Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Crushed!

So something lousy happened the other day.  I was trying to do routine maintenance on my Dad's Ford F-150.  In other words, this monstrosity:

 

I did the usual thing I had done before, put the truck up on my ramps, and that's when I had a serious problem.  In other words, it crushed my ramps.




 

As you can see, it just started to bend.  My Dad yelled at me when he saw the ramps starting to bend, and I got off them fast.  But the damage was done.  They are all but scrap metal now. 

I thought about when I bought those ramps.  I bought them used at a pawn shop for $15.  I had been having trouble changing the oil in my Saturn at that time.  Since it was only four inches off the ground I couldn't get under it to change the oil.  So the ramps helped a great deal.  I used them for my next car, a Ford Focus, as well as my Mother's cars, a Ford Windstar and an Escape.  I'd even used them for my Dad's truck for the two times that I ended up changing his oil.

But this third time, the ramps couldn't take it.  They just started to bend.  And it's not like I did anything different.  I had the ramps lined up perfectly, and crept up them as always.  But they just ended up buckling for some reason.

So I ended up searching Craigslist, and found the same kind for sale.  They weren't in as good condition, but they were $25, and I wasn't going to beat that.  So here they are:




As you can see, they are a bit rusted.  I will most likely sand off the rust and re-paint them.  That way, hopefully they will last longer.  Hopefully, they can withstand my little Ford Focus.  I'm definitely going to have someone watch me when I put my car up on these new ramps.  I'll also make sure to put a safety jack under there too.  But one things for sure.  I'm not going to be putting the truck up on these ramps any time at all.

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