I have some metal H-beam that I want to make some ramps out of. They are 9"X10ft. I am looking for some ideas from those of you who use ramps and think the best way to do this would be. I have torch,band saw and mig welder so making them wont be a problem if I have an idea to go with. Thanks.

 

Those are probably way to heavy and overkill for simple ramps. The ramps to load my car onto the trailer are only made from 2x2x3/16" angle iron and are only 6 feet long.

 

Yes they would be overkill for trailer ramps. I was hoping to build some ramps to drive the car up on to where I can work on the underside.

 

My 2 thoughts:

1) Make them have a smaller angle that standard store bought ramps - with my car 1" lowered, I have to use the hump in the driveway entrance to get my car front on ramps.

2) Make them higher at the top than store-bought. I'm ALWAYS wishing I had even just another 4 inches of space under there! Never understood why with the invention of the lightweight but strong plastic car ramps that they couldn't make them 8 inches longer and at least 2 inches taller. Maybe I'm just getting fat in my old age?

 

I made mine out of 2" x 10" treated lumber wood. I lowered the car since they were built & now I need to add at least 1 longer bottom layer to them. Right now my nose hits the ramp before the tire does.

 

That is what I am trying to avoid,the ground effects hitting. I guess I will take the iron and block it up to get the right angle and height. Does anyone know how high to get front up so if I want to use this ramp to pull motor and trans out from top side at the same time?

 

If you are going to pull the engine out the top, you won't want it on ramps at all. The higher a car is, the harder it is for the hoist to get the engine up & out.

My stepped version worked great when the car was at stock height. Now that the car is lowered, all I really need to do is extend the bottom layer, which I've been doing by laying another board in front of the ramps, for the tire to get up on to, to clear the ramp "stops" at the end.

But since my car is so low now, laying under the car my chest hits the car (and I'm skinny), meaning there isn't really any room to work. So the car needs to be higher to work under it. So I'm going to add 2 longer sections to the bottom of the ramps.

 

With the car in the garage, to lift it high enough to work under, I use 8 ton jack stands on the rear just for the height. The small stands work well under the front a-arms but with 32" tall rear tires, the small jack stands are almost maxed out with the tires on the floor. I also made a jack extension so when the jack is all the way down, the lifting pad just fits under the diff so I don't have to jack it up in stages.

There's no way I could drive into my garage onto any sort of ramps.

As mentioned above, to pull an engine, you don't want it on ramps. I jack mine up to disconnect everything then put it back on the ground to pull the engine. The only way you could easily do it with the car on ramps is with some sort of overhead hoist. Your typical engine crane will have a hard time lifting the engine up high enough.

 

I normally leave my cars on the lift when pulling/installing a motor. I remove a front tire, and go in from the side with the engine hoist. With the lift I can raise or lower the car as needed, and even get it lower to the ground if all 4 wheels are off.

I don't know that I'd try to do it with a car on ramps either. Probably hit the fenders with the boom.

http://members.cisdi.com/~anesthes/p...n/100_5728.JPG

http://members.cisdi.com/~anesthes/p...n/100_5729.JPG

I find it way easier to go in from the side, than straight from the front..

-- Joe

 

That brings up a good point.

The 3rd gen nose is so long, that most hoists cannot reach the engine good to lift them out. They tend to run into the nose, before they are far enough in. I've always pulled the nose off, to get the hoist close enough. I've never tried it from the side.

It is also very hard to get the engine & tranny out together through the top. Much easier to separate them, pull the tranny out the bottom & pull the engine out the top.

 

Taking off the nose could work too, but normally I don't like to mess with body panels on cars unless they needed to be painted. Going in through the side always works for me.

I've yanked combos out on parts cars, but nothing I ever cared about. Too much of a risk smashing something like the windshield, radiator support, bumper, etc trying to pull them out together.

I know on all those hot tv car shows they install and yank 'em with tranny attached, but they also have a team of 8 guys helping, holding, watching, etc. I'm usually by myself.

-- Joe

 

i just drop the k member and trans. easy

 

Thanks for all the ideas. This is my 1st, 3rd gen car and have never pulled an engine out of one of these. But I have always pulled them together when I was replacing both.Which I will replace both, seems like I read here that it was needed to raise the front high to achieve my goal. I,m sure everyone has their own way of pulling a motor and trans. Sounds like some good ideas to think about before I get to far.

 

did pull the engine 3 times, twice together and last time separate.

its a bitch to connect the trans to the engine when its in the car.

pull the combo together at once!