Red versus Orange

I used these two planks in a makeshift cradle to lower the engine out of the Sebring. When it came time to put the engine back in, I used them when I tried to make a better cradle. We slid the wide end under the car, positioned the engine towards the narrow end, and put the jack under the cross piece at the narrow end. The wide end needs to be narrow enough to fit between the jack stands holding the car up. Our first attempt was not well planned and was too wide, so we had to take it almost completely apart, cut the cross pieces down to size, and then reassemble it. Thank goodness for power screwdrivers.

The casters on the wide end made it easy to roll the half-ton engine / transmission / front-suspension assembly into position. The hinges were to allow us to adjust the height of the rear end. That turned out to be unnecessary.  What would have been helpful is some blocking under the engine to support the cross members, and some hooks to hold the cross members together. The weight of the engine on the mounts attached to the cross members tends to push them apart.

I have had these two planks for dang near forever. A neighbor in Phoenix gave them to me. I don't know what they were originally for, but somebody went to a lot of trouble to put them together: they are not single planks, they are each made of two tongue-and-groove, cedar 2-by-6's joined together. The left over tongue on one edge has been cut off. The beveled groove along the tongue and groove joint was filled with plaster, and then they were painted with high gloss enamel. I use them about once a year, usually for some kind of precarious scaffolding.

The price of hardware has really gone up. Used to be things like hinges and casters were unbelievably cheap, now they are like $4 (FOUR DOLLARS!) a piece.What's really bad is you can buy a complete furniture dolly at Harbor Freight for less than you can buy just the four casters for at Home Depot.