I have a very smooth garage floor. When I try to use my wheel ramps for the quick and easy way to raise a vehicle, they will often slide, sometimes just one, but other times both. They will sometimes even continue to slide as the tire pushes them forward. What is an easy/safe way to keep them from sliding?
Duct Tape. Of course.
Take a piece of duct tape and tape it to the lip of the ramp. Run it out 12 inches/30cm and then fold it over and run it back to the ramp. Stick this on the backside of the ramp.
As you roll up on the ramp, the tape will be trapped underneath your tire and the ramp will be unable to slide away.
Use an old towel underneath the ramp, such that your vehicle runs onto the towel first
ramp
|¯¯¯\
|____\ towel Owheel
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
This is possibly the cheapest, simplest & least destructive method (as long as you don't mind your towel maybe getting small holes in it.)
Old towels make the best general purpose rags.
edit: if the towel still slips once the front wheel leaves the ground, you need more length, you could use a cargo strap (if you have one) instead of a towel - hook it around the ramp, then lay the strap down and drive onto it fully so it's pinched under the back wheel
Threaded Inserts in your concrete
I have placed various threaded interference inserts in my garage/shop floor. I've put them in locations where they will be useful to tie down a motorcycle or to have a bolt just sticking out of the cement to prevent something like this from sliding.
I've used various diameters of insert.
I can use them for a variety of situations.
Motorcycle Tie Down
Bolt down a ramp
Bench Mount
Hold a transmission jack into place
insert task here.
They've proven to one of the most useful things in my little shop. I can just move a device and if it requires a little better of a mounting solution, I have it already.
Of course you have to be OK with drilling holes in your slab, which I am.
One way would be to use the non-slip padding they make for kitchen shelves. Put a square of that down, and put a slightly smaller 3/4in plywood square on top of it. Then the ramp on top of the plywood. The rubber sheet prevents the slide, and the feet of the ramp dig just enough in the wood to prevent it from moving.
I put a long enough 2X4 behind both ramps and then two to three cinder blocks behind the wood to keep it from moving. You can substitute the cinder blocks for anything else that's heavy (but don't have your mother in law stand in because then she won't shut up about it). ;)
|block| |block| |block|
---------------2X4------------------
|ramp| |ramp|
You can fasten wooden stoppers to the floor with concrete bolts.
Alternatively, you could notch your floor in a specific area for where you would use your stands.
You could get a friend to hold the stands in place with a piece of wood as well.
If none of these are an option for you, as long as you have a steady wall or object in front of the stands, you can create a "deadman". Obtain sturdy pieces of wood and run it from the wall/object to the stands to prevent them from moving.
