Opinions on this trolley jack?

[AnthonyH]

Although I have my two "big" jacks there are times when one of the smaller ones I have just does the job grand - and so much easier to toss in the boot if you need to take it somewhere. I never get rid of anything like this because you never know when a situation you never imagined will arise!

Undoubtedly a slotted rubber pad is useful on modern cars which pretty much all seem to jack up on reinforced sills now. However I've been using wooden blocks for years when jacking on the likes of chassis box sections and subframes and that works just grand for me.

If i took a picture of the reinforced sills on this car you'd think they'd been through a war, so it was about time to give them a rest...

 

[bugsymike]

Aye Mike. Wonder how often he gets a "tug" from the boys in blue? I know you're only joking and I don't want to sound like a "know it all" bore, but having spent some 6 years advising race teams - Auto Delta (Alfa Romeo) and Filipinetti (FIAT) being just two - on how to adjust their chassis settings to take maximum advantage of our tyres, that car probably handles like an absolute pig! Just for starters, can you imagine how poorly it will brake in an emergency?

It certainly is excessive and in normal use very little tread in contact with the road during braking. Though I have seen almost the same degree on vehicles used in stock car and banger racing in the past on short oval circuits, though I imagine they would be rubbish on normal roads.
In those days the "Banger boys" used to fit s/h racing tyres to their bangers and put a cut down old standard tyre band without the tread area on the outside so from a quick inspection they passed scrutiny, but handled much better than others when racing due to the soft racing tyre being all that touched the tarmac
I once put a small amount of negative camber on the front suspension of a Ford Anglia and immediately noticed an improvement so when doing spirited cornering it eliminated tyre squeal, even with the original 5.20x13 crossply tyres, so with the Dunlop 5.5 J steel wheels and Uniroyal 175x13 tyres I noticed a marked improvement.
The one mod I quickly removed was the stiffer twin antiroll bar conversion some recommended.
The car was already lowered front and rear, so for a apprentice on low wage it was a fun form of transport.
Re the boys in blue in those days we would get pulled, but generally only got a bit of firm advice rather than the penalties etc. of today.
I recall being followed for over a mile and finally pulled over for some strong advice regarding a spotlight bar made of angle iron, if the previous owner had not kept the spotlights it would have been fine, but officer rightly said if I had knocked anyone over it would have caused more damage so I removed it.

 

[The Panda Nut]

If I take the car to be aligned I imagine it'll be returned to me like this one I saw today

View attachment 450516

What exactly makes this dangerously modified vehicle invisible to the traffic police I wonder. They need to get their priorities sorted. and pull this sort of thing before sending it to the crusher.

 

[AnthonyH]

What exactly makes this dangerously modified vehicle invisible to the traffic police I wonder. They need to get their priorities sorted. and pull this sort of thing before sending it to the crusher.

I hadn't thought about the legality of it, i assumed it was probably legal otherwise why go to the effort and expense when all it'll get you is a fine?

 

[vexorg]

If I take the car to be aligned I imagine it'll be returned to me like this one I saw today

View attachment 450516

Ironically, still probably tracked better than yours.

You seem to not understand the point, it's not just steering, handling, tramlining, and how it behaves over road bumps are all factors. Nothing annoys as much as a badly tracked car.

 

[AnthonyH]

Ironically, still probably tracked better than yours.

You seem to not understand the point, it's not just steering, handling, tramlining, and how it behaves over road bumps are all factors. Nothing annoys as much as a badly tracked car.

I can assure you that the car handles great.

Actually i'll go further and say with 100% certainty the car handles better now than it did before!!!! It used to drift a little, and had a wheel wobble, both of which are gone.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

