Anyone have a car lift?

[ewarman]

Does anyone have a lift in their garage, and if so, what kind is it? I am going to remodel our home and want to put a lift in the garage.

 

[ANYTIME]

I have a lift and it is a Benwil 7000lb asymetrical, 2 post. You want a 2 post asymetrical lift for a few reasons. Typically, when you rack a car on a non-asymetrical 2 post lift(one post on either side of the car), you have to center the car on the lift, and the arms that swing under the cars lift points are equal length. On a asymetrical lift, the arms are unequal, with the rear arms being longer and the fronts being shorter. On a asymetrical lift, the car is positioned back from centerline, with the rear of the car hanging out. This allows you to open the doors of the car(very difficult, sometimes impossible on a non-asymetrical lift). There are many brands available to choose from. They run about 2200-3000 dollars depending on where they come from(shipping factor). I installed mine myself and bought it off Ebay for 1200 dollars(used). Before you buy a lift(I have some contacts), you need to have at least 12" of concrete under each post, and this being about 3'x3' in width and length. Wiring is 220v. If you find a lift, make sure that it has twin hydraulic cylinders to lift the car. Some have only one, which makes the one work twice as hard. Questions? I'm in Camarillo, about 1hr north of L.A. You can check mine out, or?

 

[ewarman]

Thanks for the info. I've been doing some searching, and so far I like a two post lift that is in ground made by Rotary. This one seems to take care of height restrictions. I just started having plans drawn up on our remodel, so I have plenty of time to figure it out.

 

[sjs]

There's something I've always wondered about with these. I keep hearing about the footing required, but don't really understand why. Is the lift itself extremely heavy? I can put the entire weight of a heavy car on four jack stands, each of which has a surface area of less that one square inch. (Remember that the feet are just angle iron) Even with such a small footprint the pounds per square inch isn't all that much. So, why would a lift with a comparatively large footprint require such a special footing?

 

[Lud]

Here is what may be an obvious suggestion to save some big $, but if you watch for service stations going out of business, you can often pick up a lift really, really inexpensively as long as you can transport it to your garage.

 

[sjs]

Originally posted by Lud:
Here is what may be an obvious suggestion to save some big $, but if you watch for service stations going out of business, you can often pick up a lift really, really inexpensively as long as you can transport it to your garage.

I've been watching too, but they have all been the in-ground type.

 

[ewarman]

Originally posted by sjs:
I keep hearing about the footing required, but don't really understand why. Is the lift itself extremely heavy? I can put the entire weight of a heavy car on four jack stands, each of which has a surface area of less that one square inch. (Remember that the feet are just angle iron) Even with such a small footprint the pounds per square inch isn't all that much. So, why would a lift with a comparatively large footprint require such a special footing?

The lift needs a good amount of concrete to be anchored to. This is so it will not tear out of the concrete.

 

[sjs]

Originally posted by ewarman:
The lift needs a good amount of concrete to be anchored to. This is so it will not tear out of the concrete.

Duh!

OK, that makes sense. Wouldn't want it toppling over!

 

[Vegas Boy]

Try liftsunlimited.com
A neighbor has the 4 post installed in his garage, works great.

 

[thedon67]

Has anyone heard of www.Lifts.com?

They are located in Portchester NY and have been recently selling lifts on eBay.

 

[BryanZublin]

Contact Mark Johnson of DALI Racing ([email protected]). He got a good deal on a new lift from a San Diego area company. It is installed in my garage in Poway if you want to see it (the Area 51.5 Basch Acura / DALI Racing shop).
Bryan Zublin

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Zublin Engineering
http://www.zublin.com