Remember that old animal intelligence test where they put a chimp in a
room, and from the ceiling dangled a bunch of bananas out of reach, but
they did leave a stick in the room and the chimp shortly figured he
could overcome the obstacle (out of reach) and knock down the tasty
treats with it?

Well, let's say I am the chimp. Let's say that instead of a bunch of
bananas, my goal is to change the rear shocks on my 1984 van. For the
obstacle, let's say I do not have a flat place to work on. The driveway
slopes sufficiently far that I need to stick 8'' high ramps under the
downhill wheels to level the van. For tools, I have the right wrenches,
the aforementioned ramps, a couple of cheap little jack stands with 6''
square bases, a hi-lift jack with Vanagon adapter, and a healthy desire
to do the job without (a) the van rolling into the house or (b) getting
crushed.

Seems like all I need to do is park the van on the ramps so it no longer
has a downhill to roll down. Maybe nose down so the rears are on the
pavement. Set it in Park and chock it, then, one side at a time, jack up
a rear corner to get the wheel off and do the R&R.

But before I embark, I'd like to check with the group in case there is a
safety issue with this plan.

SECOND QUESTION: I've never changed shocks, on level ground or not. The
ones I'm trying are Monroe SensaTrac coilovers. I have not opened the
box but it's pretty clear from the photo that I need to get the mounting
points on the van the right distance apart because these shocks don't
look like they are easy to compress or stretch by hand. How does a
fellow go about getting the right distance between the upper and lower
mounting points?

--
Rocky J Squirrel (Jack Elliott)
'84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
'74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR