[love2drive]

Here's a quick review of raceramps wheel cribs, one alternative to jack stands or a mini lift. Whatever you do, I have read many places that concrete blocks are not a good idea. They don't support load the way you think, and fail suddenly.

I did exhaust work on my E90 with four jack stands, and it didn't feel stable to me when really torquing a few bolts. Also, I read jack stand boxes that had a warning- never use 4 jack stands?? Lastly, I had cheap jack stands and did not trust their quality. It's probably safe to use 4 jack stands, I don't know, but I went looking for a cheap alternative.

This thread gave me the idea and instructions, 2nd post:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...eel-cribs.html

Pros: Car was as stable as being on the ground, and the cribs are essentially wheel chocks so it was easy to jack up. Cost is around $230 for a set of one-piece and a set of 2-piece cribs, used as in the link above. 10" wheel cribs really are 10" at center and gave me plenty of room to roll around on my creeper and do tranny work.

Cons: Must leave the wheels on, so not good for all repairs. Needed a real jack with decent lifting range. My Duralast $19 jack lifts 10" max-min. I could not get the car on 10" blocks safely without getting a real jack. Bought a new $79 Harbor Freight Jack that has 20" max-min lift range and it worked great. Also, these cribs are FOAM and are so light- 5 lb/set- that they will make you nervous at first. But they build highways on blocks of this foam so I guess it's structurally sound.

Overall, I felt 100% safe under my car for a lot less $ than a 2-post lift. I hope one of our forum sponsors becomes a distributor (I have no affiliation, just liked them)

All wheels on 10" blocks, plenty of room and higher than my jack stand would allow:


Needed a new jack to get the wheels 10" high without a ridiculous/unsafe stack of wood blocks. But my old jack was uniquely bad. Note the far crib was not placed right, so I had to lift and recenter.


As in the corvette forum post, I lifted the car 5" at a time using one set of 2-piece blocks. Once the front is on a 5" crib, I was able to lift the rear because the fronts were essentially chocked.


Hope this helps someone.

[Bavarian Tech]

I like alot !...My only concern would be getting started since e90 is super low from the factory to reach the factory jack stop in the middle of the subframe...I even bought a "low profile" jack and still have to drive up on some 2x4 to get the necessary height...

[love2drive]

True, the 2x4 method is needed to reach the front center jack point, although I now use my old crappy floor jack on a side lift point to slide my new jack under. The cribs are not as convenient as ramps, but rhino ramps are only 6" high and that makes a big difference in working room. RR makes 10" high ramps, others too I suppose, but I was trying to limit cost and maximize safety- can't roll off cribs as easily.

PS- used my BT cable to reset transmission adaptation after this work. Love that product too.

[nikitino25]

Here's a link to some instructions on how to make some wooden plank ramps. I used the exact same measurements as this guy did and they work pretty good. I got the wood at lowes and they even cut all the pieces for me for like 25 cents per cut-the guy figured up the most economical way to cut all the pieces from I think two very long planks they had. Pretty sure I used 2X12's. I have the sport package with aero lip so my front is pretty low but these ramps work great. Total cost was around $100. One word of advice though, these things are HEAVY....

http://www.srtforums.com/forums/f75/...-ramps-568285/

[amclint]

Originally Posted by nikitino25

Here's a link to some instructions on how to make some wooden plank ramps. I used the exact same measurements as this guy did and they work pretty good. I got the wood at lowes and they even cut all the pieces for me for like 25 cents per cut-the guy figured up the most economical way to cut all the pieces from I think two very long planks they had. Pretty sure I used 2X12's. I have the sport package with aero lip so my front is pretty low but these ramps work great. Total cost was around $100. One word of advice though, these things are HEAVY....

http://www.srtforums.com/forums/f75/...-ramps-568285/

Fellow Missouri resident here

I've got ramps and 4 jack stands or I'd build these ramps. I do like the idea of the Wheel Cribs though, so I think I'm going to buy some lumber and build me some wood Cribs out of 2x12. Put a bit of rubber on the bottom and they should be just as good, a bit heavier, and a ton cheaper. Plus I'm venturing a guess they will support quite a bit more than 1500lbs each so they will be useful on my SUV too.

[Rotorocious]

cost?

[amclint]

Originally Posted by Rotorocious

cost?

Just priced out the lumber, should be ~$35 per set of cribs, if you want to buy the Racecraft cribs it's $107 per set of 2.

http://www.raceramps.com/10-inch-wheel-cribs.aspx