How to put lift in standard garage

[John510]

How are you guys installing lifts in your standard 2 car garages?

I have a roll up garage door and it seems like once it rolls up it would hit the lift/car. Is it possible to add a lift in my garage? Any pics on what you guys have done? Thanks

[Flash68]

Saw this video somewhere recently. Build the lift into the ground.

Bad ass P car too. :guns:

http://vimeo.com/57909173#

[Sparks67]

This is probably what you are looking for in a lift. There is a lift at neighbor's house that is in standard garage. Not sure if it is the same brand, but this give you the idea. http://www.radliftsbygemini.com/product-sg7000.php

[John510]

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

[camcojb]

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%E2%84%A2-2-post-Portable-Auto-Lift.product.11589445.html

[John510]

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]

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.

[Sparks67]

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

[Autokraft]

My garage measures 9 ft 8in and I have three lifts in it. I have a 98/02 Camaro on/under one lift. 64 chevelle/68 Camaro on/under another and a 68/69 Camaro on/under another. They fit perfect for storage but not quite enough room to raise it high enough to comfortably work under. Also, my garage is deep enough so the doors won't hit the cars on top but even if it wasn't the doors would still clear if I had the cars parked facing the doors. The doors would just go over the hoods. 9ft would work if the cars overall height were low enough but would be real tight

[aany001]

My garage measures 9 ft 8in and I have three lifts in it. I have a 98/02 Camaro on/under one lift. 64 chevelle/68 Camaro on/under another and a 68/69 Camaro on/under another. They fit perfect for storage but not quite enough room to raise it high enough to comfortably work under. Also, my garage is deep enough so the doors won't hit the cars on top but even if it wasn't the doors would still clear if I had the cars parked facing the doors. The doors would just go over the hoods. 9ft would work if the cars overall height were low enough but would be real tight

Any pics? Would love to see it.

[parsonsj]

My garage has a 12' foot ceiling, and I can stand under nearly any car (except minivans and trucks) with comfort. I can't imagine getting a 9 foot garage to work.

I also had to convert my garage door to a high lift design and jack-shift-based opener. it took a lot of work to get everything working.

[Vegas69]

A lift isn't a waste of money but you will be limited to doing a majority of your work sitting on a rolling seat.

[Moose]

A garage door company can move your garage door all the way to the ceiling. Basically add track at the bottom and move up the the tracks towards the ceiling.


You can then buy a side mount garage door opener that sits to the side of door instead of above it.

http://www.prodoorparts.com/products/167.cfm

[itsals1]

My garage measures 9 ft 8in and I have three lifts in it. I have a 98/02 Camaro on/under one lift. 64 chevelle/68 Camaro on/under another and a 68/69 Camaro on/under another. They fit perfect for storage but not quite enough room to raise it high enough to comfortably work under. Also, my garage is deep enough so the doors won't hit the cars on top but even if it wasn't the doors would still clear if I had the cars parked facing the doors. The doors would just go over the hoods. 9ft would work if the cars overall height were low enough but would be real tight

Kurt, I know it's your garage BUT you have 8' tall doors,not 7' so that's where he may run into clearance issues!
Oh and buy the way you need to post up more pictures of your projects,personal and customer! We all like to see pictures! We'll be waiting :popcorn2: !

[Sparks67]

This website here has lot of photos on a garage with a lift. They recommend at least 10' to 14' for a lift, but on page 5, they show raised ceiling height. http://www.ultimategarage.com/homegarage/UltGar2y.htm

Jeff

[Vince@Meanstreets]

thanks Jeff, I now have a case of garage envy...its pretty cool to see the transformation of the garage and a mans lifestyle change with time.

Oh, yeah. That doesn't count. He has a vaulted ceiling.

[Sparks67]

thanks Jeff, I now have a case of garage envy...its pretty cool to see the transformation of the garage and a mans lifestyle change with time.

Oh, yeah. That doesn't count. He has a vaulted ceiling.

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.


Oh, yeah. That doesn't count. He has a vaulted ceiling.
How does that not count? You can do it to your garage now.

http://homeimprovement.lovetoknow.com/misc-home-improvement/how-build-vaulted-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 :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/v256/geberhard/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

[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-instructions/garage-door-high-lift-conversion.php

this one shows pics with teh liftmaster setup done.
http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/superformance/94260-garage-door-modification-4-post-lift.html

info on Backyard Buddy VS bendpak (Bendpak is also a great setup BTW)
http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/Articles.asp?ID=147&gclid=CIW9_sLOqKYCFYHb4AodZ0K1ng

great how to on the 4 post lift install DIY::
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-general/1906810-1620-lb-christmas-gift-4-post-lift-install-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.

[geberhard]

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

[Vince@Meanstreets]

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.com/misc-home-improvement/how-build-vaulted-ceiling

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

[Sparks67]

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/showthread.php?t=84751

Jeff

[geberhard]

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

[Sparks67]

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.


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

[geberhard]

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 ;)

[John510]

Gui Your awesome thanks for the detailed post.

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

[geberhard]

John fingers crossed for ya and congrats!

An extra note, my celining is 9 feet tall as well, so 110 inches. Ramp height is aproxiimately 5". The stock height on a first gen Camaro\Bird (stock) is 51.5. So that allows for two cars, plus a few inches you will need to raise the top car for unlock. In our cases with slightly or lowered cars you will have more room.

