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DIY: Wooden Wheel Stands

31K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  glennda5id 
#1 · (Edited)
Disclaimer:

The author of this thread is not responsible if you injure yourself or others in any way. Use good judgement and sound engineering principles when constructing your wheel stands. The following thread is for reference only. By continuing to read this thread, you are absolving the author of any/all legal ramifications should you inflict any damage or injury, and are agreeing to the terms and conditions.

Now that that is out of the way....

This is a DIY for Wooden wheel stands. They can be used to get a car up in the air safely for any work needing to be performed underneath. They would be great for use when doing a clutch job, exhaust, alignment, tranny replacement etc. I bought the majority of the wood, but did have some of the supplies on hand. Total cost was right around $100. They also work great as portable work benches, stands and saw horses.

Engineering theory:

Why Wood? Simply put, it is easy to work with and very strong when used properly. Think about it, your house is made of wood. Wood is very strong in column loading, much stronger than in bending. I saw many tutorials around the net to build wheel stands out of wood used in bending and none of them seemed to be done soundly.

Basically this design uses five 4x4's in column loading. The rest of the apparatus is to provide lateral stability. This website is a good sanity check when constructing something of this nature.

https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/arch264/calculators/example7.1/index.html

As you can see on this website, one 4x4 has a factor of safety of about 7 for a single wheel. But balancing a wheel on a single 4x4 would be a virtual impossibility and unsafe, which is why I landed on this design.

Capacity:

These stands are pretty strong. As you can see below there is a 4x4 directly located under the wheel and tire. As far as a max goes I honestly don't know. Comfortably 1000lbs+, but I could easily see how these stands would hold 2x that properly positioned. Hell they rate these crappy ramps at Harbor Freight at far higher than even that.

Step 1:

Make a sketch with cut list and BOM.

Text Paper Design Line Pattern


My intent was to use these stands for DIY Alignment. As such I sized them so that I could comfortably adjust the camber bolts from underneath while the car was on these stands. The overall dimensions ended up being 24" x 16" x 24" tall. Note: This sketch does not show 100% of the design. These stands may be a little tall for the typical home user (I used them in conjunction with a 2 post maxjax lift), but this design can easily be adapted for a shorter stand for use with floor jacks.

I also ordered turntable bearings for use when measuring caster. I settled on 1000lb capacity Mcmaster Carr #1797k11.

I also made removable stop plates (cause no one likes their car taking a 2' fall).


Step 2 Buy Materials:

My design used roughly:

5@4"x4"x8'
6@2"x4"x8'
1@1/2"x4'x8' OSB roofing or flooring plywood
2@1lb boxes of 3" deck screws
2@1lb box of 2" deck screws
1@1lb box of 1.625" deck screws
1@[URL="http://www.mcmaster.com[/email][/email]/#standard-threaded-inserts/=ltqw23"]pk 50 threaded inserts for wood[/URL]
2@small tubes of Liquid nails construction adhesive
+ random scraps of wood I had laying around.

Floor Wood Flooring Wood stain Hardwood


Step 3 make small pieces out of big ones:


Here are some pics of the process.

* I was able to use exactly 1 sheet of the OSB by cutting my pieces 15.875" X 23.875" to account for the saw blade thickness.
* I cut all the pieces ahead of time so I could bang these things out.

House Wood Brick Architecture Home


These are the center stability braces I used out of the OSB. They were simple to make and actually aided in assembly making it easier.

Wood Paper Floor


Now onto Assembly!

The first thing I did was to attach the small mounting blocks for the center stability braces to the 4x4's. I predrilled these little blocks of 2x4 in my drill press ahead of time to make it simple. A little liquid nails and my cordless impact made short work of it all. After the blocks were attached to the 4x4's, I attached all the 4x4's to the mounting base. Note: not that it matters, but OSB has a rough side and a smooth side. I constructed these stands so that the rough side faced the floor, and the smooth side faced the tire.

Wood Hardwood Table Floor Lumber


I used 1.625" screws from plywood side into all the 4x4's and 2x4's.

Next step was to add the middle brace piece.

