Considering a lift for amateur wrenching and/or extra car storage in garage.
I don't know what I don't know. Looking for things I need to think about and directions as to which to pick.
I suspect it will be like having a squat rack in that I wonder how I ever lived without it despite it being a cheap ass Amazon rack.
Thanks in advance.
How thick is the concrete pad of your intended install location? Do you have at least 50A 220V service to that location? How high is the ceiling in that garage bay/shop?Originally Posted by Doc_Glock
Ceilings can be issue.
I'd suggest some type of sensor cutoff or noise maker for ceiling. I don't know what best setup would be, I'd think something like a garage opener beam system wired in would be best. So the beam was like 6" or whatever below ceiling, and positioned to catch hood left up.
Mechanic buddy of mine has shop with three bays and two lifts last time I was there, they never had problems hitting the ceiling with vehicle till one day they did.
That led to them adding some type of sensor/cutoff.
What about the low lifts?
Ken
BBI: ...”you better not forget the safe word because shit's about to get weird”...
revchuck38: ...”mo' ammo is mo' betta' unless you're swimming or on fire.”
I have two lifts, a four poster and a two poster, 12 ft ceilings. You may be able to reframe part of your ceiling to get the height needed.
To be able to double park for garage space, you would want the 4 poster. My 4 poster has removable casters that can move the whole lift to different parts of the garage.
Sets on top of the concrete, two posters need to be bolted through the concrete.
120 volt is fine.
You can get racks for holding jacks to lift parts of the car.
With liberty and justice for all...must be 18, void where prohibited, some restrictions may apply, not available in all states.
^^Agree with all of this. I had a 4 post that was good for storage and a short 2 post (MaxJax) that I used for working on cars.
https://www.maxjax.com/maxjax/?gclid...saAhq2EALw_wcB
Too bad you got stuck with those Porsches.
With liberty and justice for all...must be 18, void where prohibited, some restrictions may apply, not available in all states.
It's not the one for long-term storage, but for working on things, these are hard to beat.
https://rotarylift.com/product/sl210/
No issues with opening doors, and when they're down, there is no post interfering with movement. M-B dealer I was last in had them in every bay.
Every lift should have at least one stop bar to shut down the motors before a vehicle can be damaged.
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Not another dime.
Not that there probably aren't a few people here who really know their lifts, but if you haven't already, I'd spend some time both on the Garagejournal and Grassrootsmotorsports forums....I know for sure that there is a TON of info on this subject at both of those locations. Some rambling follows...
FWIW, I have a 2-post because I mainly use it for working on cars. I've used it for storing vehicles also, and it's enough of a pain to deal with that it sometimes means I don't choose that vehicle to drive even if I *kinda* want to. A 4-poster is way better for storing vehicles, better for oil changes, and can be somewhat OK for doing wheel work with the added jacking systems, but it isn't ideal.
If I had to choose a 2-post lift from scratch (mine came with my shop), I'd go asymmetric and probably at least 10K so I could get my F350 service truck up on it. Mine's either an 8 or 9K and it won't lift the truck which weighs 8900. It's also a symmetric lift and the arms don't collapse enough to get short-wheelbase vehicles on it easily.
Rotary and Bendpack are 2 good old names in lifts....mine is an Autolifters and while it's OK, I wouldn't choose it if I were starting over.
4 posts are terrible to work on anything near the wheels. Yes you can get the rolling or sliding bridge jacks to jack by the cars frame so you can get wheels off. But then you still have the wide chunk of steel there in your way. You haven't lived til you are taking a wheel off and your elbow hits the edge of that steel and the tire drops to the floor and bounces. Hope there is not a car in the next bay. BTW 4 posts are expensive because of all the steel to build them. Then ad another $2000 to $4000 for the bridge jacks. 2 posts work just fine to park under. You might need to park 10 inches back to make opening the door easier but no big deal. An asymetrical version really helps w/ the parking. I worked for 10 years in a shop w/ 8 two posts in two rows of 4. So we drove under one lift to get to the next lift dozens of times per day. After 2-3 days it becomes normal.
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