That could of ended badly

The steel ones I use,have always been fine to use when removing the engine, as the van has to be pretty high off the ground to do so. Why don’t late bays have the removable rear valance like the early ones? Makes perfect sense,really,dosnt it?
Why were they changed?
Hardly an improvement...

 

Additional rigidity for the heavier, stronger Type 4 engine... or something like that.

I also suspect that VW didn’t think ahead to the point where taking your engine out would become part of the annual service!

 

On a garage lift it’s easy to take the engine out

 

I think there was a issue with the strength of that system ...possibly buckling up on impact due to a non solid welded up frame .
Maybe a American insistence as with doing the deformation panel on the front for strength on impact , they also insisted on having the indicators higher up on the front panel .

I suppose they went along with it as sales were big in the USA .

 

Tell me about it , after years of scrabbling around in the gutter I finally got the chance...

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It’s even harder, when you only have gravel to park on…

 

Because there was no point? Most were commercial vehicles, and they’d be serviced by folk with a lift.

 

Does that lift make a noise like the heavenly choir as the van rises into the air?

 

And to get an early out you have to remove the bumper and it's pans which alone is a PITA then the valance (easy enough) but also then find somewhere safe to store them without scratching the paint etc and put them back correctly adjusted afterwards. What a waste of time when you can just jack up the back.

 

Just don’t use axle stands like Mattys?

 

Look at those sharp edges on the teeth that support everything. If you wanted a pic of a “stress-riser” for a textbook, you couldn’t find a better example

 

I got a pair of these and a new jack last year expecting to get lots of work done during the pandemic. As you can see it's not been overworked so far. It says 6 tons on it though it really means max 6 tons per pair. I've not heard anything bad about these so far.

 

Parachute packers rarely hear any complaints, either

 

So far we have one case where a tall and spindly axle stand sat under a bus has snapped, with a cast support.
While stands with heavier cast supports from well known suppliers with rating plates used within their ratings and with UK contact addresses provided have been used without issue.

Its usual one .. give a factory a request for a thing that is an axle stand and you get the cheapest. Ask for an axle stand with a specification and check some for quality and you get a completely different thing.

Like that time Top Gear reviewed a really crap Chinese car from a factory that also built BMWs to BMW spec.

 

I don't think we can criticize cast steel per se. It's used in no end of high strength products - tank turrets come to mind. Quality control is everything.

 

Cast steel (alloysteel) is a completely different material to cheap cast iron but may look similar to the end user who may be more interested in the price. As @mikedjames has said, the specification is the key.

 

Mmmm. Tractors.

 

I don’t think I would be allowed to go especially
not on my own.