How to choose the best option for your heavy vehicle workshop
When you’re thinking of expanding your heavy vehicle workshop’s service capacity, service pits can make an excellent investment. Compared to vehicle hoists, service pits can offer your business greater vehicle throughput, improved safety, and far lower running costs.
But while choosing to install a service pit might be a “no brainer”, deciding between a concrete service pit and a prefab steel pit can be a little more complex.
While both options are ultimately workshop pits, there are some big differences in the way each is constructed – which can have a major impact on your business.
We took a look at a few of the issues to help you choose the right service pit option for your business.
How a concrete service pit is installed
A concrete pit need to be formed up onsite in your workshop, which takes a considerably long time. The slab for the floor needs to be poured, then the side walls need to be either blocked up or formed up and poured with concrete.
This lengthy process can cause major disruption to the operation of your workshop.
Because the pit width is around 1400mm, but the pit opening is 950mm, there needs to be an engineered concrete slab to overhang the pit edge. It’s also very difficult to integrate the ventilation system and jacking rails into the concrete pit.
The advantage of a prefabricated workshop pit
By contrast, a Levanta steel prefabricated workshop pit is delivered to you completely finished and ready to install.
The prefab pit is craned into position, backfilled, and the workshop floor gets poured up to the edge of the steel pit. The jacking rails and reinforcement on the side of the pit are all engineered to give you peace of mind. It is even 2 pack epoxy coated inside and prewired to an isolator, which means one electrical connection is all that’s required to power the service pit up.
In around 4 days, the prefab pit will be completely operational and ready to use.
Consider the total costs of your workshop pit options
Although the raw structure of a concrete pit may initially seem a cheaper option, in fact when you include the following items – some of which are required for compliance – it will end up being a more costly exercise. In addition, a concrete pit will take a lot longer to complete on site than a prefab pit, and is very labour intensive.
To ensure your Levanta prefabricated workshop pit arrives at your workshop site ready to go, you can choose to include the following extras:
- Painting
- Ventilation including an entry point into the pit
- Explosion-proof lighting and brackets
- Jacking rails
- Alcoves in side wall of pit
- Stairs and escape ladders
- Services such as compressed air
The following diagram is an end elevation of a Levanta prefabricated workshop pit. It shows the construction detail, as well as how the prefabricated unit is installed in the ground.
Call Levanta now on 1300 577 541 to find out how we can design, build, and install a durable prefabricated service pit for your heavy vehicle workshop.
