It works well, but is a bit of a struggle to set up for an old bloke like me. On a concrete surface, it’s a 2 man job to line up. The main support is in the centre. When lying down flat, it’s 2 metres long, and quite heavy. 37Kg each side. You need to line up both ends under the jacking points. When you move one end to the right place, the whole thing swivels about the centre, so you need a helper, or patience to get both ends in the right place.
It comes with rubber blocks to put in the pans at each end. I got the extra ones with the centre slots to fit the welds on the 9-5. Lining them up was tricky, but three wedged themselves to the flanges. So they stayed in place. The front right one wouldn’t stay on the flange, until I stuck it there with putty!
The hydraulic quick connectors are ones that I am familiar from years ago at work, but these seem harder to push together than the old ones, or I’m getting weaker!
The power unit is mains powered. There’s a 12v one available, but after messing about on the car for over a week, the battery went flat anyway, even with the courtesy lights turned off. I think that’s a Saab thing. So I would have needed the long wandering lead anyway. The power unit is also quite heavy, but just OK for me. There’s a centre handle, but the designer should be sacked as there’s no room to get your hand right around it…
But it’s partly paid for itself, as I’ve already saved the cost of one undersealing. There was also the comfort of seeing very little rust under the car. And the 5 year old treatment of the rear arches is still intact.
Today looks to be dry, so I’ll get the kit out from under the car and clean it up. The Carlsson will wait until the Spring. I’ve just got to work out a way of getting the 2m long ramps through a 1.8m high door and leaning them against the wall. There is just enough headroom inside. The rest of the shed is crammed full of “stuff”.
But overall I’m happy with them. Next job is an MOT before the end of the month…
