Just as the title says.
Thanks a lot
Why do that when you can buy ramps that are made for that purpose and will have ratings. Besides without knowing your actual wood working skills I would never say make them.
I could make some very strong ones because I have the skills and wood working tools . But even I would not do that because it might even cost more than the ones I could buy.
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Agree with @VOLVO_V70
With the right design and woodworking skills, you could make a fine set of ramps with cheap pine CDX plywood. Without such skills you could use the hardest, finest ash boards and kill yourself dropping a car on top of you.
Ramps from what to what? Ground to trailer? Across a creek? How long? How heavy is your car? Far too many questions to give a good answer.
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I am from Oman, and so shipping from the US is expensive. Also, a lot of people on youtube make them from wood.
Other answers are correct. the type of wood is not important, what is important is the design.
And to do the design, you need woodworking and engineering skills, as well as the requirements, such as span, height, weight.
And, to be honest, your question indicates that you don’t have those skills. Buy a set of ramps.
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My best advice…don’t build your own ramps. I had a neighbor who dug a hole in the ground to use as a cheap work pit for his truck. When the hole collapsed around him…they had to dig him and his truck out. He was very lucky to be alive at the end of that day.
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@techniker1 Your other thread was about oil extractors because you did not want to jack the car up. At 5000 mile oil changes just have it done and then you don’t have to worry about the car falling on you.
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Looks like Moog used plain old pine boards available at any home center. Since the boards are only used in compression, pine will work fine. Stay away from MDF though. Use boards wide enough for the tires on your car. Basically, as wide as possible. If you are working on smooth concrete, some anti-slip strips glued to the bottom will help keep them in place as you drive on. A 1x2 (or 25x50 mm) added tot he end will keep you from driving off the ramps once you are on. Driving off, will spoil your day!
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I kinda wanna do it myself. I think it is not dangerous to make ramps, and I will make them 50% wider than the tires in my car.
Honestly, you don’t need engineering skills to build wooden ramps if you make them nothing but solid wood. Glue/screw a bunch of wood together until you have a solid block the length and height you need, then saw the angle that you need to get the car up to the top. Add a stop-block at the end of the parking area so you don’t drive forward off of the ramps.
Of course, these ramps will weigh about eleventy billion pounds, but they’ll be safe.
If you’re planning on making light weight ramps, then the others are absolutely correct - you need to know what you’re doing before you do it because messing up here can kill you.
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Thanks for the replies
A variation on shadowfax’s design is to stack wood, longest on bottom, shortest on top, using nails or screws to attach each to the one under it. You have a series of 1.5" steps, not a smooth ramp.
In the US, common pine 2X8s or 2X10s or 2X12s. 10 of them will be 15" high. And heavy.
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Use 2 jack stands instead. They take minimal space for storage
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Similar to what shadowfax said, I’ve used wooden planks for many years till I bought real ramps, largely because my father did it for 30 years prior.
He took various lengths of 2"x12X planks, layered them on each other, and staggered them so the wheels could drive up incremental 2" rises. There was no need to nail them together.
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OK, you are talking solid wood ramps. I actually used something like that for a while to get a few inches of lift when I needed it. You can use just about anything that is used for general construction in your area except weak wood like bamboo. I used pine or fir but oak, walnut, etc. Whatever is used in your area for building construction? I don’t know what you have there. I don’t think olive would be a good choice.
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I can buy White Wood, Red Meranti Wood, Ash wood, Beech Wood, and some others.
I do not think we have bamboo and olive wood. Maybe we use them only for decoration.
Thanks a lot
I believe you will find white wood is like pine and beech and ash are heavier. Go buy the two by 10 or 12 construction lumber available at a lumber yard and should be fine. Ash is hard and will be hard to cut without power tools.
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Make the twice as wide as the tires and make the top piece 50-cm long at least. You don’t want to roll off your ramps. You might damage the car, or at least make it difficult to get the car off the ramps if the body is resting on one or two. Then do whatever the guy in the YouTube video did.
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If your Nissan Truck (pickup truck?) is anything like mine was, you only need to come up about 3 to 4 inches so two 2x10’s will be enough. Cut one piece about 2’ long with a 45 degree bevel on one end. Cut the other piece about 1.5’ long with a 45 bevel. That would be about 70cm and 50cm cuts. A rough cut 2x10 would be 5cm x 30cm but in the US, finish size is mostly sold which is 1.5" x 9.25" or 3.8cm x 23.5cm.
Stack and fasten with the square ends together so you drive up on one board first, then up the other. This should provide adequate ground clearance for an oil change. Turn the steering wheel all the way to the right and remove the flexible panel from the inner wheel well to access the oil filter.
I would not use Balsa wood.
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