Lifting a car on reclaimed asphalt

[stm25rs]

Both the house I'm living in (renting) and my mom's house have driveways made of reclaimed asphalt. It's the scrap from when roads are stripped up, is finer than your average gravel driveway, and compacts pretty well, but, obviously, it's not the same as actual pavement or a slab of concrete.

 

I'd like to start doing more of my own work, which means I need to be able to lift and get under the car, which means I need jack stands and/or ramps, job depending.

 

I did some googling, and most people just recommend getting either a big piece of plywood, or placing jack stands on 2x4s. I have found that cinder blocks are no good, since they tend to crumble when subject to a point load.

 

Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

If it's safe, I'd be buying ramps first, for a sway bar install, so I'm also looking for ramp recommendations.

[BarManBean]

They make jack stands specifically for this I believe. They have a flat metal plate welded to the bottom. You can also find your own metal plates to place under the stands--welding them to the stands themselves is probably ideal. I would say whatever you do, make the pieces that go under the stands all one piece, i.e. if your jack stands have 4 feet then have one piece of material that supports all 4 feet--don't put two pieces of 2x4 underneath one stand, that sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[FJuan]

Something like this would help.

 

 

 

 

But I've found it easier and cheap just using large blocks of wood.

[700watts]

concur, I have a hard time believing the the gravel well separate under that little bet of load. that said I've seen weirder things....when in doubt go with ply wood