Ramp It Up - Rent a 2 post lift or bay per hour in Bristol

[SiC]

Just got told about this place by a work colleague:

http://ramp-it-up.co.uk

 

TL;DR: £50 for half a day, £17.50 per hour on ramps with tools. £30 for half a day, £12 per hour with a bay with no tools. Extra £20 per hour for a mechanic on hand to help. Spray booth is £80 for half a day.

 

Looks absolutely amazing and incredibly useful! I'm especially tempted to ask someone to buy me the £60 3hr welding taster course for Xmas.

 

I kinda knew these sort of places existed in the USA but no idea here. Does anyone know of one near them?

 

I'm very tempted to book half a day on ramp so I can get that valve body done on the Saab. Would be so much easier to do on a ramp! Especially nicer not doing it on a freezing cold drive.

[twosmoke300]

Seems quite dear tbh. Last year ( before I went vat reg and raised my labour rate) you could have had a ramp , tools and a mechanic with 20 years experience for 25 an hour

[fatharris]

There's a guy in Cornwall who does the same, at £25/hr.

 

Strangely enough, he's the former manager of the Car Club at work so he saw a niche in the market and went for it!

[SiC]

True but this is Bristol prices, not Cornwall

 

My local mechanic is £50 per hour, which is cheap here. Cash in hand varies but like £30 per hour.

 

However often it's more satisfying to do something yourself, as a non-pro. Or if it's something that a garage won't/don't want to touch.

[Captain Furious]

£100 worth of ramp time and still having to do it yourself drastically cuts into the savings of DIYing. Because the kind of jobs you'd do on a ramp are likely to take at least a day.

 

So while I think it's a great idea, my inner mingebag would probably still have me out there struggling on the driveway.

[michael1703]

Ramps are over rated, if you're fit enough and determined enough you can do anything with a jack and axle stands

[steveo3002]

not enough saving for me ....might as well find a cheap local mech and sit on your bum or roll about on the side of the road for free

[DodgyBastard]

I offered this kind of service for free on Fridays but nobody has taken me up on it yet...

[cort1977]

They had one in Houston, currently they are 'looking for a location that better suits their needs' so may not be viale here.

 

It's a good idea but very location dependent I would think.

[matty879]

Ramps are over rated, if you're fit enough and determined enough you can do anything with a jack and axle stands

ive got that used to scratting round on the floor over the last 25 or so years,i dont think i would be able to work under a ramp to do a clutch or whatever,im programmed to make the best of it now

[Kiltox]

Often thought about using this for jobs that are more involved but those jobs are probably ones I shouldn't be driving to Bristol for!

[Faker]

One of these places in Bangor (norn iron). I've never used it, but know/knew the people behind it. It's been operating for the last dozen years.

[Dead_E23]

London has this place in Park Royal (Acton):. http://www.pitstartgarage.com/self_service.html

...which has mechanics on hand if you get stuck. Probably very reassuring for novice DIYers, and useful if you lived somewhere busy where working in the gutter wouldn't be practical.

[Dave_Q]

There used to be one near me (Sowerby Bridge nr Halifax) but it seems to have gone.

 

Think it was about 15 an hour or 50 for half a day, got chatting to the lad that ran it and he hardly had any ramp customers, it was a sideline to his main business of rebuilding smart car engines.

 

As others have said the prices are too high for the skinflints and too close to garage labour rates for Joe Public. Your market is pretty much limited to the odd weirdo like me who will spend a few quid to have half a day servicing his shitter on a ramp as a birthday treat to myself.

[twosmoke300]

I would imagine it's the insurance that pushes the price up

[Captain Furious]

Yup, in this day and age where it's necessary to erect signs warning people not to dive into empty swimming pools and send them on two day training courses to climb step ladders, I imagine the public liability cost of letting them lift a car above their head on a hydraulic ramp is significant.

[beko1987]

I've heard of these places before, and it's the charges that would result from something going snap, wrong bits from euro car parts or other oh shit moments that leave the car stranded on the ramp that puts me off.

 

"Yea no worries m8, £40 an hour and it can stay there..."

 

At least outside my house, up on axle stands it's free whilst I think of a plan B...

[Andychancer]

There's one in Bridlington about 20miles from me,prices look cheap and says you can keep/work on projects and restos there.Not sure how much that costs though.

For me though it's dead money unless it's ultra cheap,I'm a Yorkshireman after all lol

Plus what If you're doing a clutch and you end up getting given the wrong one and you have to leave it as the replacement is an overnight from Japan hobby? Then the savings suddenly become very embarrassing.

[egg]

It's theoretically against the law to repeatedly work on a car in the street apart from emergency repairs - but I appreciate in the real world this is never enforced!

 

So if you have no off road space could work for people. 

 

Local one to me was being offered at £13 an hour, but haven't seen the ad live recently.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rent-a-ramp-in-East-kent-/121856628556?cp=1&euid=cb0640a7691a4b568053a6efddf32335&nma=true&si=RtlpVLlyRbl7TRVWRav5Dlqa2%252Bg%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[scaryoldcortina]

Every time I've offered someone use of my ramp I've ended up doing the job for them. I usually talk them out of trying now.

[cort16]

I think the time pressure would make most amateur mechanics crack.

I got use of a lift to change my gearbox sump gasket one Saturday morning. I was flapping as I only had an hour to do it and ended up over tightening the bolts and made the leak worse .

[beko1987]

I think the time pressure would make most amateur mechanics crack.

