Well, he builds garages for a living. He used to have a huge website, with various jobs in the past. That is his home now.

How does that not count? You can do it to your garage now.

http://homeimprovement.lovetoknow.co...aulted-ceiling

John, I have a four post lift in my garage, and have a low ceiling. Give me a holler whenever you want to come by and check it out. In my case I have a low garage like yours and able to stack two firebird\camaros :D Being able to store the car inside, plus a great way to be able to safely work on the car when lifted is awesome!

For the garage door, you will need to modify your tracks, what was pretty straight forward and I did myself, just a bit time consuming. What I did was cut the ends of the horizontal track (the track the door goes when it is fully open), and add that to the vertical. You will need to remove your current motor and track (takes 15 minutes) and go with a side mount motor - I used a Liftmaster, and itrocks, coms with sensors, plus ads an internal lock to the garage, motion sensor light, etc.

I was quoted a small fortune on doing the garage door and track swap, so did it on my own, not the prettiest but works perfectly. There are a couple companis that actually will sell the new track setup for you (wish I had done that to start with), what will make life easier.

Sorry only have this crappy phone pic handy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...d/guistand.jpg

There is a lot of space, and in my case in order to store two cars, my top car (i.e. bird por camaro) has to be parked facing forward. The door will open very close to the ceiling, and has plenty of space to clar the hood and windshield. My lift is as close as possible to the door. If you put your lift all the way to the back of your garage will be even easier. BTW most ligt come with removable dollies and moving thema around the garage whenever you need is a one person job, very sweet! as far as bolting to the ground, as we live in Quake country all of the sources I inquired mentioned it is better to have the lift unbolted to allow for some wiggle room. Once a car is on top that thing does not move :) I wanted everything as safe as possible in teh acse i.e. my little ones wonder in teh garage etc.

I did a LOT of research, and the best 4 and safest 4 post lift for the money in my opinion is the DirectLift setup. I have a great local connection if you want, and he has a warehouse in Hayward, has excellent customer ervice and he displays at the Good Guys (I met him at the Pleasanton Good Guys). He even a person available for delivery and setup if you want to. I put mine together myself, and help from my buddy as the track with the RAM weighs a lot (yes you can do it with a dolly or Cherry picker); it is a full 8 hour day project but worth it if you want to learn the ins and outs of the setup. A lt of peopl reocmend Backyard Buddy lift, but I compared both and teh Direct Lift has a best fail prooof mechanism (secondary locks, tension locks - i.e. your cable brakes, lock actuates, etc).

You know where I live, so feel free to give me a holler if you want to come by. Warning, my garage is currently an EPIC mess!

Gui

A couple very helpful sites I remember bookmarking that may help you guys out. Teh first one sells the conversion pieces for teh fornt, definitely good money spent (Of course I came across it when mine was alredy almost done lol :)

http://ddmgaragedoors.com/diy-instru...conversion.php

this one shows pics with teh liftmaster setup done.
http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/supe...post-lift.html

info on Backyard Buddy VS bendpak (Bendpak is also a great setup BTW)
http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/...FYHb4AodZ0K1ng

great how to on the 4 post lift install DIY::
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...very-long.html

I actually confes and read the instructions setting it up :)

I am trying to remember how much I spendt on the lift but was in the $2K to $2500 range if not mistaken - I paid a few hundred bucks for teh delivery. Here are cheaper lifts out there as well, superlift, etc. The majority has a very similar design, but few had some safety certifications (I am tryiung to remember may be ANSi cert?, where they load x3 or x4 the capacity of the lift, etc.

In my opinion the Direct Lift setup is one of teh bst out there. The build is solid, welds are very clean, the powedercoating black is perfect. The lift is actually quite fast and operation is very easy.

A couple extra tips.

door torsion springs:
In my case, I did not need to modify the door trosion springs. You will however need to loosen the springs all the way out - WARNING - you need to be careful here. There are several horror stories with people actually loosing limb, eyes, life...yep I said life not doing things right. I read a lot about the process until I felt comfortable enough. The process of looseing and tightening springs is straight forward, but people often rush or do not follow steps and that is how they get hurt. be careful, and again if you are not comfortable, contact a profssional, will probably take them less than an hour to adjust for you an it is money well spent. In my case, I made solid rods and markers on the rods to see engagement. simple tape trick,but worth doing it.