The company I bought it from contact is here. Barry was excellent to work with.
BARRY ZUPAN - [email protected]
Barry Zupan
415 740-9262


Gui

[geberhard]

Access to lifts is awesome!! I have done clutch and tranny swaps on the ground and not fun I so wish I had the access to a lift then :)

[TheJDMan]

When we purchased our house it was just dumb luck that the garage had a 12' ceiling. Shortly after moving in, I purchased a 4 post lift and simply stored the Camaro on it for many years before starting my PT build. My lift is not anchored and in fact Stinger sells a wheel kit that will actually allow you to move the lift around. I can tell you that there is no way I could have built Dust Off alone without this lift! It was the best investment I have ever made in shop tools. A lift with a 9' ceiling will not be suitable for working under the car unless you can come up will some method of working in a 4' or 5' overhead. My neighbor liked my lift and decided he wanted one in his garage but he only had 9' clearance. He went in and modifed his roof trusses to allow him to raise the car up into the attic space of his garage. As for earthquakes, we had a 7 magnitude quake here is VA a couple of years ago and the car and lift moved about an inch but suffered no damage of any kind. That same quake did crack my basement walls however. For the garage door, I modified the track to raise the door up close to the ceiling and changed the spring and cable system to a torsion spring opener.

http://hayes-ent.com/steve/images/Camaro/CAMARO%20048.jpg

[Firebirdsteve]

11+ foot ceiling with a four post.
I had the door rails raised and a Direct Drive Motor installed.
Crappy pic, all I had at the moment.


http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/westcansteve/MapleRidge-20121128-00005.jpg

[Ron in SoCal]

Crappy pic, all I had at the moment.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/westcansteve/MapleRidge-20121128-00005.jpg

Yeah. but what a pic!

[John510]

Now that my car is almost home its time to buy a Lift. Im going to look for one at the GoodGuys shows this weekend. Is there anyone that can do the install and modify my door in the Bay Area? This is one of those things I do not want to install myself.

[geberhard]

John,

Definitely talk with Barry he normally comes to the show and has the lift mounted on one of the display areas. There are other vendors that came in the past but not as helpful, and not as good of products, so I highly recommend him. He also has a guy that works for him that can do the delivery and install for you if you prefer that.

BARRY ZUPAN - [email protected]
Barry Zupan
415 740-9262

Barry may have recommendations on the garage. I think you can get the garage mods done professionally for under a grand easily without any issues.

My garage is a MAJOR mess with the vert all apart but gives you an idea on fitment. With yur car being lowered you will actually have more room.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/geberhard/IMG_2175-1_zpsb67a77ec.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/geberhard/IMG_2165-1_zpsd058c3dd.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/geberhard/IMG_2162-1_zpse1aea4e2.jpg

[geberhard]

John, Barry normally also gives a show price, give him a holler his warehouse is in Hayward, so around the corner from you.

Gui

[Ron in SoCal]

Gui how tall is your garage ceiling?

[geberhard]

Ron, my ceiling is 9 feet (about 110 inches). I have a good air gap of a few inches between lower car and ramp and a few inches from ceiling as well.

Gui

[Ron in SoCal]

Thank you Sir. I measured mine at 124" and was wondering if I can stand up underneath with the car raised up. I'm 6' and don't think I'm going to make it...

[John510]

Thanks Ill look for him this weekend. My car will be at the show in one of the buildings just not sure which one yet.

[Sieg]

FWIW since you guys have me jonesing for a lift with this thread.......my ceiling over where the lift would be positioned is 108 at the front and 110 at the rear. T5 lights are 4" but the lift could be position to where the lights and door operator wouldn't interfere.

My '69's roof is 51-51.5"

DirectLift 8
Ramp height is 4.5"
Max lift height is 72.5

At max lift my car's roof would be at 128.5"

With a 4" cushion to the 108" ceiling the bottom of the ramps would be at approx. 44". Sitting comfortably on my Craftsman roller seat my head is at 50".

It's doable but not comfy like my friends garage.
http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-LT5gj7H/0/M/i-LT5gj7H-M.jpg

The caster kit makes it look like it wouldn't be too hard to roll the lift outside if full height was needed.

[GregWeld]

I hate those drive on style lifts.... the ramps interfere with just about everything you want to do... except changing oil. They were never intended for working on cars. Just wait for the first time you just want to pull the wheel off to work on the brakes or something. F that! They're for parking and for doing exhaust work.

Charlie loves them. So there ya have it.


If you need more height and don't want to lift the roof --- call a concrete cutting outfit and cut a pit in the floor... every night you can bury a bone in the dirt and let Rev dig it up -- in a month you'll have the depth you need to be able to stand up under the car. But of course with a pit - then you can't use a tranny jack etc. To fix that you have to have a plate to cover the pit - or have enough room in the pit for you and the jack and have a way to lift it all in and out.


Just get a proper Asymmetric two post frame pic lift and you'll never be sorry.

[parsonsj]

Just get a proper Asymmetric two post frame pic lift and you'll never be sorry.x2.

Love my Mohawk:

http://www.mohawklifts.com/wp/consumer/files/2010/10/product-main-a71.jpg

[GregWeld]

By gawd PJ ---- I think we're...... Well.... Just watch the video! HAHAHAHAHA






PTT6jHAS544

[parsonsj]

lol! I need a haircut, so I'm the drummer on the left. :_party: