help designing shop stand for 911

[Hendog]

Originally Posted by wayner

ok, project has begun!

Having considered everyone's input to the design, the first order of business?

Build a stand for my beer...

OOH! Sleemans Honey Brown!
That's what I keep in my fridge (for a short period of time)

[HelmetHead]

Originally Posted by wayner

CAUTION!
The shackles that I used to strap the two ton wheels to the 3x3 beam came from a heavy equipment supplier that manufactured them for me. They are used to strap leaf springs to axles on big trucks (although they made them smaller for me, but the same steel).

They ARE NOT the softer metal ones that you buy at the hardware store. I wouldn't trust the hardware store units.

Nice looking cart!! Another option to the straps is to weld caster pads available at grainger to the cart..this allows for simple one bolt removal of the wheel for use on another project.

ALBION Caster Pad - Caster Accessories - 4DU19|PC020000G - Grainger Industrial Supply

[shbop]

Originally Posted by HelmetHead

mount details

Just went through this, and really liked Einar's design. My original had the rear portion attaching to the motor mount points on the chassis, but Einar's design makes access to the back tunnel and engine compartment a breeze.

[wayner]

I agree.

Since mine is supporting a car that is fully assembled, I used saddles for the torsion bars in place of the bolt on brackets that he used, although since my saddles are just on stubs that insert into the frame of my cart, I could easily insert a different set of stubs if I wanted bolt on brackets.

Also, while building it in a modular fashion I intended to use four wheels, but as an experiment only attached one front wheel as I had seen on other carts. It turns out that at this height, using such a wide wheel stance, the cart is extremely stable even with a full engine and transmission installed. If I raised the chassis perhaps 2 more feet, I would have to re evaluate that but so far I have zero concerns with 3 wheeled stability at this height.

Even if I was to use four wheels, I also preferred to go with an "I" shaped frame rather than a box shaped frame so that I could use more area under the car for storage.

My Sleemans Honey Brown induced experiment using three wheels to support a fully assembled car a success.
Note that I am using wheels rated for 2000lbs each though.

(I also like Einar's castor pad suggestion instead of my wheel shackles).

DISCLAIMER:
If your car kills you don't blame me. This is not a certified design of any sort. It is just an experiment that I conducted in my garage to see if I could do it. No stress tests of any kind have been performed. Please be careful when designing your own.

[onboost]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

I'll try this weekend Paul but no promises, crazy busy with getting a motor back into the M491 and 2 other 3.2s up 2 flights of stairs. That should be fun.

I'll see if I can do something like I did for my rotisserie.

Oh yeah, that's always fun.. kinda like a couple of buddies years ago who built custom Harleys in the living room of their apartments.. then we had to take the front ends off to get the rest of the bike down the stairs.. WTF?

Would definitely like to see those measurements though.. they don't have to be as detailed as your rotisserie drawings.. whatever works for you.

Thx

[wayner]

Here is an addition that I engineered into the design but have not tried out yet with the car yet.

In the first pictures, my new chassis dolly almost dwarfs the huge 6 ton jack stand sitting next to it.

That gives me a maximum height based on what my floor jack will lift the car up to, but thinking I might want even more one day, I designed it so that once on the dolly I can raise it even higher by placing a jack under these extendable legs!








So, I can get this height (blue picture below) plus whatever extension I feel is a safe height to lift to, by placing a jack under the leg extension and lifting the car higher. (Still have to add a jack saddle and maybe a cross bar to tie them together so that the two legs lift at the same time)

[911 tweaks]

...

[D@vid]

Originally Posted by T77911S

i would not do 3 wheels.

indeed, doesn't look very stable.

[wayner]

I've been using it for the season. I'd challenge anyone to knock it over.

It is as wide as it is long, and all the real weight is behind the rear of the stand anyway.

[si Banker]

Was there a reason you used three wheels; maybe you owned a Morgan in another life? All kidding aside it looks great. Had you considered making a height adjustment? That way you could raise the car even more. That was my reason for the question about four wheels..............super idea

[911Bus]

I built one a few months ago but didn't think to search here for ideas. Just went thru this thread and see some good ideas!