It certainly is excessive and in normal use very little tread in contact with the road during braking. Though I have seen almost the same degree on vehicles used in stock car and banger racing in the past on short oval circuits, though I imagine they would be rubbish on normal roads.
In those days the "Banger boys" used to fit s/h racing tyres to their bangers and put a cut down old standard tyre band without the tread area on the outside so from a quick inspection they passed scrutiny, but handled much better than others when racing due to the soft racing tyre being all that touched the tarmac
I once put a small amount of negative camber on the front suspension of a Ford Anglia and immediately noticed an improvement so when doing spirited cornering it eliminated tyre squeal, even with the original 5.20x13 crossply tyres, so with the Dunlop 5.5 J steel wheels and Uniroyal 175x13 tyres I noticed a marked improvement.
The one mod I quickly removed was the stiffer twin antiroll bar conversion some recommended.
The car was already lowered front and rear, so for a apprentice on low wage it was a fun form of transport.
Re the boys in blue in those days we would get pulled, but generally only got a bit of firm advice rather than the penalties etc. of today.
I recall being followed for over a mile and finally pulled over for some strong advice regarding a spotlight bar made of angle iron, if the previous owner had not kept the spotlights it would have been fine, but officer rightly said if I had knocked anyone over it would have caused more damage so I removed it.

Yes Mike, Macpherson strut type suspension does benefit greatly from a bit of negative camber mainly because there's almost no camber change taking place as the suspension compresses so the tyre tends to roll off onto the outside shoulder in fast turns. Some of the old Cortina Lotus racers carried quite a bit. I remember quite vividly watching Jim Clark at Brands cornering with the inside front tyre well clear of the road surface! The front wheel drive stuff of today tend to lift an inside rear, how times have changed! Trouble is with a road car which isn't being driven flat out round every bend the inner shoulder wears more quickly. Always looked "racy" to have a bit of negative on your road car though and it did improve cornering especially if stiffer springs were fitted. A friend had an Anglia on 5.5J rims with 165 13 tyres, like my old GT Cortina had. It had the GT cortina 1500 non crosflow in it with a fast road cam (Kent cams A2 I seem to remember and twin Dellortos?) The induction sound as it came up off the idle was wonderful! It also made my Cortina look silly in terms of performance. Many of the vehicles I worked with back in those days were Macpherson strut designs and we used to keep the antiroll bars pretty stiff to try to reduce this problem. Which was more of a problem because the tyres were wider so you wanted to encourage them to present a flat tread surface to the road when cornering. Two of the most exciting cars I supplied tyres to were the Frank Gardener Mustang and John Miles Camaro. Abasolute snorting V8 monsters and very spectacular cars to watch and listen too. Because they were so heavy though, compared to the Alfas and wee 128 Fiats, they gave some right old nightmares regarding tyre wear. I remember at Le Castellet (circuit Paul Ricard) not long after I was first employed as a race engineer and very green behind the ears, being given these two cars to look after the tyres for (I think the boss wanted to see how I'd do and they weren't our "premium" customers like the Fiat and Alfa factory teams.) Anyway I did a wear projection on the Camaro at a pit stop - these were endurance races - and then spent the next couple of hours sweating buckets watching John locking the wheels into turns with lots of spectacular tyre smoke as I tried to factor in how much rubber he was scrubbing off and whether my calculations had enough of a safety factor to allow for this. Next time he came in they were through to the cords but not punctured, He was complaining he'd had to come in 10 laps early because the tyres weren't gripping very well! I very rapidly spirited the worn tyres and wheels back to our fitting truck and out of sight!

"A word of advice" was much more common back then with an actual punishment reserved for something serious. Now a days I suspect, cynical old me, that there's a certain aspect of fund raising inherent in fines?

 

[AnthonyH]

I've been driving the other car, a GP, and noticed the steering wheel is slightly off centre. It must have been like that since i bought it. Having a completly straight/centred steering wheel doesn't seem to be important.

 

[bugsymike]

I've been driving the other car, a GP, and noticed the steering wheel is slightly off centre. It must have been like that since i bought it. Having a completly straight/centred steering wheel doesn't seem to be important.

