Bring it over to Redmond sometime next week and I will help you put those
on. Nice flat driveway, floor jack , jackstands and tools.
Don
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rocket J Squirrel" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2011 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: Help the chimp avoid getting crushed

> On Sat, 2011-06-04 at 18:04 -0400, David Beierl wrote:
>> At 11:53 AM 6/4/2011, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>> >Would such a jack be helpful when working on a not-level car? I find
>> >that when all four tires on on the ramps, the van seems mighty stable
>> >and high enough off the ground for me to feel comfortable.
>>
>> It's more stable than before...probably.  If you've spiked those
>> ramps into the ground then definitely; otherwise you're still
>> depending on ramp-to-ground friction with the same vectors
>> involved.
>
> Ground is concrete driveway, not notably spikeable. Once the vehicle is
> up the ramps, you can push on it all you want from any direction and it
> doesn't seem to pay attention.
>
>> But.  From your numbers I'm guessing you have to raise the
>> wheels about six inches to level the vehicle.  That means your
>> driveway is about a thirteen per cent grade, or a bit under four
>> degrees.
>
> 8 inches, more like, the height of the ramps. About 6 degrees, according
> to the bubble level screwed below the driver's seat window. But your
> analysis still applies.
>
> [snip]
>
>> I'm with Scott.  Find or build a flat place to work, or get out from
>> under.  Not that we care about you or anything, but reading gory
>> stories can ruin your morning. ;-)
>
> Indeed and I thank you for your consideration.
>
> I'm pretty much tied to working on the driveway. The street is a busy
> one and last year someone driving down the street plowed into a parked
> car in front of our house. If it had been on stands and someone under
> it, they would have been in serious condition. Likewise if you want to
> stick your feet out from under the vehicle -- curbside won't work, and
> traffic side would be worthless. So the street is out.
>
> The only level place in the front of the house is the front lawn and I
> guarantee that Mrs Squirrel would not take kindly to me parking the van
> there to tinker with it. When we first moved in, when the front had no
> grass, and was just dirt, my son parked his Jeep there. Once. She let
> him know that while the front of the house wasn't landscaped yet, that
> was no excuse to make the place look like hillbillies had moved in.
>
> Jonathan Poole's suggestion to pack everything -- tools and parts -- up
> and move location to someplace flat with resources, like the parking lot
> in front of a FLAPS is a good one, but better suited for the kind of guy
> that doesn't need to take six trips from the van to the tool cabinet and
> back again just to get the right tools and bits to replace a light bulb.
> I'm not that kind of guy. I have never walked out to the van with the
> right tools, there's always something -- or a lot of somethings -- that
> I need to fetch.
>
> Really -- the van is really stable atop two or four of those steel
> ramps. More stable than it would be on jack stands or a floor jack.
> Floor jacks have wheels and that would not be helpful on a concrete
> driveway with an 8-degree slope.
>
> This is just the way it's going to have to be. It is, as they say, my
> funeral.
>
> --
> Rocky J Squirrel (Jack Elliott)