Garage Jack Shaft Lift

[nvr2fst]

Hey Guys,
I have a customer looking to install a Jack lift on his garage overhead door.
These are great in regards to doing installation of a car auto lift eliminating the use of a ceiling center mounted garage door opener to achieve maximum height for car storage.

So heres my dilemma, on past projects I have installed these units on SINGLE entry 9ft wide overhead doors only using Liftmasters 3800 series. Both of my garage door vendors are not recommending this unit a double entry 18ft wide overhead door due to the fact of weight and the lift being offset to handle raising the larger door.

Has anybody done installation for a wider door. Im looking for feedback on actual use, not a link to a jack lift that says it can handle it. These overhead doors are heavy steel frames with mahogany, copper and glass inlay overlay facing.

[rwhite692]

My father had the commercial liftmaster jackshaft "J" series openers at his shop. 16' wide x 11' high heavy insulated doors, three of them.

Liftmaster makes a commercial version of the 3800 (The 3900) which is intended for bigger/heavier residential doors. It actually only costs around $100 more than the regular 3800.

If you need more grunt than that, they also offer the MJ, J, and DJ series.

It sounds like you have custom/specialty doors so you FIRST need to determine what they weigh, and select an opener of the appropriate size...Liftmaster's spec sheets indicate what amount of door weight that each type will handle.

The lift capability has nothing to do with the fact that the jackshaft opener is mounted on one side.

[nvr2fst]

Thanks for your input Rob. I've checked into the commercial units. This overhead 18x10 door weighs 880 lbs (heavvvy!) My vendors wont warranty the operation even on the commercial series due to the fact the weight raised is being done off balanced on such a heavy door. Since my post this morning I thought why not just go with a center mounted conventional opener, determine the overall width between garage door rail and opener track witch is approx. 9ft center to center and get an auto-lift that fits in between. Will raise the ceiling joist heights (not installed yet) to accommodate a higher placed center opener to avoid car roof interference.