Here's what I came up with. I wanted it to sit low but be adjustable for different work heights.

I built it with adjustable legs (like jack stands) It mounts to the front sway bar mount and rear torsion tube. It works great!

[wayner]

I like it. It looks simple and easy, especially your adjustable legs.

I know it is not obvious in the pictures of my stand painted blue, but this pre paint picture shows how mine adjusts (I place a floor jack under the leg extension and push it up though the support leg for additional height, similar to your idea).

P.S.
Do you have a project thread for your car?

[911Bus]

Originally Posted by wayner

I like it. It looks simple and easy, especially your adjustable legs.

I know it is not obvious in the pictures of my stand painted blue, but this pre paint picture shows how mine adjusts (I place a floor jack under the leg extension and push it up though the support leg for additional height, similar to your idea).

P.S.
Do you have a project thread for your car?

I haven't started a thread yet but will soon. I just bought the car and started on it a couple weeks ago. I'm making good progress and as soon as i have some better pic's I'll post them.
Geoff

[wayner]

Looks like Toddah has become the second member of the "lets confound people by only using three wheels" club
(..actually, Magnus posted three wheel pictures first, but his thread was about the car sitting on it, not the stand that it was on).

(BTW, I love the extra under car storage that the three wheel design offers over four.)

Post #39, #40, #46 of this thread that you are reading has most of my dimensions
Lots of other ideas here from others. They were useful in considering how I would build mine.

Here is Toddah's

Originally Posted by Toddah

Copy complete!!
Thanks Wayner !!!
Too cold to paint and cure in Wisconsin even with heat in the shop so it will just be iron until summer.
Makes short work of moving the car around the shop. THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wayner]

I think this one deserves mention here if anyone is building their own.

Chris posted it in his 73 rest mod thread. (Also search for "pentagon" to find the similar one that Fishcop built for his project).

[tocobill]

Wayne ... I like the idea of the above pictured tub rack. I very much like the octagon rack (fishcop's) as it lets the moment arm that the tub creates to be supported by the other side like an arch for load bearing. Looking at the above rack makes me feel weary that if the welds are not strong enough or the metal is sub par then its going to be a very bad day when the failure happens. I would love to see some more pics of this rack and some plans. Again ... this is just my opinion and experience with making racks for holding very large objects on a ship that swing/rolls around ... aka overkill, lol.

[wayner]

Mine is the three wheeled blue one.

The other one is from Chris. One of my recent observations is just how light an empty tub is though. I'll bet Chris' rack is almost heavier than the empty tub

[wayner]

Here is Fishcop's stand. it allows the car to be flipped while working on it.

My Alternative to a Rotisserie

[scootermcrad]

Great thread! I'm in the process of trying to come up with a dolly/cart for my tub that will support the body when I'm installing floor and suspension pans. This is really helpful.

Subscribed!

[wayner]

A question came up on another thread so I thought I would answer it here:

QUESTION:
Are four wheels easier to move than three?

ANSWER:
In my experience, my car was easier to move around on four wheel skates (each with four wheels) than on my three wheeled cart.

The three wheels that I used have a large diameter. When moving the cart, it is difficult to change directions without aligning the wheels (making them all point the same direction). I think this is more of a factor of the large wheels than the number of wheels.

In contrast, my wheel skates each have four wheels, and they are very small in diameter so do not tend to fight each other as much when changing direction compared to the larger wheels.

Effort to get the big wheels rolling is higher but once rolling it wants to keep rolling more easily, but again any changes in direction are more difficult. I can be more accurate moving the car into tight spaces on wheel skates.

Another factor I suppose is that with the wheel skates, the weight is distributed over 16 wheels instead of three. There is not as much weight per wheel, and therefore the wheels pivot easier, but again, I think the major factor is the diameter of the wheels and the larger arc that they have to move through when changing direction.