You have probably got used to it, to be honest it always annoys me driving on a straight road with the steering wheel off centre.
Maybe the roads are all bends where you are

 

[bugsymike]

Yes Mike, Macpherson strut type suspension does benefit greatly from a bit of negative camber mainly because there's almost no camber change taking place as the suspension compresses so the tyre tends to roll off onto the outside shoulder in fast turns. Some of the old Cortina Lotus racers carried quite a bit. I remember quite vividly watching Jim Clark at Brands cornering with the inside front tyre well clear of the road surface! The front wheel drive stuff of today tend to lift an inside rear, how times have changed! Trouble is with a road car which isn't being driven flat out round every bend the inner shoulder wears more quickly. Always looked "racy" to have a bit of negative on your road car though and it did improve cornering especially if stiffer springs were fitted. A friend had an Anglia on 5.5J rims with 165 13 tyres, like my old GT Cortina had. It had the GT cortina 1500 non crosflow in it with a fast road cam (Kent cams A2 I seem to remember and twin Dellortos?) The induction sound as it came up off the idle was wonderful! It also made my Cortina look silly in terms of performance. Many of the vehicles I worked with back in those days were Macpherson strut designs and we used to keep the antiroll bars pretty stiff to try to reduce this problem. Which was more of a problem because the tyres were wider so you wanted to encourage them to present a flat tread surface to the road when cornering. Two of the most exciting cars I supplied tyres to were the Frank Gardener Mustang and John Miles Camaro. Abasolute snorting V8 monsters and very spectacular cars to watch and listen too. Because they were so heavy though, compared to the Alfas and wee 128 Fiats, they gave some right old nightmares regarding tyre wear. I remember at Le Castellet (circuit Paul Ricard) not long after I was first employed as a race engineer and very green behind the ears, being given these two cars to look after the tyres for (I think the boss wanted to see how I'd do and they weren't our "premium" customers like the Fiat and Alfa factory teams.) Anyway I did a wear projection on the Camaro at a pit stop - these were endurance races - and then spent the next couple of hours sweating buckets watching John locking the wheels into turns with lots of spectacular tyre smoke as I tried to factor in how much rubber he was scrubbing off and whether my calculations had enough of a safety factor to allow for this. Next time he came in they were through to the cords but not punctured, He was complaining he'd had to come in 10 laps early because the tyres weren't gripping very well! I very rapidly spirited the worn tyres and wheels back to our fitting truck and out of sight!

"A word of advice" was much more common back then with an actual punishment reserved for something serious. Now a days I suspect, cynical old me, that there's a certain aspect of fund raising inherent in fines?

Yes often seen Fords with a front wheel way up in the air, mind you on a Lada course at Bridlington we drove five of us in a 1500 estate at 80mph down the airfield runway and the instructor locked it right round to change direction 180 degrees just to prove that Ladas could be made to handle, he then said the inner wheel is off the ground to which we replied FO , he then straightened the car and we all felt it drop onto the ground
Apparently he used to rally them in his spare time.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Yes often seen Fords with a front wheel way up in the air, mind you on a Lada course at Bridlington we drove five of us in a 1500 estate at 80mph down the airfield runway and the instructor locked it right round to change direction 180 degrees just to prove that Ladas could be made to handle, he then said the inner wheel is off the ground to which we replied FO , he then straightened the car and we all felt it drop onto the ground
Apparently he used to rally them in his spare time.

Brave man - 80 in a Lada five up? - rather you than me. A friend had a Lada which I drove, just once. I remember the accelerator pedal was horrible because the wheel arch meant that the RHD versions really didn't have room to accommodate it and it was really uncomfortable to drive. A better car than the Polski Fiats which I briefly had experience of though.

 

[portland_bill]

I guess, with 5 up, the car was more stable, and less likely to tip.
I drove quite a few Ladas, when they were 'current', heavy, not quick, but very strong, and quite reliable. When there was a dealer network, parts were incredibly cheap too. My brother ran a 1500 saloon for a couple of years, it was old when he got it, but he did a lot of miles, which must have been hard work, but spent very little on it. I think it got hit by a van while parked, which ended it.

 

[bugsymike]

I guess, with 5 up, the car was more stable, and less likely to tip.
I drove quite a few Ladas, when they were 'current', heavy, not quick, but very strong, and quite reliable. When there was a dealer network, parts were incredibly cheap too. My brother ran a 1500 saloon for a couple of years, it was old when he got it, but he did a lot of miles, which must have been hard work, but spent very little on it. I think it got hit by a van while parked, which ended it.

We were the agents in Paignton when I worked there as foreman from 1975-82 along with Mazda, Moskvich and Wartburg.
I did own a 1200 estate and later on a Riva version, they were a heavier build than the Fiat 124 they were derived from, but a long way from perfect until you compared them with the Moskvich