A man with a plan, very nice. Excellent procedure, and excellent oil as well.

 

Excellent - thanks for the pics. That makes sense. We did a little mini-vacation this weekend for our anniversary and I read this post on my phone so I didn't see there were photos. I was like "whhaaa??"....the 'plenty of beer' part confused me I was at the water park and I was having some adult beverages too


Have you been able to safely put your truck up on jack stands in your driveway in any configuration? I'm thinking for changing rear shocks and stuff like that. I have a fear of my truck rolling off a jack stand so I don't toy with many ideas.

 

Shorts--No, I would not put my truck up on jack stands in my sloped driveway! But I have done that in the past, by paralel parking in my driveway, on the street. I change out my differential fluids that way. What's also not shown in my pics, is the 4X4 chunck of lumber I stick behind the rear wheel, for a little bit of a saftey factor!

 

I know some of you guys live in residential nose-in-the-air call-the-cops kind of neighbor-hoods and have to just live with what you got, but there are good permanent solutions for those who live in more friendly places that have steep drive-ways.

There was a very lengthy thread about this some time back, several pages long, either this site or some other, I can't remember, that had lots of good ideas.

Myself, I like all my stuff sitting level when it is parked at home so that I can inspect fluid levels before taking off.

If I had a steep drive-way, I would put it to good advantage.

Take a section of an old double-decker car-hauler, cylinders and all, re-work it, and make a drive-over hydraulic leveling hoist.

Most of the time, the ramps would just lay flat, sort of counter-sunk in the drive-way; drive plumb across them, or park on them, at will.

If parking on the ramps, integral little skotch flippers would prevent the truck rolling off in the night.

With a flip of a switch in the garage, raise the low end dead-level with the high end.

For access underneath the truck, first level the low end, then raise the whole thing a couple or more feet up.

I have my eye on just such an old car-hauler, sitting in a guy's back field, with honey-suckle vines and black-berries grown all through it.

 

As for ramps, I made myself a set that have helped me out for more years than I can remember.

I used two old matching steel wheels, the wider the better --- without getting ridiculous.

I welded up two "ladders" of heavy angle-iron, using two long pieces maybe three-feet for the "stringers", and welding cross pieces to the flats of the stringers, about ten inches apart, with the sharp angled side facing up.

I then welded one end of these angle-iron ladders to the bead of a wheel, such that one end of the ladder was on the floor and the other end is up on the edge of the wheel, thus making a ramp.

I added a "leg" located about centerways of each ramp that prevents the span from buckling under the weight of a heavy truck.

I welded a short piece of heavy-wall pipe to the opposite edge of each wheel that is the "stop" that prevents me from driving completely over the ramp.

Of course, gussetts and bracing were added wherever I thought necessary.

These were built of odd scraps that I already had and only cost a little time and a few rods.

They have served me well countless times.



One big improvement that I have been intending to make is to re-work the angle-iron ramps such that, once the truck-tire is firmly planted atop the wheel, I can remove the ramps and get them out of the way.

Often, it would be advantageous if I could get the ramps out of the way, instead of laying across them, trying to access something where they are interferring.