How to put lift in standard garage

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by John510

Thanks. I wonder if there's one with an open bottom so I can work under my car.

those center trays come out. How tall is your ceiling and door?

[scherp69]

John...here's one that you can take down and put away when you're not using. Haven't seen it myself, but it looks like decent reviews.

http://www.costco.com/Dannmar-MaxJax....11589445.html

[John510]

Originally Posted by camcojb

those center trays come out. How tall is your ceiling and door?

Ceiling is 9 ft. Not sure on the garage door height. Its a standard roll up garage door with electric opener. I wanted something I could fit 1 car on top and another on the bottom but not sure if my ceiling is tall enough..

Scherp that lift looks cool but cant get another car underneath it.

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by John510

Ceiling is 9 ft. Not sure on the garage door height. Its a standard roll up garage door with electric opener. I wanted something I could fit 1 car on top and another on the bottom but not sure if my ceiling is tall enough..

Scherp that lift looks cool but cant get another car underneath it.

I don't see how you'll get a car under that lift with one on top, unless they're very short. Then you'd need to have the door up to get a car in/out of the garage, and that would probably reduce another foot or so in clearance.

I just measured mine; with the lift all the way down the top of the rails where the car sits are 4" off the ground. The 69 Camaro in the shop is 51" tall, and 55" on the lift. That means if the second car was that low also, you'd only have an inch or two clearance total for the roof to ceiling on the upper car and the roof to lift on the lower car. If you have any overhead fluorescents that makes it not fit.

And that's without the door being open.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

yeah, thats not going to be enough, but if your garage is deep you can put the lift towards the back so you can get the front of the car under the car on the rack in up to the back of the hood.

[aany001]

I am also in a dilemma about a lift in my 2 car garage. My ceiling is 9ft but I have a loft above it. Im thinking of making the ceiling a cathedral style and install a 2 post in the centre of the garage.

[clill]

Maybe a garage door that rolls up instead of sliding along the ceiling.

[geberhard]

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 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.



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

[geberhard]

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.

[Sparks67]

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

yeah, thats not going to be enough, but if your garage is deep you can put the lift towards the back so you can get the front of the car under the car on the rack in up to the back of the hood.

The garages around my house are 28' x 20' with ceiling height of 10'. The standard height of garage door is 7'. So if the distance with the garage door open is 7', then you have plenty room. Yes, you have to position it farther back. The SG-7000 is little over 14' in length. The ceiling height is a factor, but depends on the height of the vehicle. 9 feet might be a little tight, but depends on the cars that you plan to store. My neighbor had a corvette underneath and street rod on top. The main reason that he did it, because he couldn't build a garage in back. The better option is to build a garage. Although, I have room to build a 40 x 28. Which is the biggest the city will allow me to build on my 1/2 acre lot.
Another option is add on to your garage. A custom garage builder showed me a home in my area, were they added another garage on the side. They also modified both garages for the new ceiling height of 12'. You would never know from the outside, but it looks nice.

PS.

If you have plans for infrared radiant heating, then that is another factor. My codes state that it has to be 5' feet away from the vehicle. Lighting would have to be more planned out, but I love my T5-HO lighting.

Jeff