Car Lifts?

[CrashOverride]

Anyone out there put a lift in their "normal" sized garage? Normal meaning 20 feet long x 20 feet wide x 8 feet (Yes 8 feet) tall.

I've been looking at the Dannmar MaxJax. Perfect in every way except: I know I have post-tension concrete slab, I don't know how deep my concrete floor is, and I'm too cheap to pay someone to run sonar or x-ray to find out.

Next is the Harbor-Freight scissor lift. Before you know the HF brand (I know they sell a lot of crap) This is sold by probably 100 different companies, and all probably made by the same dude in China. This is probably what I'm going to get, but the downsides are that obviously you don't have complete undercarriage access. I still think pulling an engine/tranny is possible if you place the car over the side that doesn't have the hydraulic cylinders. HF version uses 230v, others use 110v. I have 230, so it's a moot issue. Also, I've read that some people say the width of the arms isn't enough to fit on the factory pinch welds.

Next is the Bendpack/Ranger "QuickJack". Very cheap. I can get one locally from their warehouse for under a grand. Very light, very easy to move/install. But, lift is only 18". Yes you can use blocks and so forth, but this still means I'm laying on my back instead of sitting in a roller seat. But, plus 5 points for showing a Comp Orange S550 on one

Lastly is the MR6K-38 which is again rebranded a dozen or so times. There is a bendpack equivalent that is twice the price, probably made in the same place but with black powedercoating. Other than the two lateral arms, this has an open center. Lift is fine at 38" and I think it and the quickjack will be the easiest to drive on and quickly jack up. I'm not liking the price as much as the scissor jack though.

2- post full height won't work
4-post might fit if I got a short one, but it doesn't allow you to do brakes - and, my garage isn't wide enough for the lift + a car.

Anybody out there have any of these, and what'ch all think?

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[Anthony 05 GT]

My 10,000 lb twin post requires 4'' of concrete. Concrete is around 6'' thick. You should have at least 4'' in a garage and probably do. Just take a hammer drill and put a hole in yours to see how thick it is. I think that Maxjax is sufficient for your needs.

 

[ctandc72]

I bought the MaxJax - couldn't resist - it was on sale for less $1600 with a couple of freebies included - shipped to a local freight depot where I picked it up from in my truck

You don't have to pay anyone to check your concrete. Use a drill and a masonry bit to check your depth. If you are worried about it holding up, you can figure out where you going to install the MaxJax and remove concrete in this locations and get concrete poured or mix your own and install. It's really not hard and not expensive for the smallish areas needed.

You mention post tension concrete slab - unless I'm mistaken, most of them are 3000psi or up - which is fine for the MaxJax.

Personally I'll be using the epoxy anchor kits to hold mine down.

My current shop only has 9ft ceilings so the MaxJax is perfect, especially for the money. I've owned 4 post lifts and for me personally, they aren't as versatile (I'm not using them for storing / parking vehicles) and require add-ons (trolley jack etc) to work on suspension and other things.

Once I finally sell my other house, the plan is to build another shop right next to the current one. It will likely be a metal building with 14ft ceilings, and it will get a full size 2 post lift.

 

[Bear376]

I bought a Kwik Lift that I was able to get used. It allow decent access in a standard garage. It is able to be disassembled and stored if needed, but I never have. It is good to park on it using two people. I have done it solo, but it is safer with a spotter.

 

[chain]

Just so you know they do make jacks to run between the rails on 4 post lifts. I love mine!

 

[chain]

Of what you listed, with 8' ceilings, my vote would be Max Jax.

 

[CrashOverride]

The problem with post-tension, is that the cables are under several thousand pounds of tension - if you hit one, they have been known to rip out of the concrete, killing everything in it's path, going through walls, etc. If you hit/sever one, and are lucky enough to not die, then the foundation is permanently compromised, and will crack/not support the engineered load.

Believe me, I like the MaxJax more than anything else. I've read an X-ray or GPRS would be over a grand :(

Just so you know they do make jacks to run between the rails on 4 post lifts. I love mine!

I <3 your garage. Including the block just sitting there waiting to be built. Well done! Oh how I wish I had a taller ceiling. Nice looking car. Yeah I did see the jack-on-the-lift, it is a great way to get the best of both worlds.

 

[CrashOverride]

I did something I probably should have done before this post. I measured the exact height of my garage (97"), subtracted the height of the mustang, and a small safety buffer, and then ended up with a "maximum" lift distance. Then I measured myself sitting right on the ground. The math doesn't work. I'd have to slump over, couldn't sit on a roller stool, and at max lift, too high for me to lay on a creeper and work.

