[doane2u]

I just bought a jack kit on sale from O'Reilly Auto Parts for $34 (1.5 ton jack with two stands) Got it home and found that trying to get it under the front it would just barely roll under and then trying to get it under the right place and jack it up was almost impossible and a real pain. If I had a larger floor jack it wouldn't be able to fit under there at all and my 2012 isn't even lowered.

I had a couple of cheap 8' pine 1x12's in the garage so I made two 3" lift ramps, took less than an hour. I cut the boards with my skill saw at a 45 angle on the ramp part, but you really don't need to.. you could make this with just a hand saw. You could also probably use 1x8's, but I think 1x6's are two narrow to drive up onto easily.

These work great, very easy to drive up onto them and you can feel the stops. Just rising the front 3" now makes it a breeze to get the floor jack under there and I can now easily see where to jack it up so I can put the stands under the left and right side in their support pinch indents.

Hope this is of some use to some of you as I've seen other posts about having trouble jacking up the front. I saw another thread where some one did a similar thing using 2x8s, but he was trying to actually make car ramps. Mine are simply to help jack up the car if you have a floor jack; they are cheap, light weight and don't take up much storage room.

 

[doane2u]

I painted the wheels this weekend... dipped them, and rather than leave them on the car I decided to remove the wheels. the ramps work fine for the front, but I discovered this small floor jack doesn't raise the car high enough to get the stands under the sides, so I had to make another simple modification... I cut a piece of 1x4 and then added a piece of 2x4 and put it on the head of the jack to get it up high enough. Jacking up the rear I didn't need the ramps at all, but still needed the wood spacers to get it up high enough to stick the stands under the sides.

 

[swerv0428]

So your not lowered and can't get the jack under the car. Jesus how tall is the jack? Our 2.5 isn't lowered and I've never been close to not having a jack fit.

 

[doane2u]

So your not lowered and can't get the jack under the car. Jesus how tall is the jack? Our 2.5 isn't lowered and I've never been close to not having a jack fit.

Please reread, I never said I couldn't get it under the car. I can get it under the front and rear, but in the front, because it is so far back under and there is so little room it is very difficult to see where to put the lift point and hardly any room to get the handle to move up and down to raise it. That's why I made the simple ramps, but then the jack is short a few inches in getting the car up high enough so the wheels lift off the ramps and so the stands will slide under the side support points.

In the rear I don't need the ramps, but the jack won't lift the car up high enough to get the stands under the sides with out using the wood spacers I mentioned above.

 

[swerv0428]

Gotcha. So the jack won't go high enough. Well get a taller jack then.

 

[doane2u]

Gotcha. So the jack won't go high enough. Well get a taller jack then.

The reason I got it, as I said in the first post, was because it was on sale with the stands for only about $35.. not bad for a floor jack, but it doesn't jack up high enough so that is one problem, but was easily solved by adding some wood blocks to the top of the jack head.

The other problem, is trying to get it, or any floor jack under the front jack point, which is way back under and hard to see. And once positioned right there is hardly any clearance to be able to move the handle up and down to jack it up. So the low ramps help with that and I just thought it might help some others here.

 

[doane2u]

OK, finally got around to taking some pictures of the ramps and jack set up. Also just noticed it's a 2 ton jack, not a 1.5 ton.
Here's a bunch of pix. I drilled a hole in the spacer so that it won't fall off the jack head when moving it around under the car.. used a simple door knob hole saw, but you could probably use a jig saw or coping saw in a pinch.