Garage lifts?

Anybody ever had/used one of these? I'm curious about how stable they are, what you have to do to secure them to the floor, do you have to have special footings poured to support the weight?

http://www.americanautomotiveequipm...fts-s/20.htm?gclid=CLDLhLri-JkCFRLoxgod0G-RGA

 

i know nothing about these lifts, but make sure you pour enough concrete under the posts.im not sure what the thickness should be. i assume every city/town/state has their own code.

 

looks like the ones i used at auto shops as long as they are installed properly and the car or truck is on the lift properly then you should be ok

 

we have a 10,000 lb 2 post lift in our shop at the farm. we also installed it ourselves. we poured the concrete 6 inches deep and used standard anchors. fairly easy to install, but you will need some scaffolding, a backhoe came in real handy but you may not be able to get it in your shop,( we have 16 foot ceiling. As far as stability goes, alot of it depends on the vehicle. the tacoma is pretty stable best vehicle we have had on it was a canyon, it was super solid. I would'nt worry too much about a vehicle falling off. As long as you use a little common sense you will be fine. If yodo get a lift you will find yourself doing alot more maintanence than you normally do, just because it is SO much easier. I changed the belt out on my tacoma from the bottom last week. dropped skid plate and there it was made it a 5 min job. it was the best investment we made when we built the new shop for sure.

 

That's what I was looking for! When you say standard anchors, do you mean some type of bolt drilled into the concrete or having an anchor (bolt or rebar) placed in the concrete while it's still wet? Plus we only have 12' ceilings.

 

just drilled holes and beat the anchors in. the lift has to be exactly level. that is really important. It will come with shims that make it pretty easy. not a bad idea to have some various thickness washers handy just in case. we set one post then did the other. measured from a wall so it would be as square as we could get it. Pull the trigger on it you won't regret it.

 

the company has been around awhile. Bend-Pak is fine for home use but it is not the same as Rotary lift. That's top of the heap stuff. Wiring and stuff comes in to play with a above ground type like these. If you do go this route look at the ones that are asymmetrical. Two of the arms will be long The other two short. This way you will be able to position the vehicle on the lift and still get the doors open without the posts in the way for example. You would be able to roll the vehicle in forwards or backwards to have the best access or even just swap the arms front to back.

If your intended use is just for futtsing around on the weekends you might want to look at the portable scissors lifts they have on the web site. Portable on wheels with the pump on a roll around cart. When you are done at the end of the day you can roll it over to the wall, lift it up on it's side and lock it down with strong bungies or RokStraps so it won't fall over.

And yeah every "Man Shack" is not complete until it has a lift of some kind in it.

 

what ever you decide for a lift, once you get it installed just wait and see how many "friends" you make..lol

 

Old thread.

Has anyone taken the plunge and installed one of these in their garage?

Man, you could fluid film your truck SEVERAL times a year!

LOL

 

The link didn't go to a specific lift anymore, but I looked at the general listings. That 9000lb seems really cheap. I would definitely look close at all of the specs and compare it to others for steel thickness, motor size/voltage, cable size, ... Just seems quite a bit below Greg Smith prices.

I bought this one about 4 years ago for about $2500 OTD. I love it. Must have been up and down over 500 times by now.

A lot to consider before you buy a lift. Floor thickness for anchors, overhead clearance to ceiling joists for both the lift and the vehicle being raised, power supply, garage door interference when raising(raised), etc.

I have a 4 car pole barn and only one of the doors did the ceiling joists happen to line up right where I could install a lift and the vehicle would go up between the joists/trusses. Also, I picked the base plate style lift because I would not have to modify the ceiling joists since the posts on the lift were just slightly shorter than my ceiling joists.

When I raise anything all the way up, I still have to lower my garage door about half way to get clearance for the vehicle to go up.

Don't let me discourage you though as it is awesome having a lift. I am getting to the age where working under vehicles is no fun anymore.

Everything about this Smith unit is heavy duty. Even if you go with a cheaper one, there is a lot of good info on this site as far as what to consider when buying a lift.

https://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-BP10000

Edit: I'll add a few pics later to show you what I am talking about in some of the points I made.

 

@Kruuuzn
I took a few pics to show my points from previous post.

See how the ceiling joists are positioned vs the door opening. Also notice lift posts vs joists. No way to use anything but base plate model unless I change truss design.


You can see when the garage door is up, I can only lift a vehicle up 3-4 feet before I need to lower the garage door. Not a big problem, but I like having the door open for light whenever weather permits.



A few things about the lift characteristics. Not saying all are a must, but things to look at when shopping for a lift.

3 HP 17amp 220v motor is really strong. I have lifted up to 9500lb 3/4 ton 4x4 and it had no issues.



Notice heavy chain, double roller, thick cable, post reinforcement along outside and the way the inside corners are "wrapped", not just open channel beam.





Lift arms are really thick



The base plate is in the way when using something like a trans jack, but I can live with it as opposed to having to alter the overhead joists in my garage.

 

Thanks so much for all the info and pictures.

I too would need a base plate model because the other style is too tall for my 10’ ceiling.
I’ve also been looking at the specs on the 2 & 3 HP motors and was concerned about my 30 amp service being sufficient. But I see your motor is rated for 17 amp. Thanks for taking that pic.

I drew my garage up in cad that contains all of the fixtures, overhead door rails, floor drains, control joints in the concrete, etc. Theres a lot of stuff to work around for sure.

I’ve also looked at this one. Kind of a different concept. They actually were able to get the ALI certification. I guess it would be handy be able to unbolt one side if you needed the room. But it’s only rated for 6,000 lbs.

https://dannmar.com/car-lifts/two-post-lifts/m-6.html

 

@Kruuuzn

I forgot to mention I tapped into that 220V and mounted a double 120V receptacle on the post. No sense letting that voltage sit there unused except during up/down. Those outlets really come in handy for lighting, electric tools, etc. You can also see I have air reels on both sides, one positioned to the front and the other to the rear.

 

Sweet set up. I have a nice shop but some issues make it not so great for a lift. Perhaps in the next house.