Portable vehicle ramps can cause serious injury or death if they're poor quality or used incorrectly. Make sure you use ramps that meet the mandatory safety standard.
About vehicle ramps
A portable vehicle ramp has an incline and a platform that supports a vehicle during maintenance or when it's on display.
Risks and injuries
A vehicle supported by poor quality portable ramps or poorly set up ramps can fall or roll onto a person working underneath, causing serious injury or death.
Buying tips
- Check that the ramps meet the mandatory safety standard.
Safe use
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Read all instructions that come with the ramps, checking the load rating and that the ramps are suitable for the width and diameter of your vehicle’s tyres.
- Ramps should be used on a hard level surface, preferably concrete, and always used in pairs.
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If you’ve never used ramps before, be ready to stop quickly if you apply too much throttle. If you don’t get to the top of the ramp first go, let the vehicle roll back, stop at the bottom, adjust the ramps as necessary and try again.
- Anchoring may be required to prevent the ramps from moving when a vehicle is driven onto them.
- Turn the wheels to a straight ahead position and place the ramps against the tyres so that each ramp is in line with the respective wheel.
- Slowly drive the vehicle onto the ramp platform with guidance from a person outside the vehicle. The person providing guidance should stand in a safe place, away from the vehicle's line of travel and with an escape route.
- As a rule of thumb, the guide should be on the driver’s side, one car length away from and one car width to side of the driver, so they can still see the alignment of the ramps and wheels, but are safe if the ramps move or if the vehicle slides off one or both of the ramps.
- Apply the parking brake and place a chock under at least one of the wheels still on the ground so that the vehicle cannot accidentally roll off the ramps.
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Take care when getting out of the car when it’s at the top of the ramps as it will be much higher than when you got in.
