[PLUG-TALK] DIY Garage Bay Rental

Keith Lofstrom keithl at gate.kl-ic.com
Fri Jun 6 21:07:17 UTC 2014


On Thu, Jun 05, 2014 at 04:04:20PM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> I'm trying to learn if there are any places (east side of Portland
> or suburbs) where I can rent a garage bay with lift for long enough
> to change oil in vehicles. Anyone know of such a place?

That would be wonderful, but ... as a wild guess, legal liability
would put the kybosh on any such venture.  A car improperly set
on a lift can cripple or kill if it falls.

The simplest way to do this for lighter cars is a pair of drive-on
ramps.  I use those for changing the oil on my and my wife's cars.
With a pan.  Inconvenient, you still must crawl underneath, and
some oil will escape.  Before the Oregonian newspaper became a
pamplet, I saved a couple of boxes of broadsheet paper to catch
drips.  The most important tool is an oil filter wrench.

The easiest way is also not a lift, but a concrete-reinforced
trench 24 inches wide and perhaps 5 feet deep, narrow enough to
drive the vehicle over.  That the setup at the nearby jiffylube.

The problem is clown A in the trench with arms or head sticking
over the edge while clown B backs over him.  While this is a
commendable Darwinian event (and hopefully, the children of both
clowns would be sterilized to enhance the selection process),
the usual result is the emptying of all vaguely associated deep
pockets by hoards of lawyers.

I can imagine an optical system ringing the edge, with a spinning
laser that would detect obstructions, but the manufacturer would
face even more legal liability, due to the infinite adaptability
of idiots.

So, when building such a pit, be sure to add a secure soundproof
cover to use between oil changes, and lock it down snugly so
that the liability lawyers you store in the pit between oil
changes can't escape.  Perhaps the place you take the old oil
will also accept the gnawed bones of the slower lawyers.

Keith

P.S.:  Kent, Washington,  http://tiny.cc/ucar
"... As the only garage of its kind in the Pacific Northwest ..."

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



More information about the PLUG-talk mailing list