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Steve_S
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Garage Lifts
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PC
Obi Wan
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[ QUOTE ]
Yikes! I hate when this happens ...
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm. That was quite a saga. A bit of Googling turned up some other folks that had, uh, interesting experiences as well.
RG, I trust your unit is newer and includes the, well let's call it an ECO. If not, you may want to inspect the relevant parts.
PC.
Yikes! I hate when this happens ...
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm. That was quite a saga. A bit of Googling turned up some other folks that had, uh, interesting experiences as well.
RG, I trust your unit is newer and includes the, well let's call it an ECO. If not, you may want to inspect the relevant parts.
PC.
tony barnhill
Great Pumpkin - R.I.P
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I contacted them & am waiting to hear what they can do!
OP
Steve_S
Yoda
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Let us know what you find out. If it looks good and the price is right, I may order as small as lift sa I can get away with. It would be a great excuse to not work on the wife's BMW, too.
"See honey, you should have bought a LBC so I could work on it for you. Darn!" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
"See honey, you should have bought a LBC so I could work on it for you. Darn!" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
StagByTriumph
Jedi Warrior
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Edited to add more information:
Well I finally decided to get a 4 post lift after looking for about 2 - 3 years, plus waiting for the right price
.
My two car garage construction is older, late 1970's vintage with only a 9' height to the rafters, not "oversized like newer garages. So in order to get full lift height I had to open up three rafters over the lift by adding additional supports and trusses to redistribute the roof load in that area.
Fortunately I planned ahead when I had the garage door replaced last year as I had it mounted as close to the rafters as possible which allows me to lift the top car almost full up and still have room for the garage door to clear when open.
The basic 4 post 7000 pound (storage & service duty) lift as supplied by most of the USA suppliers, from my own personal observations, are three or four types of designs, an outside column guide (1st generation), a C channel with enclosed guides but exposed cable and locks lifting on one corner of the column (2nd Generation) of which those seem to be the exact same design but made in USA or China, same thickness of materials, same specifications to the working hardware. They are entry priced from about $1895 to over $3000. Many are "pre-fabbed" in China and assembled or completed in the USA. Others are completely fabricated fron raw materials in the USA.
Closed off columns are in two styles, first of which is done by adding sheet metal to the outside of the 2nd Generation column post as a safety guard to the cables and lift locks adds quite a bit to the cost that I did not feel was needed as it does not add strength.
The latest design (3rd Generation) seems to be an all new C column that hides all the cables, guides and locks inside the structure, and moves the cable loading point to the center of the top plate for higher degree of lifting strength and stability, considered to be the "3rd Generation design" and may be a safer lift overall.
Runways seem to be or two designs:
1. a formed one piece diamond plate about 19" wide and the length of the lift having most of the weight carried by the top plate supported on the ends and bolts through welded square or "L" channel bolted to the lifting bar;
2. dual I-beams for each runway length with a diamond plate welded or bolted onto the I-beams.
I like to keep an eye on the condition of the cables (that also very in size and load rating), locks, welds and adjustment of the linkage so I bought a 2nd generation style, and the cost was lower. But If a sale came up on a 3rd generation lift when I had the need, I probably would have bought one.
After comparing features (some have 10 stops, some 9, lift height and width, etc.), included options, material quality, warranty, delivery costs, etc, I settled on a Benco Equipment Pro Park 7 A 2nd generation lift design as it was one of the narrower units that I could fit into my two car garage and still get two cars wide. Many of the other ones were 10"-24" wider or more which meant I would have lost the width to park a second car beside the lift. Most suppliers will charge you to "narrow" the lift to your specifications from $200 to $500.
The real cincher to the deal with Benco Equipment was that all the extra goodies were included in the base price of $1995, being 3 poly drip trays, one jacking tray, 4 lifting casters on lever arms, "light weight" ramps that seem to me to be very heavy duty, more than enough for my cars.
Delivery however was the absolute pits. When it arrived in town the trucking company dispatcher called me to tell me they did not have any equipment to offload it into my driveway eventhough I paid for the residential delivery service. 15 feet long and 24 inches square on the ends weighing in at 1600 pounds, needless to say it would not fit on a standard Tommy Lift gate. So after some careful thought and discussions with Benco Equipment service, my engine picker and chain was brought out of the garage to lift one end, a refrigerator dolly under the other to nudge it out onto the lift gate, then all lowered top the driveway. My advice here is to make absolutely sure the trucking company has a fork lift to offload the package if you pay extra for "residential delivery service", or make sure you have the equipment at your place ready to do the unloading yourself. Don't take the word of the equipment supplier that the trucking company can do this as they probably can or will not. In most cases, a "residential delivery charge" is just for the trucking company to drive into your development or driveway, not do the unload.
