Hi everybody,
Just a bit of background on me - I've returned to hands on car spannering after a 25 year break during which my available hobby time petered out and was replaced with brewing (which you can do inside when its dark
). Originally I was well into air cooled vws and had a succession of (3) beetles and a type 2 which I worked on because I couldn't afford to pay someone else to do it.
In 2013 I had a neurological event since 'determined' to be relapsing remitting MS - basically I went numb from the centre line of my body out to the left, had really poor balance and no idea where my left hand/foot were when I wasn't watching them. Long story short, that is the only 'relapse' I've had and although it was a biggie I'm luckier than many others because I have substantially recovered. In fact I learned to walk so well with my left foot that I have a 'perfect' wear pattern on my left shoe where both feet used to roll like uncle albert coming back from the pub.
Anyway, to the point .... I no longer have the tools I used to have and have gone through some mid life adjustments. I'm now building up my tool kit again and looking for advice. Ideally I want tools that make things easier as I can tire easily when pumping a jack or cranking a spanner so there are some obvious steps I've already taken. Primarily around light weight battery drills, drivers and a jack.
10 years ago I bought a pukka vcds cable from Gendan (just upgraded it to a hex wifi one last week). 5 years ago I bought a yellow electric scissor jack off eBay and am very pleased with it. I have changed tyres in the not so recent past with a manual scissor jack and standard tools and needed an early night to get over it. Since then, the electric jack and an extending wheel brace have been an excellent investment, used on a Passat, Superb and now on my T6 Caravelle, Dougal.
Having fitted a towbar to the Caravelle (the mechanical bit) I was confident that the wiring would be straight forward and then found that my (Aldi) axle stands and (eBay) jack combination don't meet at their highest settings! To get the Caravelle onto two axle stands and lift the side of the van I couldn't get the axle stands to their 3rd hole :-( so space was a little tight for a fat bloke in his 50's trying to use a cordless drill to undo the fiddly plastic under panels etc.
So I watched DellMassive's youtube video where he gets the under engine plastic cover fitted and was impressed with the plastic ramps he used. I've been looking out for wide tall plastic ramps for a while now and there is nothing to commend any of the ones I have seen for sale. I was also taken with the electric ratchet which I have deduced is more likely a knock off of a Milwaukee or an Oriental Un Certified Hardware (OUCH) ratchet than a domestic brand.
I used to have steel ramps and wooden beams, I remember getting the engine end of a beetle around 3 feet into the air using ramps then a beam on blocks with a trolley jack and eventually the beam on more blocks on the trolley jack. Blocks were plentiful in my youth! At one point I had a a couple of stacks of concrete blocks with some hefty steel channel as a ramp - and then jacked the channel up level (then supported by more blocks) but that was for spindly 155 tyres, not the 235+ beasts on Dougal; channels and RSJs that size are not readily available for £cheap or £free and £new is excessive.
I'm going to bite the bullet, make a list the 'ideal' tools and get them as the need arises - with one eye on how practical they are for me to lift / carry / move and the other eye on how much effort they save. Ramps I think have got to be the least effort to use (once you've successfully used them a couple of times).
Questions
and absolutely have no idea 
about football. Any one local to Sidmouth in Devon looking to emerge from lockdown and wanting to talk bollox down the pub should feel free to pm me. Worst that can happen is we each buy a round.
Just a bit of background on me - I've returned to hands on car spannering after a 25 year break during which my available hobby time petered out and was replaced with brewing (which you can do inside when its dark
). Originally I was well into air cooled vws and had a succession of (3) beetles and a type 2 which I worked on because I couldn't afford to pay someone else to do it.In 2013 I had a neurological event since 'determined' to be relapsing remitting MS - basically I went numb from the centre line of my body out to the left, had really poor balance and no idea where my left hand/foot were when I wasn't watching them. Long story short, that is the only 'relapse' I've had and although it was a biggie I'm luckier than many others because I have substantially recovered. In fact I learned to walk so well with my left foot that I have a 'perfect' wear pattern on my left shoe where both feet used to roll like uncle albert coming back from the pub.
Anyway, to the point .... I no longer have the tools I used to have and have gone through some mid life adjustments. I'm now building up my tool kit again and looking for advice. Ideally I want tools that make things easier as I can tire easily when pumping a jack or cranking a spanner so there are some obvious steps I've already taken. Primarily around light weight battery drills, drivers and a jack.
10 years ago I bought a pukka vcds cable from Gendan (just upgraded it to a hex wifi one last week). 5 years ago I bought a yellow electric scissor jack off eBay and am very pleased with it. I have changed tyres in the not so recent past with a manual scissor jack and standard tools and needed an early night to get over it. Since then, the electric jack and an extending wheel brace have been an excellent investment, used on a Passat, Superb and now on my T6 Caravelle, Dougal.
Having fitted a towbar to the Caravelle (the mechanical bit) I was confident that the wiring would be straight forward and then found that my (Aldi) axle stands and (eBay) jack combination don't meet at their highest settings! To get the Caravelle onto two axle stands and lift the side of the van I couldn't get the axle stands to their 3rd hole :-( so space was a little tight for a fat bloke in his 50's trying to use a cordless drill to undo the fiddly plastic under panels etc.
So I watched DellMassive's youtube video where he gets the under engine plastic cover fitted and was impressed with the plastic ramps he used. I've been looking out for wide tall plastic ramps for a while now and there is nothing to commend any of the ones I have seen for sale. I was also taken with the electric ratchet which I have deduced is more likely a knock off of a Milwaukee or an Oriental Un Certified Hardware (OUCH) ratchet than a domestic brand.
I used to have steel ramps and wooden beams, I remember getting the engine end of a beetle around 3 feet into the air using ramps then a beam on blocks with a trolley jack and eventually the beam on more blocks on the trolley jack. Blocks were plentiful in my youth! At one point I had a a couple of stacks of concrete blocks with some hefty steel channel as a ramp - and then jacked the channel up level (then supported by more blocks) but that was for spindly 155 tyres, not the 235+ beasts on Dougal; channels and RSJs that size are not readily available for £cheap or £free and £new is excessive.
I'm going to bite the bullet, make a list the 'ideal' tools and get them as the need arises - with one eye on how practical they are for me to lift / carry / move and the other eye on how much effort they save. Ramps I think have got to be the least effort to use (once you've successfully used them a couple of times).
Questions
- What are the best value, hugest ramps, to get a T6 sills 600mm off the ground?
- I have a 750mm long breaker bar for coaxing wheel bolts - where in the van can I stow it out of sight?
- Is there a better recommendation for an extending lever type tool that will extend to 700mm+?
- Which way up should the spare alloy wheel be on the carrier - pretty side up or down?
- I fitted a sparesaver locking bolt and was wondering if anyone actually manufactures a matching set of 4 locking wheel bolts and 1 long one with the same key for the spare?
- I was looking for Armaplate sentinel steel security plates for all the doors - twin slider caravelle, turns out they didnt have enough demand so discontinued the plates for the o/s slider. What are the best alternatives for a matching set of door reinforcement plates?
- Finally (lots of questions) I took a link from one of @Robert posts on buying parts from Poland but I can't get Google translate to play with https://allegro.pl/ .... is there something I'm missing or does anyone have a nifty sideline in being a Polish connected go between? (when 1.00 Polish Zloty = 0.19p the prices are pretty compelling!)
and absolutely have no idea about football. Any one local to Sidmouth in Devon looking to emerge from lockdown and wanting to talk bollox down the pub should feel free to pm me. Worst that can happen is we each buy a round.
