I have an idea but no idea where to start

Planning to change the oil in SWMBO's 328, need to buy a set of ramps for the job and it got me thinking. BUT I have no idea about planning, patenting, drawing or machining to get the deal done. Anyone have any experience in this area?

Beuller Beuller?

ryanty22 wrote: Planning to change the oil in SWMBO's 328... Anyone have any experience in this area?

Yes, I have changed the oil on my old BMW.
How can I help?

The planning to change the oil brought the idea to me. It seems like one that a lot of automotive enthusiasts like us could really get behind

Just stack up 2x8s (using deck screws) in decreasing lengths, then add a stop block.

Here is the deal Basically, while planning to change the oil on my significant others bmw, I noticed the lower lip height than the vehicles I am used to working on. and the idea came to me that I have seen at autocrosses a ton of people with issues jacking their vehicles up when they have a lower than normal ride height. my idea is an economical type of scissor lift jack with a compressed profile of about 2 1/2 to 3 inches that you roll your car onto the block and using simply your electric impact or even a tire iron lift up your lower profiled car through a screw action similar to many O.E. jacks that came with cars on the market now but are flimsy and cheap. Also my jack would lift the car by the tire similar to a drive on lift but at much much cheaper than the $800 starting prices for drive on lifts. Ive got sales experience but no patent or machining experience to run with this. I even work with a complany that specializes in automotive aftermarket accesories that would probably want to sell it but I dont want to get screwed by them. Similar to a ranger quickjack but at a tenth of the price and manual lifting by screw action vs rangers hydraulic action

And the ranger quick race jack is $1000, my idea would be $50 - $100

interesting idea..lifting by the tire.

you could track down an oem scissor lift jack from a much larger vehicle such as a van or truck. When you say oem's are flimsy and cheap all you need to do is get a bigger one, they go down just as low as the others. I think I still HAVE the big beefy one from my chevy van kicking around the garage somewhere. In case I need it.

I do need to make some ramps like kenny posted. I think I will always have lowered cars and regular tire ramps are too steep to use on them.

But instead of having to track one down, a company could make one specifically for enthusiasts that's stable, about the length of average ramps and high enough that fat bastards like myself can get under the car for between $50 - $100 a set

I have a scissor jack like what you are describing already. It's low profile and uses a 19mm socket. I have no idea where it came from or who made it, we have had it forever.

rustyvw wrote: I have a scissor jack like what you are describing already. It's low profile and uses a 19mm socket. I have no idea where it came from or who made it, we have had it forever.

Looking around the interwebz I can't find anything like what I want to make anywhere near the price point I am thinking of.

Neat idea, some of the minivans and crossovers like the Freestyle have scissor style jacks.

Unfortunately now the bad news: by posting it on a public forum it's now in the public domain, and probably not patentable (at least not a broadclaim set as described).

You may be able to refine the idea and patent the refined version with claims based on a narrower description.

Disclaimer: I'm not an IP attorney, only an engineer.

jstand wrote: Neat idea, some of the minivans and crossovers like the Freestyle have scissor style jacks. Unfortunately now the bad news: by posting it on a public forum it's now in the public domain, and probably not patentable (at least not a broadclaim set as described). You may be able to refine the idea and patent the refined version with claims based on a narrower description. Disclaimer: I'm not an IP attorney, only an engineer.

I trust you guys here more than any other forum to give honest feedback without theivery that would assuredly happen in other places. I'm not greedy either if someone else wants to also do this idea the market is big enough to support it just send me a pair of em

I wasn't concerned with thievery, just you had mentioned patents in the original post.

If you think you have an idea that you want to patent, you should document it and have someone not involved in the idea sign as witness on the documentation. I believe it's $100 to submit a disclosure to the USPTO, which provides a year to file a patent application. If you don't file with the USPTO before putting it out in the public domain them you potentially lose the ability to patent it.

As for moving your idea forward, I would suggest looking at some of the scissor lifts on the market for cars and also work platforms and see if you can scale it down. Maybe make it so you can use a small bottle jack to rais and lower, and use the scissor portion as your safety mechanism with a pinned shaft in place of the screw.