RhinoRamps : InTheWild

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Wan Chi Lau in RainyDayGarage, RainyDayProjects // 0 Comments

We had noticed a “noise” when backing up the car for a few days, but as the sound was intermittent and only when in reverse, we “forgot” about it pretty much as soon as it had gone into Drive

At a recent Aikido seminar, someone mentioned “Hey…there’s something hanging from the bottom of your car!” LOL Anyway, now that we know the cause, we, of course have to deal with it…especially since it would be scooping up snow every time the car backs up.

Fortunately, the “fix” was not as involved as we had first feared.

We would never trust just a jack to hold up the car when working under it. Our solution for years has been the RhinoRamps. They are absolutely the way to go for “driveway” mechanics, and anyone not interested in being a Darwin Awards candidate.

Coupled with the ramps is our trusty water-proof ground mat. This all-weather mat folds up and stows in the trunk for ready deployment in any condition. BTW, our’s also doubles as a nice picnic blanket!

Once we looked, the problem was pretty obvious. A plastic shield’s anchor point to the car had broken, partly due to some mechanic NOT replacing all of the anchor screws when he/she last removed the shield…relying on just the outermost attach point to secure the big piece of plastic…lazy!!!

Fortunately, we were able to zip-tie the shield to one of the brackets under the car using the available holes designed for the anchor screws.

It is not a “perfect” fix because there is still a gap between the end of the shield and the side of the car, but that cannot be helped without more effort, of which we were not prepared to expend.