Wood Table woodworking Hardwood Furniture



Next step was to add the top plate, adhered with 4 screws per 4x4 and more liquid nails.

Wood Table Workbench Furniture Machine


Then I added 4@2"x4"x24" Lg to the top and bottom surfaces and attached them to both the plywood and 4x4's. Their intent is to distribute the load more evenly while also strengthening the top and bottom plates.

Wood Table Workbench Furniture Plywood


Here is a good end view to show this stage of the game.

Wood Hardwood Table Furniture Plywood


Finally I added 4@ 2"x4"x5.5" tie on blocks top and bottom just to tie everything together.

Wood Furniture Hardwood Plywood Table
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Then repeat 3 more times....

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Furniture


Now onto the stop plates. I happened to have this 3/4" thick OSB left over from a previous project, but you could use virtually anything as a stop plate. I cut them, measured, drilled holes, then transferred to all sides of the stands. Then I used a T handle allen wrench to install the threaded inserts so I could bolt the on and off.

Table Wood Machine Furniture Workbench
Wood Table Plywood Furniture Wood stain
Wood Workbench Table Furniture Hardwood


I then chose 2 to be my dedicated front tire stands and installed the inserts for the turn table bearings.

Wood Table
Wood Table Plywood Floor Furniture


And pics of them installed:

Wood Box Furniture Crate
Wood Box Furniture Plywood
 
#3 · (Edited)
And here my WRX is on top of them while I was aligning it. FWIW these stands didn't move. There was no deflection, no bending, no creaking, they are strong like bull. I actually left my car on these stands overnight. It had been a long day and I decided beer and sleep were more important than toe.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Automobile repair shop Luxury vehicle
Vehicle Rim Car Tire Automobile repair shop
Vehicle Car Subaru impreza wrx sti Bumper Automotive exterior
 
#4 ·
Looks good.

Do you forsee any issues with the front stands being a bit higher than the rears (due to the thrust bearing)? Or did you take that into account when making the front stands so that they remain level?
 
#5 · (Edited)
The caster plates are removable and were not bolted in place when setting camber or doing toe. That being said:

The thrust bearings with wooden plank on top are exactly 1" thicker. So I cut a removable shim the same size as the top for the backs 1" thick to account for it.
 
#6 ·
I'm not questioning the architecture of these and I'm sure they will be more than enough for what you need them for.

BUT....there is no damn way I'm getting under a car supported by wooden structures. Just sayin....lolz
Call me a wimpy b¡tch all you want but I've been a technician for over 15 years and just wouldn't be able to trust them.
 
#9 ·
Up in Big Bear, at over 2.000m altitude with wet weather and loads of snow, people's entire driveways are supported by wood beams. The driveway surface may be concrete, for example, but underneath it's a wood infrastructure.
 
#17 ·
How did we end up with an E-fight in this thread!?

9 month bump just to argue about nothing.
 
#23 ·
I don't see any issues with their design.
I'm not an engineer, but I was the team leader for 3 departments in a factory.
Worked with the engineers every day, and helped design prototypes.
I would use those stands anytime. Well constructed. :thumbup:
 
#24 ·
I have to agree though that it does seem sketchy...really does, but that's more than likely due from everyone being used to jacks, jack stands, lifts and all those heavy metal objects. But hell, the results speak for themselves. I'd try it out not going to lie.
 
#25 ·
This thread has taught me that, woods success and reputation as a building material is often overlooked and doubted. Having worked with it extensively in my construction days, then having been taught about it in my strength of materials classes in college, I assumed everyone was as familiar as I with it. Wood is used not only in high column load applications in your house (many thousands of pounds, snow load East Coasters?), but as cribbing for bridges and other structures, as well as in off road equipment repair. I wish I would have taken a picture, but we recently had 50,000 lb bulldozer we fully rebuilt, supported on 4 corners with stacked 2 x 4 wood cribbing. A simple search of "wood cribbing car" in google images will give you an idea how widely accepted and strong a material it is.

https://www.google.com/search?q=woo...a=X&ei=p8jcVL6vDNGuogS10oL4DA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg
 
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