nowing75
Senior Member
Upgrading to led lights
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service pit
- Thread starter Randy88
- Start date
Upgrading to led lights
Randy, very nice pit. I am in the early planning stages of a new shop. The information here is absolutely priceless!! I'm curiuos, since you are now using your pit, is there anything you would have done different on it? Say you pull a D6-7 size machine in over your pit and (for whatever reason) you end up needing/wanting to put a jack under the center of the machine and jack it up. How do you deal with that?
Bam, depending on how much of the total weight your wanting to pick up, there are several ways to do it, I know where the pilasters are at that support the pit walls, the floor is cemented onto those without any gap under them. I'd take some solid steel maybe two or three inches thick, lay a sheet down across the pit and drive the dozer over it and jack off that plate, or if the machine is wide enough to allow me a gap between the inside of the tracks and the pit wall, I'll just put a piece of steel in the lip on top of the pit wall, then lay a wider one over that that straddles the top of the pit walls, now I'm anywhere from 5 to six inches thick plate steel and jack off of that. I've had to remove transmissions after the dozer was tore apart, then I just jacked up the tracks enough to slide the steel or planks under the tracks and jack off of them.
That's the reason why I poured the floor over the top of the pit walls rather than pour the walls full height first and the shop floor beside it, like many do. The way I did it, I have a wall that's 10 inches thick sitting on a footing that's a foot thick and pilaster that's also full height and there is no gap between that and the shop floor, if I'd shove anything anywhere or break anything, I'd like to see the jack that could do it, I certainly don't have anything that would take that load and bust the concrete even with a point load. The sheets we use are also at least a foot wide.
If for some reason I needed to jack off something lower in the pit, I haven't done it, but I'd take a plate that was narrow enough to fit in the pit itself, and be at least six inches thick, and ideally four to six feet long and jack off the center of it, never needed this yet, but as they say its a plan in theory.
To top that off, I'd take some of the weight off the machine with a use of my shop carry deck crane I can pull in right beside the machine that would be over the pit.
I can't say enough how much I like the lip on the top the pit. I have already put planks over the pit in the lip, six to eight feet the length of the pit and laid a plate of steel over that, slid it in between the tracks from one end or the other and jacked off of that as well. Not sure the most weight so far I've jacked up over the pit at one time, but I have jacked up a dozer cross ways of the pit, and held it up on jacks while I did an undercarriage, worked great, the rollers were hanging over the pit and we impacted them off and new one's back on again. That dozer was over 15 ton, did the same thing with a trencher as well, pulled the roller frames off it and after I was done putting everything on new, put the track frames back on again, that machine was well over 15 ton too.
I built a transmission jack that sits on the pit floor and we do transmission with that for trucks and semi's, only used it a few times and it needs to be completely redone, mainly due to needing something handier to use for that.
Not sure I helped you any, but as of yet, we haven't come across anything we can't jack up or do over the pit, I really like to lower stuff down out of the machines into the pit, lay it on a wheeled creeper I built and roll it out the end, lift it out of the pit with the crane, like transmissions and torque converters if they require a lot of work to bring them out the top.
That's the reason why I poured the floor over the top of the pit walls rather than pour the walls full height first and the shop floor beside it, like many do. The way I did it, I have a wall that's 10 inches thick sitting on a footing that's a foot thick and pilaster that's also full height and there is no gap between that and the shop floor, if I'd shove anything anywhere or break anything, I'd like to see the jack that could do it, I certainly don't have anything that would take that load and bust the concrete even with a point load. The sheets we use are also at least a foot wide.
If for some reason I needed to jack off something lower in the pit, I haven't done it, but I'd take a plate that was narrow enough to fit in the pit itself, and be at least six inches thick, and ideally four to six feet long and jack off the center of it, never needed this yet, but as they say its a plan in theory.
To top that off, I'd take some of the weight off the machine with a use of my shop carry deck crane I can pull in right beside the machine that would be over the pit.
I can't say enough how much I like the lip on the top the pit. I have already put planks over the pit in the lip, six to eight feet the length of the pit and laid a plate of steel over that, slid it in between the tracks from one end or the other and jacked off of that as well. Not sure the most weight so far I've jacked up over the pit at one time, but I have jacked up a dozer cross ways of the pit, and held it up on jacks while I did an undercarriage, worked great, the rollers were hanging over the pit and we impacted them off and new one's back on again. That dozer was over 15 ton, did the same thing with a trencher as well, pulled the roller frames off it and after I was done putting everything on new, put the track frames back on again, that machine was well over 15 ton too.
I built a transmission jack that sits on the pit floor and we do transmission with that for trucks and semi's, only used it a few times and it needs to be completely redone, mainly due to needing something handier to use for that.
Not sure I helped you any, but as of yet, we haven't come across anything we can't jack up or do over the pit, I really like to lower stuff down out of the machines into the pit, lay it on a wheeled creeper I built and roll it out the end, lift it out of the pit with the crane, like transmissions and torque converters if they require a lot of work to bring them out the top.
