I killed two today.







Rhino Ramps, that is. Better them than me!

Scary stuff. I backed the Marshmallow up onto them and felt it hit the stop. I put it in park and *Ker-RUNCH!* They collapsed! Holy Schnikes! I'm glad it happened before I got under there. Holy moly. I was on level ground, too.

Scared the crap out of me! I've had those phuckers for like 10 years and never had a problem. Looks like my number was almost up today!

Holy smokes, glad you were not under there when they gave out man.

Looks like I will continue using stands

Crovo I am so glad this isn't your familys last memory of you.

It is good of you to share this with others. There is a message for us all here. Lorne.

Bill:

Certainly glad it was just a lesson, not a eulogy. Noticed over on the ISSf site you are sending picts to the manufacturer. Let us know what if anything they say. Have never felt particularly safe under a car with ramps but usually they give some kind of warning before they fail. The only ones I ever use are the solid polymer ones. Expensive but fail tested to 10,000 lbs.

Bill

HOLY S$#%!!!

that's scary.

Thanks for sharing this.

Lately i have been nervous about getting under the car even with jack stands AND the hydraulic floor jack still set up , in case of a jack stand failure.

What's really weird (or stupid perhaps LOL) is i feel safer under some of my smaller cars than my RMW!!! yeah like a 3,000 # car won't kill me just as dead as a 4,500 # one!!!

Damn Bill. That's some scary shit there buddy. Glad you weren't under there when that happened.

Off topic but not really, I saw a guy doing a suspension lift on his Jeep and I actually got scared when I drove past and saw that he was using a motorcycle jack like you buy at PepBoys to lift the entire Jeep off the ground almost waist high on a driveway that slopes to the street. The lucky SOB actually pulled it off and installed the liftkit. I stopped and said something to him about it and he looked at ME like the A-hole...

Thank you for sharing!

Wow, yikes! Glad you're here to tell us this story. I too will stick with jackstands from now on.

woah woah woah guys, notice the cross section. The rhino ramps in my garage are a solid grid matrix underneath; the ones that failed have much less underneath the surface and the bracing is very minimalist. How much did you pay for those ramps Bill? Mine were $30+ in 2001. Take a look.
I have no problems going under the car when they're on these.

I think I paid 20 or 30 bucks for them about 10 years ago at Walmart. You can see in the pics that it has the same insignia embossed in the side of my ramps, too. Apparently they were improved through the years for the "same" weight rating.

Wow Bill!! Just wondering...do you leave these outside in the sun when not using them?? I had a set that get brittle like that.

I only use jackstands now....and your pics make me feel better about them too. Ug :/

No Chris, they were always in my garage or shed. They didn't look fatigued at all. They just failed...

Bill, contact Rhino and let them know that their ramps failed. They MAY replace them. Never know.

I'd just buy another set of ramps with more reinforcements underneath and keep going. Those failed ones look miata-sized. Mine are solid as a rock.

I was at Autozone the other day and took a close look at the rhino ramps. The ones that failed are rated for 8,000lbs GVWR and are priced at $30. The ones I have are rated for 12,000lbs GVWR and are priced at $45. Neither of the designs were different from the pics you and I posted. So, I suppose this is a lesson learned - for b-bodies, get the 12,000 lb ones.

My own personal recommendation is that the 8000lb ramps aren't much better than the old unbraced metal ramps, where your entire safety reliance is on the corrugation of the metal to keep the vehicle up. I specifically bought the 12,000lb ramps because of the grid structure underneath is nearly crushproof.

EDIT - if you go to buy them, make sure you check the bottoms to make sure you're getting the right one. They look just about identical on the outside and even the AZ people had them mixed up next to the price signs.