Setup was straight forward. I am the anal retentive type who needs to do it all himself, so it took me about 4 hours to get the 1600 pound mass of steel unpacked and assembled in the garage bay. A second person with a strong back would have been very handy to unpack and set pieces in place. With two - three people, you could probably assemble it all in about two hours. Get your local club buddies to help out. I had to use a block and tackle to get the cross members loaded into the coluns that two people would have done in a few minutes. Fortunately I did not blow out my back working smarter not harder.
I am not commenting on the reasons why the Corvette Owners lift collapsed, but from what I have read on lift collapses, it seems to me there are a few main causes I have heard about:
1: the lift is lowered without having all 4 post locks released, one lock holds position, the weight shifts or cables run off the rollers and collapses the lift;
2: people have the lift at the full up position and then do some real jostling and rocking of the vehicle, or overload the rack. A key to remember, these are sold as storage lifts in reality and if you are going to do any serious service work, buy a 9,000 - 12,000 or 16,000 pound lift;
3: lack of preventative maintenance, one of the guide blocks in the column breaks due to getting jambed due to no lubrication or from #1.
4: installation on an uneven surface. Some garage floors are sloped, some are very uneven and a 4 post lift needs to be installed on a flat floor with no more than 3 degrees slope. Shift the load on an uneven surface and it surely will shift, possibly collapsing.
Work within the limits of your tools and they will serve you well.
All in all, I am real happy now that I can perform regular service and repairs on my car and not kill my back or be laying on cold concrete trying to get room and reach for tools. For example, differential out and in about an hour, where before it was 4 hours jacking, cussing and crawling!!
Had I waited for the right sale or had another $1000, I probably would have gone with the latest design 3rd generation lift.
Final Advice: Go and look/touch the lift before you buy it, ask for references, talk to the people who have bought them and used them for a while.
Just my $0.02 for the day.
Cheers!
Well I finally decided to get a 4 post lift after looking for about 2 - 3 years, plus waiting for the right price
.
My two car garage construction is older, late 1970's vintage with only a 9' height to the rafters, not "oversized like newer garages. So in order to get full lift height I had to open up three rafters over the lift by adding additional supports and trusses to redistribute the roof load in that area.
Fortunately I planned ahead when I had the garage door replaced last year as I had it mounted as close to the rafters as possible which allows me to lift the top car almost full up and still have room for the garage door to clear when open.
The basic 4 post 7000 pound (storage & service duty) lift as supplied by most of the USA suppliers, from my own personal observations, are three or four types of designs, an outside column guide (1st generation), a C channel with enclosed guides but exposed cable and locks lifting on one corner of the column (2nd Generation) of which those seem to be the exact same design but made in USA or China, same thickness of materials, same specifications to the working hardware. They are entry priced from about $1895 to over $3000. Many are "pre-fabbed" in China and assembled or completed in the USA. Others are completely fabricated fron raw materials in the USA.
Closed off columns are in two styles, first of which is done by adding sheet metal to the outside of the 2nd Generation column post as a safety guard to the cables and lift locks adds quite a bit to the cost that I did not feel was needed as it does not add strength.
The latest design (3rd Generation) seems to be an all new C column that hides all the cables, guides and locks inside the structure, and moves the cable loading point to the center of the top plate for higher degree of lifting strength and stability, considered to be the "3rd Generation design" and may be a safer lift overall.
Runways seem to be or two designs:
1. a formed one piece diamond plate about 19" wide and the length of the lift having most of the weight carried by the top plate supported on the ends and bolts through welded square or "L" channel bolted to the lifting bar;
2. dual I-beams for each runway length with a diamond plate welded or bolted onto the I-beams.
I like to keep an eye on the condition of the cables (that also very in size and load rating), locks, welds and adjustment of the linkage so I bought a 2nd generation style, and the cost was lower. But If a sale came up on a 3rd generation lift when I had the need, I probably would have bought one.
After comparing features (some have 10 stops, some 9, lift height and width, etc.), included options, material quality, warranty, delivery costs, etc, I settled on a Benco Equipment Pro Park 7 A 2nd generation lift design as it was one of the narrower units that I could fit into my two car garage and still get two cars wide. Many of the other ones were 10"-24" wider or more which meant I would have lost the width to park a second car beside the lift. Most suppliers will charge you to "narrow" the lift to your specifications from $200 to $500.
The real cincher to the deal with Benco Equipment was that all the extra goodies were included in the base price of $1995, being 3 poly drip trays, one jacking tray, 4 lifting casters on lever arms, "light weight" ramps that seem to me to be very heavy duty, more than enough for my cars.
Delivery however was the absolute pits. When it arrived in town the trucking company dispatcher called me to tell me they did not have any equipment to offload it into my driveway eventhough I paid for the residential delivery service. 15 feet long and 24 inches square on the ends weighing in at 1600 pounds, needless to say it would not fit on a standard Tommy Lift gate. So after some careful thought and discussions with Benco Equipment service, my engine picker and chain was brought out of the garage to lift one end, a refrigerator dolly under the other to nudge it out onto the lift gate, then all lowered top the driveway. My advice here is to make absolutely sure the trucking company has a fork lift to offload the package if you pay extra for "residential delivery service", or make sure you have the equipment at your place ready to do the unloading yourself. Don't take the word of the equipment supplier that the trucking company can do this as they probably can or will not. In most cases, a "residential delivery charge" is just for the trucking company to drive into your development or driveway, not do the unload.