Yeah Randy , the pit would be two levels . The end (T section ) might be 3 to 4 foot deep X 14 foot wide give or take . Vehicle would roll out on the T section on H beams . This puts a lot of hard to get to items around chest high plus the wide pit allows you walk around in and outside easy when working on front or rear suspension . Would keep a tool chest and refrigerator in this area .
The long narrow connecting section of the pit would be between 5 to 6 foot deep with steps going down to it . I might even add D ring's on the floor & walls as pull points for straitening out bent up stuff customers show up with .
Something like that would make it a lot handier than crawling around under vehicles , I aint as tough as I used to be .
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Willie B
Senior Member
Wow!!!!!!!!!!! I have two. Mine are 39?" wide, approximately 5' deep. I cover them with Oak plank 2-1/4" thick I cut out with a chain saw. Both had conduit poured in for lighting. Ventilation isn't a bad idea, but I don't have it. I do with portable lighting. I feel the most important features are good stairs, or ladder. They get slimy and your hands, and feet get greasy. Good climbing is essential. A shovel for speedy dry, a fire extinguisher, a bag of speedy dry, a good transmission jack, and two wooden boxes to stand on when the machine has a lot of ground clearance. I had in the now unused one cast in the concrete, cubbies to keep commonly used wrenches, grease guns, etc. The now used one lacks the space, it is missed. As for those who say you don't want one, I've stood up to do hundreds of projects, I work on a big truck, backhoe, There is a crawler parked on it now. We interrupt projects over it just long enough to service several vehicles, then another project rolls in.
I would avoid a very long one. Mine are long enough to do 3/4 of a vehicle. Sometimes it is necessary to turn around. When they are too long it's easy to lose half a vehicle in the pit.
I would avoid a very long one. Mine are long enough to do 3/4 of a vehicle. Sometimes it is necessary to turn around. When they are too long it's easy to lose half a vehicle in the pit.
TD I've seen one similar somewhere, it only had stairs that went into the wide end sideways and the whole center section was much deeper, then on the end with the steel planks, they had a hydraulic lift that they could use to get the ideal height for working on the front ends of vehicles when in the pit itself. At the time when I looked at it, I didn't understand the reason the for the hydraulic lift, the guy who used it told me it the best part, he used it all the time, it was the only way in and out of the deeper center portion of the pit. He had a corded remote control to run the lift, so when he stood on it, he just raised and lowered it to the ideal height with the remote in his hand. That section must have been ten feet long that raised and lowered, thinking back it was pretty slick, at the time I never really paid much attention to his lift, was more interested in how the pit was built and what he would have changed if he could do it over again, his only reply was to have two more lifts, one under the vehicle in the deep portion and a second to use to get into and out of the pit instead of stairs.
I've seen that lift style in another pit that serviced cars mostly, it was in a larger pit with storage in it, maybe 30 feet square and ten feet deep, then they had a portable powered lift, like an electric man lift to raise and lower where the guy worked, he could travel the length of the pit with it and get the ideal height with the touch of a button, he also had pressure evac system for waste oil and a hose and pump system for filling oil, his was even long enough he never had to climb out, he just rolled his lift ahead and raised up to put the oil in. The whole thing rode on a track system so it never got out of alignment going back and forth, his main thing was speed and efficiency of changing oil and doing repairs and servicing the bottom side of vehicles. Can't recall where that one was either, I've seen so many over the years, but some are really resourceful in getting them just the way they want them for their needs.
I've seen that lift style in another pit that serviced cars mostly, it was in a larger pit with storage in it, maybe 30 feet square and ten feet deep, then they had a portable powered lift, like an electric man lift to raise and lower where the guy worked, he could travel the length of the pit with it and get the ideal height with the touch of a button, he also had pressure evac system for waste oil and a hose and pump system for filling oil, his was even long enough he never had to climb out, he just rolled his lift ahead and raised up to put the oil in. The whole thing rode on a track system so it never got out of alignment going back and forth, his main thing was speed and efficiency of changing oil and doing repairs and servicing the bottom side of vehicles. Can't recall where that one was either, I've seen so many over the years, but some are really resourceful in getting them just the way they want them for their needs.
nowing75
Senior Member
This is our blower set up. Never had a problem with fumes in 10 years have put 40 ton excavators over it and loaded tri axels.
msllc
Well-Known Member
If you consider using a pit versus using a lift, the truck over the pit can't fall once it is safely in place, where as, the truck on a lift has 3 or more feet to fall to the floor. While I was in the army, I saw an interesting version of an outdoor pit. I do not have a picture of it, but it was not a dug in the ground style, it was a ramp style that the trucks would run up, until it reached the level portion which the truck & trailer could easily fit on. They were made of concrete & always outdoors. Our brigade chief warrant officer (CW-4) would always put my HMMWV on that thing & condemn every U-joint on my truck every year. I will try to find a picture of it to better illustrate the main idea & difference. 