Noob lift table question

[Aaron Taylor]

Ok thank you Jack's it is

[Keith Morgan]

Modified hydraulic car jacks for my tanks............

Gerhard, can you tell us more about your modification, please?
I have a surplus Lidl car jack just like the one on the left which I would like to use on my Pershing M26 model and I would be grateful for your advice. I can see that you have taken off the wheels and maybe modified the pumping mechanism, but I can't make out what the threaded rods are doing.
Thanks
Keith

[Gerhard Michel]

Hi Keith,

well, I needed not much modification. Here some pics:

The jack loses its wheels and gets a plate on it. Here the deepmost position:



and here the upmost position:



The seat of the handling lever must be set deeper to avoid a collision with the tank hull:



That's all.

The pics show the process of transport. The tank sits on its jack; the jack is in deepmost position, the drive train is up in the air.



The jack is lifted, so 2 planks can be positioned under the tracks.



The jack is lowered again; the tracks lie upon the planks. The jack is free and can be moved to its new position in another room. The tank itself can be moved on the lifting table and then be transported to another room.



The tanks sits again on its jack in the tank garage. The jack is in its deepmost position; the drive train is up in the air.

[Keith Morgan]

Thank you so much for the photos, Gerhard - I think I fully understand now.

I hadn't appreciated the need to lower the lever pumping connection, but now I understand. I can easily make the tubular adaptor fittings on my lathe, and I see that those threaded rods provide replacement feet for the wheels and extra stabilisation for the platform. I was simply going to buy a small motorcycle lift but the postage alone to the Canary Islands was around 80 Euros, so now I have a new project using what I already have here!

Cheers
Keith

[Gerhard Michel]

Hi Keith,

my jacks now cost about 40 € per piece in Germany (overall costs by Amazon).