Car Ramp Hire Leeds

[NicksDIYGarage]

Hi everyone

I've been thinking about setting up a car ramp hire garage in Leeds and I'm trying to find out what the level of interest would be in such facility.

The idea being I will have a 2 and 4 post car lift, hired out by the hour, with basic tools.

I'm still working on pricing because it will depend entirely on demand.

So I have a few questions if you'd help me :

1. Would you use such a place?
2. Would you prefer to pay by the hour or pay a monthly membership fee?
3. What sort of tools would you want over and above the basics?
4. Would anyone want any kind of training? (i.e. brake replacement, exhaust replacement etc) thinking of those that want to work on their car but don't know what they're doing

Also feel free to include any suggestions or comments you have. I'd love to hear it.

Cheers

Nick

[brachunky]

Hi Nick
I have done some numbers on this very subject & it would be very difficult to make it stack up unless the ramps were virtually fully booked all the time. If I remember correctly, having 4 hoists and a decent cafe included just about made enough money to earn a living!
I am honestly not trying to be negative as I would love to do this meself but by the time you add up
Rent
Rates
Heat & lights
Livable salary
Wages
Advertising
Equipment lease or bank loans etc etc etc,

There wasn't much meat left on the bone!

[NicksDIYGarage]

Hi Brachunky,

It's fine, I understand its not negativity. I did get the impression from looking at companies doing something similar that the margins must have been low just because most offer ramp hire as an extra, to carrying out traditional garage work.

I just wanted to explore what might be out there because I've spent the last 18 months gaining a City and Guilds, when all I really wanted to do was to work on cars in my spare time and there are no places to learn outside of college and no ramps to use even if you did learn.

Are you local to Leeds?

Many thanks

Nick

[brachunky]

No mate, way down in near Derby!

[duggers]

We've got one locally which does well; www.liftofframps.co.uk/

they do servicing , tyres etc as well as renting ramps with access to basic tools/air tools etc

[NicksDIYGarage]

Surprisingly it was lift off ramps website that I'd seen that made me think that it might actually be possible to run something similar.

Have you ever used them duggers?

[duggers]

Yes but not recently but its very popular and used by DIY, small one man operations etc.
They do have a good rep for being helpful to non-pro's who hire there.
I think they succeed because they have a range of services over and above renting the ramps out and you get access to proper tools as part of the deal, beats crawling about on the drive!

I would think there is quite a high start up cost for a venture like this, although Liftoff are based in a cheaper part of town.

Maybe its a bit like Field of dreams - "Build it and they will come"

[NicksDIYGarage]

It really does beat crawling about on the drive, especially as I've no drive and working on the road, on a hill isn't always the best. :-)

I might do some more research in to it to see how I can make it work and see if its possible. The start-up costs are pretty high too which is another barrier but hopefully I'll come up with a plan.

I had heard they were really good for helping non-pro's too, they've got a fair few reviews out there which is good to read to see whats good and whats not.

I'll give it some more thought.

[porsche4468]

Hi, I’m very interested in being able to hire a ramp , if you decide to make ago of it let me know , even on a long term basis would help

[Rich]

Dec 14, 2022 20:59:51 GMT porsche4468 said:

Hi, I’m very interested in being able to hire a ramp , if you decide to make ago of it let me know , even on a long term basis would help

Thread is from 2017…