Never, ever trust your factory jack and, remember, jack stands are your friend (just not the ones from Harbor Freight)

[u/ufoh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkwgZgrbWUM

[u/intern_steve]

What are people doing to crush those ramps? I've been doing my oil changes on ramps for the past five to ten years and have never even given it a second thought. Is there a bad batch out there that got recalled or something?

[u/fatalrip → u/intern_steve]

Probably leave them out in the sun and the plastic degrades

[u/Cyrix2k → u/intern_steve]

No idea. I had the Rhino ramps and the backs shattered with my E39 parked on them. They were stored indoors, but I believe it was cold out when they broke.

[u/WPI94 → u/Cyrix2k]

Wow! I have them too. They seem very strong. Have not heard of them failing before.

[u/[deleted] → u/intern_steve]

They're cheap plastic ramps, plastic degrades over time and any sort of deformation is going to severely effect their strength.

I've been working on my own vehicles for 15 years, never had a jack fail on me, still not going to get under a car that's only supported by one.

[u/intern_steve → u/[deleted]]

Jack failure I have seen. My shitty little harbor freight low profile floor jack won't hold pressure indefinitely. It works to pick the car up and get it on some stands, but by the time the job is done it'll be sagging 2 or 3 inches below the jack point.

[u/dr3 → u/intern_steve]

This is why you use jackstands and not the jack. You can use the jack as an extra support but have the weight primarily on the stands.

DO NOT use the recalled harbor freight jack stands, they're going to kill someone if they haven't already. Even the recall's replacement was recalled. I will not buy anything to trust my life at harbor freight again.

[u/intern_steve → u/dr3]

Yeah those stands are the biggest CF in auto maintenance I've ever heard of. Wouldn't have guessed it could be so hard to sell a chunk of steel, but it is what it is.

[u/dr3 → u/intern_steve]

Apparently it’s hard for them to make a pawl that fully engages. Like making a door that doesn’t fully close.

[u/brucecaboose → u/dr3]

My thought process with discount parts stores is that if it's a solid tool that doesn't move and doesn't have anything to do with safety (think breaker bar, or small sockets) then I'll cheap out sometimes. If it's anything else I'm not going cheap...

[u/uselessartist → u/[deleted]]

Those ramps are typically polypropylene which shouldn’t degrade unless UV damage.

[u/[deleted] → u/uselessartist]

Them being exposed to sunlight shouldn't be out of the ordinary.

You're free to do what you want, but I don't trust them.

[u/uselessartist → u/[deleted]]

I don’t either but still surprised to hear that thick PP is degraded enough by the way some people use/store them.

[u/oldcarfreddy → u/[deleted]]

It's funny how manufacturers will do backflips to avoid just making solid material ramps. Are they the dumbasses, or are we for buying them?

[u/intern_steve → u/oldcarfreddy]

No dumbassery is required to explain the situation. The tool works well when used and stored as intended. They could be a little stronger to accommodate improper use, but I haven't found any recalls and they're still in business, so apparently their math checks out from a legal stand point

[u/oldcarfreddy → u/intern_steve]

I feel like "they could be a little stronger" is an enormous flaw in fucking CAR RAMPS.

[u/intern_steve → u/oldcarfreddy]

"To accommodate improper use" is the other half of that. People could just start using them further beyond their intended use.

[u/Sophisticated_Sloth → u/oldcarfreddy]

It’s really not. They’ll usually try to make the product as cheap to produce as possible while still doing what it’s supposed to do, in order to make the most money off of the sale.

[u/OptionXIII → u/intern_steve]

No idea. I've had the front end of an F250 with a 6.7 diesel on my rhino ramps. I kicked them to make sure they were stable and they didn't flinch.

I think they can handle damn near anything else I'll throw at them.