Topside creeper

Nashcat

Nashcat

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I recently discovered that there’s a device to help when working on car and truck engines. It’s a topside creeper, and honestly I had never heard of one. I was wondering if any of you have ever used one? They’re not terribly expensive and it sure would help reaching parts of the engine. I miss my ‘83 Chevy pickup, where you could crawl in the engine compartment to get things done. And the ‘83 didn’t need a ladder to add oil.

Any thoughts?

John

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Looks like something for us older guys. I'd often imagined an arm pivoting out from those two post car lifts that would support the mechanic prone so he could work on an engine. Now all we need is something to ease working under the dash...
 
Did that thing come out of a proctology clinic?

I miss the old days of working on my friends 1949 Chevy truck he got from his Grandpa. We could stand between the motor and inside of the fender (not quite but just about). Him on one side and me on the other. Now you open the hood and just look at a large piece of plastic.
Mike
 
I have one John, it's well built and while I don't use it a ton, when you need it, it makes life far easier. Used it to replace a plastic intake manifold on a f150 with a 4.6, I think it speed up that job considerably. Storage wise it takes up a lot of room, even folded up.
 
tonythecarguy said:
I have one John, it's well built and while I don't use it a ton, when you need it, it makes life far easier. Used it to replace a plastic intake manifold on a f150 with a 4.6, I think it speed up that job considerably. Storage wise it takes up a lot of room, even folded up.
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Thanks, I wanted to hear from someone that used one, to make sure it wasn’t snake oil since I had never even heard of them until recently.

The top of the grill on my F250 is 50” tall, so there’s no way I can bend over and work on it. I have to get a step stool to check the oil.

John
 
tonythecarguy said:
Storage wise it takes up a lot of room, even folded up.
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It does not look like it folds flat, is that correct? If it did it would require a space as wide as it is (28" or so?) and maybe 8' high, depending on how it folds.
 
The bottom legs fold up. It's about 32" wide as you would lay on it . 56" tall and sticks out from the wall 28" in the picture
 

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tonythecarguy said:
The bottom legs fold up. It's about 32" wide as you would lay on it . 56" tall and sticks out from the wall 28" in the picture
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Surprising that they didn't make it so that the top padded support and the bottom feet could be folded flat against the uprights to reduce its foot print.
 
I have used a similar lift that dropped over the front tires, it was handy. This looks like a alternative that would work well.
 
tonythecarguy said:
The bottom legs fold up. It's about 32" wide as you would lay on it . 56" tall and sticks out from the wall 28" in the picture
Click to expand...

I think I can find room in the garage to store one. I’ll wait until after the holiday madness is over before I order one. The UPS driver needs all the help he can get right now.

John
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Surprising that they didn't make it so that the top padded support and the bottom feet could be folded flat against the uprights to reduce its foot print.
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Were I to buy one of these, I'd modify the top platform that one leans on to fold flat, either up or down. It would probably involve making new brackets that would allow it to pivot and lock in place, either in the horizontal or vertical positions.
 
SMSW said:
Were I to buy one of these, I'd modify the top platform that one leans on to fold flat, either up or down. It would probably involve making new brackets that would allow it to pivot and lock in place, either in the horizontal or vertical positions.
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At a first glance I thought it could be very simple to achieve this- Remove the two lower bolts and replace them with pip-pins or some other similar quick-release pin. The remaining upper bolt could be left as the pivot point. Remove the two pins and the whole thing could be pivoted up and right over on the remaining bolt and be rested against the back side opposite of the wheels. I have no idea if the geometry of that joint and the location of that bolt would allow it to pivot in this way without binding on something. It is always easy to speculate when looking at a picture but one would have to have it in their hands to know what is and isn't feasible.
 
Nashcat said:
Thanks, I wanted to hear from someone that used one, to make sure it wasn’t snake oil since I had never even heard of them until recently.

The top of the grill on my F250 is 50” tall, so there’s no way I can bend over and work on it. I have to get a step stool to check the oil.

John
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Ha! I had to pull up to the curb so I was 6” taller to check the oil.
 
@tonythecarguy I’m a tool addict and and will purchase almost any new or unique tool that would make a job easier. After seeing the powered hoist, I’m thinking $2-3k and wondered how much shipping would be. Then I dug around and found the price to be $14,900 USD! So, it’s NOPE on buying the lift chair, unless I can get it covered by Medicare. You know the, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” type of device.
 
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