Setup was straight forward. I am the anal retentive type who needs to do it all himself, so it took me about 4 hours to get the 1600 pound mass of steel unpacked and assembled in the garage bay. A second person with a strong back would have been very handy to unpack and set pieces in place. With two - three people, you could probably assemble it all in about two hours. Get your local club buddies to help out. I had to use a block and tackle to get the cross members loaded into the coluns that two people would have done in a few minutes. Fortunately I did not blow out my back working smarter not harder.
I am not commenting on the reasons why the Corvette Owners lift collapsed, but from what I have read on lift collapses, it seems to me there are a few main causes I have heard about:
1: the lift is lowered without having all 4 post locks released, one lock holds position, the weight shifts or cables run off the rollers and collapses the lift;
2: people have the lift at the full up position and then do some real jostling and rocking of the vehicle, or overload the rack. A key to remember, these are sold as storage lifts in reality and if you are going to do any serious service work, buy a 9,000 - 12,000 or 16,000 pound lift;
3: lack of preventative maintenance, one of the guide blocks in the column breaks due to getting jambed due to no lubrication or from #1.
4: installation on an uneven surface. Some garage floors are sloped, some are very uneven and a 4 post lift needs to be installed on a flat floor with no more than 3 degrees slope. Shift the load on an uneven surface and it surely will shift, possibly collapsing.
Work within the limits of your tools and they will serve you well.
All in all, I am real happy now that I can perform regular service and repairs on my car and not kill my back or be laying on cold concrete trying to get room and reach for tools. For example, differential out and in about an hour, where before it was 4 hours jacking, cussing and crawling!!
Had I waited for the right sale or had another $1000, I probably would have gone with the latest design 3rd generation lift.
Final Advice: Go and look/touch the lift before you buy it, ask for references, talk to the people who have bought them and used them for a while.
Just my $0.02 for the day.
Cheers!
RobSelina
Jedi Warrior
Offline
not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but what about just adding to the garage given your space constraints? $3k will go a long way if you do it yourself.
You could also consider a portable/temp structure if your zoning laws/homeowners association allow it. This is what I have in my back yard:
Just throwing these thoughts out as an alternative solution to your space issues....
You could also consider a portable/temp structure if your zoning laws/homeowners association allow it. This is what I have in my back yard:
Just throwing these thoughts out as an alternative solution to your space issues....
OP
Steve_S
Yoda
Offline
My problem is that I don't have 'extra' land. And adding onto my existing garage isn't possible because it would stick out too far into the front yard. The city has limits on how far it can go and we are already at that limit.
My solution is now adding three feet of height, two feet of length and installing a single post lift. I will be basically tearing the old garage down, removing the floor and starting from scratch.
My solution is now adding three feet of height, two feet of length and installing a single post lift. I will be basically tearing the old garage down, removing the floor and starting from scratch.
OP
Steve_S
Yoda
Offline
We've considered moving but prices are really high here. The only way we could afford to move would be to buy another "fixer-upper" which we aren't really enthusiastic about. I'll get three into the garage which is probably a good thing. More room would mean the chance of more cars and I really don't need that!
Besides, the new garage will give us loft space for storage and the lift I'm buying only has one post so no floor space is lost. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Besides, the new garage will give us loft space for storage and the lift I'm buying only has one post so no floor space is lost. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
D
Deleted member 3577
Guest
Guest
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I have one of the 4 post lifts and I like it very much except that I need a spotter to drive on it. ( Due to most LBC's having a narrow track width) Most lifts are made for your average American car and you can drive one of those on easily. If I was doing it again I would get one with movable ramps. ( sorry I forgot what company makes them )
G
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Guest
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Interesting discussion but can any one help me select one based on
Just big enough, or better, ideal for a TD
Unloadable and assembled by no more than two people and
without lifting/hauling equipment (no piece more than 200 lbs or on wheels)
minimum footprint
Highest quality...not looking for bargain if I am going to stand under it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Just big enough, or better, ideal for a TD
Unloadable and assembled by no more than two people and
without lifting/hauling equipment (no piece more than 200 lbs or on wheels)
minimum footprint
Highest quality...not looking for bargain if I am going to stand under it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
mightymg
Member
Offline
My dad picked up a four post thats fits brittish cars perfect from some guy in Wa for 400 bucks hydross and everything, I guess the guys dad died and he was selling everything dirt cheap, the negative side the Dang thing weighed about 5000 lbs It was a heavy Hog... but its sweet. We can almost fit two Brits on it bumper to bumper..
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif Lane
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif Lane