but now I'm sporting a little "pom pom" in front (54). I wear a lot of hats these days. I'm hoping to get a hair transplant but it's way down the list of priorities.

Oh, and if you want a mid engined sports car that's fun, relatively inexpensive and reliable you can get my other car, a Toyota MR2.

Mine is a 1987. I have owned it since 1988. If you want another roadster the 2000–2007 is a great little car, sort of a mini-Boxster.

Although mine is a bit of a trailer queen now that I have the MX-5. It has sharp (mid engined) handling that the Miata can't quite match but to be honest I have more fun tossing the Miata around.


My (Ethiopian) wife is hinting for me to sell it since I almost never drive it anymore. My ex wife (petite blonde) said that I loved it more than her.

To be fair, it was more fun and reliable than she was!

Originally Posted by BashedBarrique

Oh, and if you want a mid engined sports car that's fun, relatively inexpensive and reliable you can get my other car, a Toyota MR2.

Mine is a 1987. I have owned it since 1988. If you want another roadster the 2000–2007 is a great little car, sort of a mini-Boxster.

Although mine is a bit of a trailer queen now that I have the MX-5. It has sharp (mid engined) handling that the Miata can't quite match but to be honest I have more fun tossing the Miata around.


My (Ethiopian) wife is hinting for me to sell it since I almost never drive it anymore. My ex wife (petite blonde) said that I loved it more than her.

To be fair, it was more fun and reliable than she was!

LOL, you really got opposite bookends with your wives didn't you.

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

LOL, you really got opposite bookends with your wives didn't you.

Yeah, but in some ways they are very much alike. Both are small and slender (5'1" 95 lbs and 5'0" 95 lbs) and both are very smart, organized and goal oriented with great senses of humor.

For growing up in very different cultures, on opposite sides of the planet, it's spooky how muck alike they are sometimes. (For good and for bad.)

Women are women and people are people.

Okay, average blonde (5'4") checking in with a technical question:

Regarding "Safe Lifting" of E93's.

I have noticed in many of the DIY threads regarding E93's that when the car is lifted only in the back that the tops are down. Is this because the torsional stresses placed on the top members are too severe? To point, if one were to rotate the tires in the drive at home, should this be done top down?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Nordic_Kat

Okay, average blonde (5'4") checking in with a technical question:

Regarding "Safe Lifting" of E93's.

I have noticed in many of the DIY threads regarding E93's that when the car is lifted only in the back that the tops are down. Is this because the torsional stresses placed on the top members are too severe? To point, if one were to rotate the tires in the drive at home, should this be done top down?

Thanks!

I would hope that the chassis "stiffness" of the E93 wouldn't be so lax that it would matter if the top mechanism was up or down during lifting. My ancient Miata doesn't put any "flex" that I can notice anyway, on the cloth top when lifted and its chassis is over cooked pasta compared to the "al dente" modern E93 chassis.

Of course its top is cloth so it wouldn't make much difference if it did flex some I guess. Maybe the people lifting E93's with the tops down are just doing so to be "extra" careful.

I probably wouldn't tempt fate by operating the top while the car was being lifted, but really what's the difference if the car is being supported by both rear lift points or by the rear wheels?


I guess it also depends on how many "average blondes" and petite east Africans are sitting in it and where.

Originally Posted by MP3_E46

OK am I nuts, or do you drive a High Rider?


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Originally Posted by CALWATERBOY

OK am I nuts, or do you drive a High Rider?


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If you look at the previous picture you will see that the car is being lifted at the rear, which has raised it in the front as well.

Although back in my Dad's era, the 1950's, drag racers "shackled" the rear of the car down which, in perspective, raised the front of the car. This at least gave the impression that the car was accelerating, even if it didn't actually aid in the acceleration.

When in the 1970's I used air shocks to give my car the opposite look my dad was confused that I had taken the exact opposite tack of his peers in the 50's.

Originally Posted by CALWATERBOY

OK am I nuts, or do you drive a High Rider?


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CWB: Please ignore BB for just a nanosecond. Please respond. If I lift my E93 from the back, should my top be down?

Originally Posted by Nordic_Kat

"...should my top be down?"

If you do drop it, please post pictures.

lol

Originally Posted by Nordic_Kat

If I lift my E93 from the back, should my top be down?

Top up or down, makes no difference, at least as far as flex is concerned, I've done it both ways. The real issue might be whether your jack can handle the weight of the top in the trunk. I'm assuming your referring to lifting the rear from the differential rather than from the side jack points.

Personally the top is down so it's easier to reach in/ climb into the car. I tend to put a phone and bluetooth speakers in/on the car. Also depending on the job towels draped over the bodywork are handy to protect paint - easier with top down.

CWB: indeed BB is correct. Am currently thinking he's the second smartest E9x owner on the planet


Glad to see this thread is getting lots of readers - be safe people. I saw someone getting under his car on a factory jack not long ago....


Average height blonde here and no intention of going through the stress of another wedding. Amusingly we've been called short by many Americans: 5'4" and 5'9" are average heights in the US...


Lots of baseball caps here... and there are worse issues than going bald... have taken >50% of time off work (self employed) over the last couple years. B12 seems to be the cure. Thought it was a quack cure but finally I am approaching normality again. It's kinda expensive taking that much time off work and painful when there are F360s/ Gallardos calling my name at recession prices. Was unable to walk many days... losing one's hair is nothing compared to that. So another top tip as people age: PCP was next to useless (doctor, not the street drug!).. cure was discovered via Internet Forums. Found people with same symptoms and tried one thing after another until something worked. Apparently B12 tests are not that reliable, I'd had that etc and even a brain scan and still a zombie until self-diagnosing.

Anyway cars: Props on the MK I MR2. People loved those and there was a huge waiting list in the UK. I keep looking at the MK2 MR2 but don't have time to look after one, in that kind of category (affordable fun but needs attention) I am looking at http://exomotive.com/exocet/. The kits are made about four miles from me. Kinda like an ugly Ariel Atom... I was up for buying the Atom (in England) but test drove one at the track and lift off oversteer was far too much for my skills.. the kit car has the engine up front so should be ok.

Probably for utmost affordable fun coil-overs on our Miata will be hard to beat. I have adjustable shocks and ~2.5 stiffer than stock springs. Many times better than the E93 but at the track it's still got noticeable transition time and wallows under heavy braking.

Originally Posted by BashedBarrique

Gotta find a balance and enjoy life

Work was/can be kinda fun too. The problem in IT these days is that way too many people have little idea what they are doing (shortage of qualified people). Now most of my time is spent convincing most of a team to be a little more sane, or rescuing failing projects that were architected by people without degrees.. or worse still.. architected by people with business degrees. Those guys build 'Buzzword Compliant Architectures' - a cacophony of latest technologies thrown together with nothing close to complete.. then it's handed to me saying 'we are 90% complete; just need a smart guy to tidy up the loose ends'.