If you are an avid mechanic, you know that many of the most common car projects require you to lift your car off the ground. The reason for this is that a mechanic often requires access to hard to reach components and must create space underneath the car. The conventional method to accomplish this is lifting your car with a floor jack, and then allowing the car to rest on a sturdy set of jack stands. However, anyone who has ever changed their coolant, replaced a transmission filter, or swapped their starter can tell you that lifting a car with a floor jack can be rather cumbersome. Fortunately there is another mechanic’s tool that you can draw from your arsenal to aid in lifting a car without having to go through the trouble of lugging floor jacks and jack stands around. This tool is none other than the trusty car ramp, which is usually accompanied by a set of wheel chocks. While ramps and chocks can’t be used for every car repair, there are quite a few where ramps will save you time over using a conventional floor jack.
Car Ramp and Wheel Chock Comparison
Below is a quick reference table intended to provide an easy and quick comparison before we dig too deep into the article and reviews. The table contains the makes and models of some of our favorites, as well as relative price and average rating. If you want a more in depth look feel free to jump ahead. However, if you only stopped by for a quick recommendation, this table is meant just for you.
Name | Price | Rating |
---|---|---|
![]() Race Ramps RR-40 Automotive Ramps | $$$$ | 5.0 |
![]() Maxxtow Solid Rubber heavy Duty Wheel Chock | $ | 4.6 |
![]() Camco Wheel Chocks | $ | 4.6 |
![]() Camco Yellow Tri-Leveler Ramps | $$ | 4.5 |
![]() Scepter Plastic Car Ramp Set | $$$ | 4.5 |
![]() RhinoGear Rhino Ramps | $$ | 4.5 |
![]() Flotool Heavy Duty Wheel Chocks | $ | 4.0 |
![]() Magnum Automotive Ramp System | $$$ | 3.1 |
What are Car Ramps and Wheel Chocks?
Car ramps, also called floor ramps, trailer ramps and auto ramps, are quite literally ramps that you can drive your car onto to elevate the front or rear wheels. They are most often made of high strength plastic, although metal ramps can also be found. Please be advised that although simplistic in nature, it is ill-advised that you make your own ramps. Each car ramp sold is extensively tested to verify load capacity over a large number of loading cycles to ensure that they are safe. Making a backyard version is a guaranteed way to hurt yourself.
Wheel chocks are often used in conjunction with car ramps to stabilize a car once on ramps. Wheel chocks are wedges that you place under a wheel to prevent the wheel from rolling in either direction. Chocks are most often made of rubber, but they can be had in metal as well.
When/Why Do You Use Ramps and Chocks?
You use ramps and chocks any time you want to raise the front of your car without dragging out a floor jack. You also use ramps when you want to load your car into a trailer or onto a platform, such as for transport and for display at auto shows and car meets. It should be noted that there are some stark advantages and disadvantages to using ramps and chocks instead of a floor jack.
Advantages
The greatest advantage when using car ramps are the convenience factor. It takes considerably less time to drive your car up on a set of ramps and chock one of your wheels than it would to use floor jacks and place jack stands. Since a car ramp has no moving parts, they also don’t necessarily require the use of jack stands to be safe, however using jack stands is always recommended as an added precaution.
Disadvantages
The most glaring disadvantage to using ramps is that your wheel always must make contact with the ramp. This means that your wheel must remain on the car. As such, you can’t rotate tires, bleed your brakes, change your brake pads, or perform any other type of automotive repair that requires you to remove your wheels. In addition, unlike a floor jack, the height is not adjustable when your car is resting on ramps.
Car Ramp and Wheel Chock Safety
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or astrophysicist to realize that when you lift 3000 pounds of metal and plastic in the air and then climb under it, there are safety concerns associated with this. Obviously, the great danger is that your car can fall, and if it does happen to, preferably you aren’t under it. Fortunately, if you follow some basic safety protocol and use a little common sense, you don’t have to worry about these issues.
1. Always ensure your car is fully seated on the flat part of the ramp.
When driving your car up a ramp, make sure you position the car so it sits at the top on the flat spot. Do not park and leave your car on the slope of the ramp. This makes for a less stable scenario where the car can roll backwards.
2. Position your car in the center of the ramp. Wheels should not hang off at all.
Your wheels should not hang off the ramp in any direction. A wheel that hangs off the ramp can potentially work the ramp out from under the car by slowly sliding it out of the way. Conversely, if the ramp is well anchored, the forces of having a wheel on the edge of a ramp can actually push your car sideways far enough relative to the ramp to allow the car to slip off. Luckily this problem is easy to avoid. Before climbing under your car, do a quick walk around and inspect each wheel to make sure it doesn’t hang off the ramp at all. If it does, simply back your car down, readjust the ramps, and drive back up.
3. Always chock at least one wheel.
This is imperative. Once you have your wheels positioned on the ramp, chock at least one wheel that is still touching the ground. This should not be confused with chocking the wheels that are sitting on the ramp. Doing so will merit you no additional safety benefit. When you chock a wheel, place a chock both in front of it and behind it to prevent that wheel from rolling in either direction. A common mistake is to put the front wheels of a car on ramps and then chock behind both rear wheels. This only stops the car from rolling backwards, when in reality you want to stop it from moving both forwards and backwards.
What to Consider When Buying Ramps/Chocks?
The nice thing about ramps is that since they are so simple, there are only a few considerations that you must make when purchasing a set. The first thing you need to worry about is the ground clearance of your car. Most ramps will work on most cars, but cars that are particularly low, such as sports cars, exotic cars, and race cars might need ramps that are longer and lower profile. The other thing you have to consider is the weight of your car. Ramps often are rated to a certain capacity, and you should keep this in mind. You don’t want to put your Chevrolet Suburban on a ramp designed to be strong enough to to support a car that is the size of a Mini Cooper or Mazda Miata. If you have a light car, pretty much all ramps on the market will work well for you. If you have a heavy truck or SUV, you will have to pay a little more attention to capacities. You can usually find your car’s weight in the owners manual of on car forums. The typical rule of thumb is that ramps should be able to support more than half of the weight of your car. This will give you enough added safety margin such that if your car doesn’t have perfect 50/50 weight distribution in all directions, you will still be covered.
When it comes to chocks, there are even fewer considerations. The biggest ones are that you get at least two chocks, and that they are made from a relatively soft rubber. Hard rubber tends to slide on garage floor surfaces, which can defeat the purpose of chocks. Softer rubber will provide more grip and prevent slipping much more reliably. If you want added safety, consider getting a set of 4 chocks and chocking more than one wheel.
Reviews of the Best Car Ramps and Wheel Chocks
Race Ramps RR-40 40″ Ramp
RhinoGear RhinoRamps Vehicle Ramps
Camco Wheel Chocks
So What Now?
So now you should have a pretty good idea regarding what to look for when selecting a ramp and chock set. It’s important to remember that there are tons of great options out there when it comes to these types of tools, so if the above aren’t quite the right fit for what you are looking for, take a look to see if something suits you a little better by clicking here to explore other floor ramp options.