RAMPED UP

I was fascinated by your hydraulic ramps

(Editorial, September 2018) as I didn’t know such a thing existed. I also really liked the wooden ones built by reader Gareth Owen (Your Letters, November 2018) and I have made something similar.

My friend was throwing out some 4x4 fence posts that were about two metres long. I thought they had potential, so took them off his hands. What I did was to cut a slope on each of them, then held the two together side by side using copious amounts of wood glue, six-inch nails and a tie plate on each pair. This made them very secure indeed and gave four inches of lift. I thought this was not really enough, so I attached a plank to each one to give an extra inch and three-quarters. To stop the vehicle tyres from pushing the ramps ahead of them while trying to mount them, I used six-inch nails hammered right through and cut off, which act as locating dowels for holes drilled in the main ramp. You may notice Stixall adhesive smeared on the slopes to aid traction.

I made the ramps primarily for carrying out routine maintenance on my 2005 Honda Accord, in particular oil changes. The oil filter on this car is on the rear of the engine block, facing the bulkhead, and is impossible to access except from underneath. These ramps allow me to easily squirm under the car on my back in order to remove and replace the filter. I could use my trolley jack and axle stands, but driving up on these ramps is so much quicker and easier. Gary Mills