I think I've kind of narrowed it down to the quickjack. I wish it was a little bit higher, I think 24" - 30" would have been perfect. I reached out to Bendpak, and they do have something closer to what I want as it is basically a heavy duty quickjack with 26" of lift. Problem is it weighs 800 pounds, so nowhere near as portable as the quickjack (Not a huge selling point to me, but still...) but more importanly costs about twice as much.

https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/low-rise-scissor-lifts/p-6bf/

 

[Carnage]

Just so you know they do make jacks to run between the rails on 4 post lifts. I love mine!

what brand is this?

 

[CrashOverride]

I think it is a Bendpak, I can see the "B" on the top of the pillar on the first picture. Bendpak has some great stuff.

 

[chain]

what brand is this?

It is a Bendpak. It's the HD9-XW, taller and wider than the standard lift.

 

[chain]

The problem with post-tension, is that the cables are under several thousand pounds of tension - if you hit one, they have been known to rip out of the concrete, killing everything in it's path, going through walls, etc. If you hit/sever one, and are lucky enough to not die, then the foundation is permanently compromised, and will crack/not support the engineered load.

Believe me, I like the MaxJax more than anything else. I've read an X-ray or GPRS would be over a grand :(


I <3 your garage. Including the block just sitting there waiting to be built. Well done! Oh how I wish I had a taller ceiling. Nice looking car. Yeah I did see the jack-on-the-lift, it is a great way to get the best of both worlds.

I still think I'd go with the MaxJax. It's not hard to not run into your lift. As for killing people, if the thing was just waiting to kill someone they wouldn't be sold to your average home hobbyist. I really think you'd be fine.

As for my garage, I do love it. We built a house in a plan and the standard garage was 20x20. I had them add a 3rd bay and 2 feet of depth so it's 22x31. Also had them pop the ceiling in the 3rd bay just so I'd have more room above for the lift. I can raise the lift with the car on it high enough to walk under the rails without ducking my head down or anything and I'm 6' tall. I used to do everything on a creeper and jackstands…..never again. =)

 

[Anthony 05 GT]

I feel ya on that. My house garage is a 20X20 so no go there. After living here for 15 years I built a 30X40 with 12 ft ceiling detached. I've had that for almost 5 years now, love it.

 

[ctandc72]

I feel ya on that. My house garage is a 20X20 so no go there. After living here for 15 years I built a 30X40 with 12 ft ceiling detached. I've had that for almost 5 years now, love it.

You can NEVER have enough shop space. The place my GF and I bought last year, the main selling points were almost 5 acres of land, secluded area, large enough two car garage to park both Mustangs in and still have some storage and the detached 25x30 shop in addition to the garage, didn't hurt. Of course I'm already looking to add a large shop with a 14ft bay in the middle, so I can use a full size, full rise lift, and section off one lower height bay as a paint booth.

I've never heard anyone wish they had bought a smaller TV or built a smaller shop.

 

[CrashOverride]

I still think I'd go with the MaxJax. It's not hard to not run into your lift. As for killing people, if the thing was just waiting to kill someone they wouldn't be sold to your average home hobbyist. I really think you'd be fine.

As for my garage, I do love it. We built a house in a plan and the standard garage was 20x20. I had them add a 3rd bay and 2 feet of depth so it's 22x31. Also had them pop the ceiling in the 3rd bay just so I'd have more room above for the lift. I can raise the lift with the car on it high enough to walk under the rails without ducking my head down or anything and I'm 6' tall. I used to do everything on a creeper and jackstands…..never again. =)

I guess I wan't clear enough, my apologies. The post-tension cables are sandwiched in the cement (Like re-bar) but are under a lot of tension, I think it's about 6000psi. When you drill the concrete, if you hit one of them, you (And anything around you) is going to have a really bad day. I know the chances of hitting one with a 1/2" drill bit is fairly low, but I'm not a gambling person if you know what I mean. Out here, to do it right, you x-ray the floor (Best) or use ground-penetrating-radar to map them out before you drill. If it were cheap, I'd totally go for the max-jax as it was my first choice as soon as I saw it.

Unfortunately, out here, you get 10 feet wide x 20 feet long (per car) in a garage, so a 2-car is 20x20 and a 3 car is 30x20. The width isn't terrible, but the length is a no-go for many vehicles. If I pull my extended cab dakota (6.5' bed) in the garage, I have to have my bumper six inches from the one end and six inches away from the garage door - no way to walk around it. But, out here I am the 1% of people that actually use my garage to park cars in. Everybody else uses it for storage or "man caves" since basements are out of the question. Sadly also, almost all houses out here build living space above the garage because land costs are so expensive...

The one thing I have going for me is that I did rewire the entire garage with a separate 20A circuit, separate 15A circuit for garage door openers and a separate 15A lighting circuit. Then I have a 50A 220v seperate circuit as well. I insulated it as well. Now I plan on putting in a mini-split AC unit because it easily gets 110 degrees in there in the summer. If I had the third leg coming into my garage, I'd have put in a three-phase circuit as well (For the bridgeport that I will never have room for, slab that couldn't handle the weight, and wallet that doesn't have the money for LOL)

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