Door torsion spring pulleys and cable. You can buy new pulleys and cable at your local hardware store.

Garage lights:you may need to elocate your garage light if not recessed in the event you have lights over the car. Fairly easy depending on what you have, and most garages do not have extra lights.

door tracks. In my case I cut and modified my tracks as mentioned on the first post, however I woudl buy the kit (they may also include new cabls and pulleys and save yourself the time and hassle).

Good luck!

Gui

we are talking about John, not sure if he'd wanna swing that in a rental. :thumbsup: not sure. Im assuming here.

John didn't state that it is a rental home in his post. Most of the lifts require it to be anchor to the concrete. No landlord will allow for any changes to the garage. Only 1 of my car friends had a rental home in the past, but I talked him into buying a home.

I have several friends that have detached garages that range from 30 x 40 to 40 x 60 in size. Only 2 of my friends have lifts in their garage, but they all own their own homes. One is a 4 post and it works fine. Why the other is a former gas station that was built in the early 1940's. His house is about 30 feet away, so not really standard garage. Just a perfect shop with a Joyce lift that still works great. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=84751

Jeff

Jeff, Garage Journal rocks!! As far as anchring to the floor, I do not think any of the manufcaturers I saw required floor anchoring for a 4 post lift, so do not think will be an issue at all.

But good point, John, you may want to check with your landlord. One thing to keep in mind is I remember you were in the market for a house not too long ago. Puting one of these puppis together and taking it apart and then putting it back together is not horrible, but at the same time not too fun either. I would get one only if you are planning to spend at least another year at your place.

Also what is your main need, storage or being able to work on the car?

Gui

John is in California, and it looks like he is rather close to the fault line. Even in Ohio, we are on fault line. Direct Lift mentioned that was optional in their website, but really it is common sense. It was a requirement with special equipment in my former job in the past. I anchor my workbench as well.

Jeff

Jeff, I had similar concerns as I live right over the fault line (I am about 15 mins or so from John), and 5 manufactures I inquired with recommended not anchoring or left that as optional (it was on my questions list when I shopped around). The only ones that recommended anchoring are for larger non hobbyist, commercial heavy weight capacity. I think the anchoring on commercial settings definitely makes sense as there will be a lot more risk of the device getting bumped hard by a car, or other equipment which I do not think come into play in a hobbyist setting. OSHA and other requirements may also play a factor.

I agree with you and believe on a commercial setting there are more requirements hat may dictate the need to anchor or floor mount. bear in mind some hobbyist lifts like Backyard Buddy which seems highly recommended by some. BYBuddy has completely removed\omitted the anchor hole locations mentioning it is not needed with their lifts.

I hear what you are saying, but in an event of a quake it may be better to allow the assembly to fluctuate, rather than anchored where a considerable crack or slab collapse would allow enough move that could jeopardize the whole assembly.

If you look at any manufacturers FAQ they recommend the lift in a Hobbyist type approac to be free standing rather than anchored.

http://www.directlift.com/FAQ.aspx
•Do I have to anchor my lift to the floor?
We only require our two post lifts to be anchored to the floor. Four post lifts do not require anchoring unless floor slope is greater than 1/8” per foot.

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/4-Post-Lifts_3
Q: Does my lift come with anchor bolts and/or the hardware to mount it to the floor?
A:Most of our commercial grade four post lifts come with the appropriate number of anchor bolts to mount the lift to the floor. It is important to note that our Hobbyist four post lifts are free standing and do not need to be anchored to the floor. (Anchor bolts are available for these lifts at an additional charge). The Customer will be always be responsible for providing the necessary hydraulic oil for the lift.

Note most manufacturers that are certified received the certs with them tested without being anchored. IE Bendpack.

My suggestion is, whoever you buy the lift from, check what they recommend ;)

Gui Your awesome thanks for the detailed post.

If all goes well here in a few weeks I will not be renting anymore :guns: