I am under contract to buy a house. It meets every single criteria I had except a level driveway for working on cars and other projects. The driveway is about 10-12 degrees or so. Easy to drive in and out of, but still too steep to jack up a vehicle safely.

I have a hillbilly engineering idea to sink a couple threaded inserts into the poured concrete slab driveway so that I can drop some threaded rod into the inserts, then set down two ramps and bolt them down. Then I can drive safely onto the ramps and not worry about them slipping out. See pic below.

When I'm not using the ramps, I can pull the threaded rod out and screw a cap head bolt into the inserts to keep them free of debris. I'll use stainless hardware to minimize corrosion problems. It should be low profile, no visual signature when not in use, and (hopefully) safe.

EDIT: The primary vehicle I'm planning to have on the ramps is a Ford Transit high roof cargo van while I build it out into a camper van.

Is this reasonable or am I gonna die?

If the driveway is concrete you want drop-in anchors. If it's macadam you are sol.

That being said, I don't think it's a great idea.

If you’re going to do it, don’t forget chocks and jackstands (every single time).

Great ideas above. Also add wood blocks as cribbing to back up the jack stands if you’re working under the vehicle. We have a member here who almost died when his mustang slipped off the jack stands.

If you have the room to add on why not build a level pad with a grease pit dug out in the middle.

Race Ramps.

Definitely.


This is actually a possibility, but not any time soon. I've got plenty of more pressing projects before digging out a pad large enough to fit a Ford Transit van and then building retaining walls.


These look like pure foam. Can they actually be bolted down?

How thick is the concrete?  I personally would not be comfortable relying on standard 4-6" concrete to hold the inserts securely over time.  The ground shifts.  Things shift.  Things then crack.  If things crack or give when there's a nice lateral load on the inserts, well... I would not want to find out if the cribbing or jack stands do their job.  All bets are off at that point.  I can almost guarantee the jack stands will collapse.  Not sure about a block or cribbing if there's enough friction to keep the car from sliding over it.

At minimum, I'd think you would have to put some heavier duty pylons pretty deep into the ground, then anchor inserts in or on to those.  Basically, you'd need to be deep enough to guarantee the pylons could hold the lateral load even if you assume the concrete wasn't there.

Even then, fuck that shit dude.  This is how Darwin wins.  Don't let Darwin win.  Pour a small slab somewhere up by the house where it's flat or where you can make it flat.

People have been using ramps to work on vehicles forever so no problem there. I’ve never heard of anyone bolting them down. Is there a reason you have to do that? I’m using plastic ramps for my Subaru but eventually want to build some solid wood ones.

So roughly a 3" drop every 12" for 10-12degrees . I'd say you need somewhere flat. That's a fair bit of lateral force on something not designed for lateral force in my opinion

Do you not have enough land up around the garage that you could clear a spot and make space? Possibly pour a pad for working on the van?

Back/front yards are over rated anyway, who wants to mow and landscape?

You don't necessarily need to pour a pad. My Dad did a *lot* of work on his cars in a gravel driveway or on the grass. You can even use a creeper if you get a sheet of plywood and throw it under the car after you get it jacked up.

Hillbilly? Sure. But safer. And you won't be able to use a creeper on a skipped sloped driveway anyway.