I got use of a lift to change my gearbox sump gasket one Saturday morning. I was flapping as I only had an hour to do it and ended up over tightening the bolts and made the leak worse .

This! When I did the cambelt on the xantia the first time I had to be able to drive it to work on Monday, and even 2 days wasn't enough for me to fully figure it out and fix it as I had it back together incorrectly, so had to wait a week/400 miles until I could do it properly. Every so often I found myself flapping at a dead end so had to stop, walk away and do some googling/ask questions on here, logically work it out then try again.

 

Tbh my stupidity was only blagged by the bulletproofness of my engine to run with a slack cambelt!

 

Fuck doing an axle off job within 4 hours or summat, and having to stop at 5.30 wether your done or not because the owner wants to go game, back when we were 18 a mate and me did an engine swap in his defender and we were out till 4am with various 60w bulb lights working! (I knew nothing back then, I provided the muscle and he did the flapping)

[Dead_E23]

It's theoretically against the law to repeatedly work on a car in the street apart from emergency repairs - but I appreciate in the real world this is never enforced!

 

It says in the link that it's illegal if it's for work or 'causes annoyance to people in the vicinity'.

 

I did a fair bit of work in the street at our old house, and the main annoyance was that all my neighbours used to stop for a chat because they were curious about what I was fixing.  Everything used to take ages!    

 

Funnily enough, I'm hardly any faster now because I'm continually wandering off to get tools, boil the kettle, check YouTube 'how-to' videos or do anything apart from get on with the job in hand.

[SiC]

I spend quarter my time repairing cars trying to find the damn tool I need, or where I have just out that damn tool. Another quarter looking at a YouTube video. Another quarter faffing about deciding how to do it/fix something I've buggered/etc. And the final quarter actually doing it.

 

There is a mechanic on hand for £20 per hour in the Bristol one. So I guess if things are getting tight/struggling to get something done in time, then I imagine you can bring him/her in to speed things up.

 

Reading the pistonhead reviews, the guy who runs it (who is a/the mechanic) seems to be pretty helpful and willing to go a bit extra mile if you're struggling.

 

Also has trade accounts with local motorfactors, so if you need something more he can get it in. I assume not on weekends though...

 

I have to say that I'm very tempted to book some time this weekend and have a crack with this valve body. I mean I got it off another car. How hard can it be putting on again?!

[matty879]

I spend quarter my time repairing cars trying to find the damn tool I need, or where I have just out that damn tool. Another quarter looking at a YouTube video. Another quarter faffing about deciding how to do it/fix something I've buggered/etc. And the final quarter actually doing it.

 

There is a mechanic on hand for £20 per hour in the Bristol one. So I guess if things are getting tight/struggling to get something done in time, then I imagine you can bring him/her in to speed things up.

 

Reading the pistonhead reviews, the guy who runs it (who is a/the mechanic) seems to be pretty helpful and willing to go a bit extra mile if you're struggling.

 

Also has trade accounts with local motorfactors, so if you need something more he can get it in. I assume not on weekends though...

 

I have to say that I'm very tempted to book some time this weekend and have a crack with this valve body. I mean I got it off another car. How hard can it be putting on again?!

if you took it off the other car,youve done it already,refitting is a reversal of removal why waste money on a ramp,the way i look at jobs is coffee first then just get stuck in,you will be surprised how much your into it once going.

It says in the link that it's illegal if it's for work or 'causes annoyance to people in the vicinity'.

 

I did a fair bit of work in the street at our old house, and the main annoyance was that all my neighbours used to stop to get their car fixed then report me

so i cant swap my focus engine when i have my imminent breakdown at the roadside?its in the boot as a spare

[17-Coffees]

They also have a place in Montrose, which is tempting. 

My problem is working space, the parents driveway is't great and at the flat I stay in (in a snobbish compound) I get given the evils for doing the most basic of maintenance! Also thanks to the weather we get in North East Scotland, your forever putting a job off.

 

£50 for 4 hours including use of ramp & tools no bad in my eyes. Use of an air gun would be great. if you can do as many car's as you can fit into for the hour then even better! 

[matty879]

They also have a place in Montrose, which is tempting. 

My problem is working space, the parents driveway is't great and at the flat I stay in (in a snobbish compound) I get given the evils for doing the most basic of maintenance! Also thanks to the weather we get in North East Scotland, your forever putting a job off.

 

£50 for 4 hours including use of ramp & tools no bad in my eyes. Use of an air gun would be great. if you can do as many car's as you can fit into for the hour then even better! 

if all goes well and nothing goes wrong,has anyone ever thought of getting a mobile lift to use at home? you can get them off the auction sites second hand,sometimes its a waiting game to get one locally,but if you were inclined to rent a ramp,imagine the potential savings,plus when its finished with you could sell and get your money back,im currently after one for my new unit when its finished,ive got until feb to wait for one.

 

EDIT JUST READ YOUR SITUATION

[sierraman]

Can't see the point in paying £25 an hour for a mechanic to give you a hand, over paying him £30 an hour just to do the fucking job.

[sierraman]

Ramps are over rated, if you're fit enough and determined enough you can do anything with a jack and axle stands

If you had access to a ramp why on earth would you want to lay at an awkward angle, grinding inches from your face when doing something like an exhaust. I've done it both ways, like hell would I pick the driveway to do it over a ramp.

[steveo3002]

Can't see the point in paying £25 an hour for a mechanic to give you a hand, over paying him £30 an hour just to do the fucking job.

yep and when the mech needs another part or some bolts from town the clock stops vs it costing you 50£ to drive into town and get summet