Okay, so manually pumping a jack is not my preferred method!! :D

After a little digging I found this little gem which will convert any manual hydraulic jack pump to an air operated one.

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Ai...t-w-auto-oiler

I then found another lift supplier that sells a RJ 45 jack that lefts 4500# and comes with the air over hydraulic option too. It appears these newer versions do have locking tabs as well. The RJ 45 also has ball bearing wheels instead of just plastic sliders that make it easier to roll the jack to and fro...

I'll keep digging and shopping but thanks for sharing the details on these. I think with enough bells and whistles I can really set a 4 post lift up to do what I want it to do easily.

I need to look more carefully at the commercial 4 post lifts as well, they've got 220v pumps on them which I'm sure will go up faster but they also cost considerably more.

The manual jack is simple. The pump is simply a porta power. I would not bother with the air setup and it is just a hose you would need to bother with. The ports power jack really is easy and quick.

I converted my engine hoist to air over hydraulic..... best thing I ever did!! It became less "bouncy" with a load... was smoother... and was easy to fine tune in lifting. That wouldn't apply to these four post lift options - but it sure was slick on the engine hoist.

I agree the air assist is not necessary. The bridge jack features a lock mechanism which will allow you to take the load off the hydraulic ram for prolonged raised storage. I also think the RJ45 is overkill because you will only be lifting one end of your car at a time. The 3500# RJ35 is more than capable for your intended use.

Lance,
Take a look at this thread where I described the LED lift lights I installed on my lift.

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=48550

another reason i like this site, I learned allot just reading this one thread...

That is going to be a nice garage Lance, I hope your challenges all work out.

Joe

I guess I can put this one to bed...

My Realtor (she rocks BTW) went out last Saturday with a tape measure and a camera and laid out where the tension cables are behind the 9' door part of the RV garage...and the results aren't good for wanting to drill to install a two post lift.

In this picture the black lines with arrows are the tension cables, purple lines are measurements from bottom and right walls.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Vista-Mon.../i-GCqHbJK.jpg

I would want a two post lift with 108" (9') in between the posts which is the same width as the door. The cable on the left side of the door running up and down (North & South) is right in the way of where we'd have to drill.

To get around that I'd have to move the lift either too far to the left or too far to the right and neither is a good fix.

So it looks like we'll go with the commercial grade four post lift after all.

Here's a picture of the actual cables which are hopefully covered in concrete by now.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Vista-Mon...hJrW4x4-XL.jpg

How big is the base (or foot) of the 2 Post?

They are 19" wide on my current 2 post...

9' between them then almost 2' on each side outside of that to be safe...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/i-C..._100000-XL.jpg

I don't think you want to center the lift on the door. Not enough room on the right. I think it should be offset to the left in which case it could be centered on the cables that are 8' apart.

Don

Yeah...I've thought about being too close to the East wall as well. What you say makes sense but still it only leaves a 6" window on each side of those cables 8 feet apart.

Then one has to decide how deep in the bay to put them. Between the 9' and 13'5" cables from the door would be kind of close to the door, whereas it seems 15' from the door might be too deep in.

I think I gotta see it in person and play with it a bit before final decisions are made. At least I have a pretty good idea of where they are at now.