anyone using a garage car lift for their TR?

[dynoman]

How high is your ceiling ( bottom of trusses ) and how high would the roof of your GN be at full lift height ?? I have 12' ceilings and had to raise my standard garage door opener & tracks of 8' 6" to 10' 8" to clear the car with it all the way up . If I used a side mount opener I could have moved up another 1' and put it almost touching the trusses . It's not that difficult to raise the door , I had a garage door guy come out , measured for longer tracks & cable and he came back a week later to remount everything . An added benefit is when you raise the door tracks 2' , the door rolls back into the garage 2' less .

 

[SpeedRacerX]

How high is your ceiling ( bottom of trusses ) and how high would the roof of your GN be at full lift height ?? I have 12' ceilings and had to raise my standard garage door opener & tracks of 8' 6" to 10' 8" to clear the car with it all the way up . If I used a side mount opener I could have moved up another 1' and put it almost touching the trusses . It's not that difficult to raise the door , I had a garage door guy come out , measured for longer tracks & cable and he came back a week later to remount everything . An added benefit is when you raise the door tracks 2' , the door rolls back into the garage 2' less .

I'm out now and all my measurements are home. I'll report back when I get back and can check. Thx.

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[stage1gn]

I am one of the ones cutting it to close for comfort . My ceiling height is exactly 10'-0'' . Could'nt go/be higher as their is living space above my garage . The four post lift I have I bought in 2008 , it is a ProKar ( Chinese ) . The lift is deeper in my garage so I didn't have the doors to deal with. The locks are every 4 - 1/2'' , so one lock is to low for a TR to go under with one on top , the next lock puts the roof of the upper car ( TR ) into my ceiling .So I had to drill holes in the columns for pins to be slid in when the roof of the top TR was within 1'' of the ceiling , so the bottom TR has just about 1'' above the roof to the bottom of the cross beam of the lift . It is very freaky when you are driving the bottom car under !!!!! It was not bad when it was my TTA as it was a lot lower than a TR .
As others said , even though it is a Chinese lift , myself also , had not had any trouble with it other than you do have to recheck/re-adjust the cables as the longer ones do/will stretch over certain amount of lifts you did . Back then I paid $1,450 for it .
As said in the thread , most of the ones you see are made in China , same design/manufacturers , made in the same Chinese factory just badged and painted different for different distributors here in the states .
Bendpak is partially made overseas , they have their own manufacturing facility that only makes " Bendpak " . The columns and arms on my Bendpak 2 post lift are made overseas , but the cylinders and pump are made in USA , if I remember correctly , it says Ohio I think on the pump ?
I did not go with the Bendpak 4 post because I just didn't care for the need for air to operate the locks .
Lifts are like having a glass bead cabinet , you going to ask yourself how did you go this long without one !!!!!!
Good luck with your decision and purchase !!!!

 

[dynoman]

Lifts are like having a glass bead cabinet , you going to ask yourself how did you go this long without one !!!!!!
Good luck with your decision and purchase !!!!

I know what you mean , lol .

 

[robh]

I'm cutting it close with mine with the ceiling at 11.5 feet but this allows me lower the GN on the locks (instead of cables) and still slide the Mustang underneath. I ordered mine through bestbuyautoequipment.com for $1800, I use it primarily for storage though.

http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com...arking-lift-8000-lb-p/autolift-car-park-8.htm

 

[stage1gn]

Yeah , that would be crazy to let the lift with car on it just sit hanging on the cables up against the hydraulic cylinder . I know a couple people that do that , that is crazy , keeping that pressure in the rubber line like that .
This is what I had described I did with mine . 3/4'' pin in each corner .

 

[SpeedRacerX]

How high is your ceiling ( bottom of trusses ) and how high would the roof of your GN be at full lift height ?? I have 12' ceilings and had to raise my standard garage door opener & tracks of 8' 6" to 10' 8" to clear the car with it all the way up . If I used a side mount opener I could have moved up another 1' and put it almost touching the trusses . It's not that difficult to raise the door , I had a garage door guy come out , measured for longer tracks & cable and he came back a week later to remount everything . An added benefit is when you raise the door tracks 2' , the door rolls back into the garage 2' less .

Found my measurements.
Height of ceiling in garage at bottom of trusses = 10' 2"
Roof of GN on 7' 2" max lift = 143" (11' 11") or 21" beyond the bottom of the trusses. This leaves 6' 9" under the lift deck = 7"-9" more than needed.

Lowered and stored: I would need 58" for the lower car, 5" for the deck and 57" for the GN = 120" or 10'. When lowered and stored, with the raised garage door and 2" less rolling back into the garage or so; I should be ok there.

I just don't like that I will not be able to open the door if the car is raised and being worked on.

 

[dynoman]

How close is the rear of the car to the garage door ? Mine is 3' 4" . Would the raised door still hit the car roof ? There is a little over 4' of trunk before the roof line would interfere with the door fully opened . If it's close to hitting the roof , you don't have to open the door all the way , put a removable stop in the track .
After looking at mine , because of the Buick's roof line I could have gotten away with not raising my door tracks , but a van is a different story . Sam

 

[stage1gn]

Found my measurements.
Height of ceiling in garage at bottom of trusses = 10' 2"
Roof of GN on 7' 2" max lift = 143" (11' 11") or 21" beyond the bottom of the trusses. This leaves 6' 9" under the lift deck = 7"-9" more than needed.

Lowered and stored: I would need 58" for the lower car, 5" for the deck and 57" for the GN = 120" or 10'. When lowered and stored, with the raised garage door and 2" less rolling back into the garage or so; I should be ok there.

I just don't like that I will not be able to open the door if the car is raised and being worked on.

10' - 2" is 2 '' higher than mine , mine is 10' - 0'' exactly . Allowing 57'' for a TR is perfect . The way you wrote it was 58'' for the bottom car , but this doesn't mean you're going to get a lift that 58'' is one of the lock points . Hence , my situation where I drilled and use pins in the corners . My lift locks at 55 3/4'' , which obviously a TR will hit . The next lock ( 4 1/4'' between locks ) is 60'' , which added to my runways leaves only 55 3/4'' for the car on top . Cutting it close as my GN actually measures out at 55 1/2'' . So with that said , to get it onto a lock , you have to go by the lock about 1 1/2'' for the arm to swing into the pocket , which doing this ( for me ) sends the car on top into the ceiling !!!! Hence , my holes drilled in the columns . At this setting , under the runway measures out at 59'' + 4 1/2'' for the runways leaves me 56 1/2'' runway to ceiling . My top car ( GN ) is 1'' away from the ceiling !!!!!
But now the 4 post lifts they sell ( Chinese ) have what they call " lock ladders " , which gives you a range of adjusting the sitting height of the runways , give or take 2-3'' so you can fine tune " where " you want the final runway height . Perfect for your situation , NTM , you have 10 - 2'' .

 

[achalmersman]

Anybody that leaves a vehicle stored not on the locks is an idiot. Seen plenty of cables broken on $30k lifts that didnt have the cables replaced when they were supposed to. Luckily the redundant safteys have always caught but you cant rely on all lifts to have them, or for them to work. Cables are a maintenance item and need to be replaced at the manufactures specified intervial. Most of the time you cannot tell they are bad. They begin rusting and deteriorating on the inside. Be safe everyone!

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[Mark T-TB]

Hmmm. A lot of info here.
Investigating further I see that not only is my 10'0" ceiling a limiting factor, but also the fact that my pole barn is limited with 110V power.
I was really hoping to be able to store my [open] car trailer on the lift and park a car underneath. I still have some figuring to do
A guy in one of the other clubs spoke very highly of his "Challenger Lift". They do offer 110V under their other brand "Quality Lifts".

 

[stage1gn]

Hmmm. A lot of info here.
Investigating further I see that not only is my 10'0" ceiling a limiting factor, but also the fact that my pole barn is limited with 110V power.
I was really hoping to be able to store my [open] car trailer on the lift and park a car underneath. I still have some figuring to do
A guy in one of the other clubs spoke very highly of his "Challenger Lift". They do offer 110V under their other brand "Quality Lifts".

10'-0'' is plenty for the open car trailer on top , and car underneath . I'd be worried more about the width of the trailers tires to fit on the runways .Also , 110 volt is what a lot of the four post lifts are .

 

[Mark T-TB]

... I'd be worried more about the width of the trailers tires to fit on the runways

Yep, the width of the trailer will definitely be part of the challenge. But at least it won't drip oil on the car underneath
I'm still hoping to figure out how to make a 2-post work in order to have more flexibility to do tire/wheel changes, tire rotations, brakes, and also to possibly store the older cars (50+) with their suspension unloaded for the winter. The trailer is 102" wide and the Tiger is only about 50" wide at the tires.
I also need to gather some more dimensions and try to figure out the weight-center on the trailer.

 

[Mark T-TB]

It looks like I can get this "Auto Lift" 2-post Lift with 110V power, it has 102" drive-thru clearance. I talked to one of the guys at Best Buy Auto Equipment, he thought that this unit would do what I need and also have a lot of flexibility:
http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/auto-lift-2-post-car-lift-symmetric-9000-lb-p/al2-9k-fp.htm
I emphasize that this will be very "light duty" as I it will likely operate on average less than once per week.

 

[Undercover87T]

I just put an offer in on a house and will need to build a single car garage that accommodate a 4 post in the future. Those that have them in a single car garage, what are the dimensions of the structure? I'm thinking 14x25 is the biggest I can go in the space I have but just a guess right now.

 

[dynoman]

14x25 is plenty of room for a 4-post but not much else . Most 4-posts come in at 16'-17' long and 9' wide overall , just make sure you go with 12' to the bottom of the rafters .

 

[Mark T-TB]

Jordan -You can poke around on some of the websites and see the various dimensions. It seems that I've seen a few single-car garages with lifts - thus the overall width & length would fit into a nominal 10 ft x 20 ft space.
^^^ the height - as mentioned above - is another issue to watch. I'm gonna be tight with my 10'0" ceiling

Good luck with your house purchase!