I just spent 6 hours rolling around on the floor under a C5 Corvette replacing brake lines, rotors, and pads on three corners and still have one corner to go. Ramps to get it up high enough to get jacks under to get it high enough to put jack stands under it. Even then, there wasn’t room to swing my 24” breaker bar to break loose the brake caliper bracket bolts.

I’m done. I want a lift.

We’re building a 26’x55’ garage with two 18’ wide x 12’ roll up doors with probably 14’ clearance inside. The floor is 4” 4,000 psi concrete with wire mesh and fiber in the concrete itself. I want to be able to remove the tires on my vehicles for brake and suspension work. I’d also like to be able to pull a transmission. Vehicles include a C5 Corvette, a Honda S2000, and an F350, plus various others that shouldn’t present any oddball issues.

What kind of lift should I be looking at?

Do it right. Get a movable four post vehicle combo lift with rolling jacks.

It will give you drive on and the jacks allow frame lift.

I do not like the 2 post as they just pose a danger of load shift and dropping a vehicle.

(Blame the USAF and drag racing background for my OCD safety POV)

This style.

https://racetoolsdirect.com/pr...lift-extra-tall-long

https://racetoolsdirect.com/pr...r-4-post-lifts-rj-45

Well, you'll need a lift capable of lifting the F350. A 4 post drive on could be used for work and storage letting you park the S2000 up over the Corvette and free up floor space when you are not working on anything.

Two posts have advantages of less footprint on the ground easy access for wheel removal, you don't have to lift the vehicle to get tires off like you will on a drive on 4 post. But it does require you to pay attention and position the vehicle properly.

For any jack that will be mounted into the concrete you have to have a specific floor the concrete has to be able to support the lift.

You also have the option of Sissor jacks, mid-rise and high-rise options, go to Benpak link below to read up on them.

Benpak is a well known company with quality products. They would be a good place to start research.

https://www.bendpak.com/

I have owned my hydraulic four poster for many years now. I can't believe I waited so long to get one. Mine can be moved about with a car on it, but I have never had a need to do so. My ceilings are 14' and a couple of my vehicles can not be lifted clear to the top for fear of breaking my florescent light tubes (guess how I figured that out). Go for it, you will not regret it one day!!

If you didn't want to drop a tranny, your other tasks were perfect for QuickJacks.

My buddy has a 4-post lift from Advantage Lifts. He's one of the most meticulous engineers I have ever worked with and he texted me a few minutes ago, "I’m really pleased with the quality and simplicity and pricing"

^ A quickjack is on my wishlist, especially since I don't have a garage.

https://www.wildfirelifts.com/...-W5TnMUaAs5SEALw_wcB

One of these is on my list for when I add on to the garage

quote:

your other tasks were perfect for QuickJacks.

Last time I had it on a scale, my truck weighed a little over 8,000 pounds.

I like the idea of a 4 post lift that I can roll around and also use to stack the cars.

I’d need two rolling jacks, correct? Would I get two different capacity ones because the truck weighs 4,700lbs on the front axle and 3,300 on the rear?

Don’t go cheap. Many of the cheap lifts are a disaster waiting to happen even at rated capacity.

I put a Rotary 2-post in my warehouse. 12,000lbs as I had a few big trucks. Absolutely loved it. Used it every week for at least 10 years.

I also have a couple of Quickjacks for my low headroom garage. Great value for the price but more of a hassle to setup and limited lift height. I could pull a tranny if I needed to but a two post is better for that.

Another option is a 4-post drive on with the jacks front and rear so you can get the wheels off the ground.

My dad and a buddy of his went in and bought a 2 post lift and put it in his buddy's shop. Minimum concrete thickness was 6" I do believe. Perhaps the 4 post distributes the weight so that thinner concrete is fine, but I would definitely double check on that.

One of my BIL's welded together a moveable lift. He's a part time welder and did a really nice job. Funny thing is, I don't think he ever moved it in the 12 years they lived there.

Just saw an ad in last weeks Costco magazine listing $300 off on Quickjack. Don't know if that is just local or everywhere.

I have a C4 and dread going through the gymnastics necessary to get it up on stands.

Four-post lifts with ramps you drive up on, even with jacks, are only useful for stacking cars for storage and alignments. You probably won't be doing these yourself. If you do suspension or brake work on them, all the debris that is shaken loose, instead of falling loosely on the floor, will fall all over the jacks, into the channels they ride in, and the ramps themselves. Brake fluid will eat the paint off (if your garage floor is also painted, it won't do that any good either). When the channels fill up with crap, the jack rollers won't go over it. For transmission work you need the trans in neutral so you can rotate the drive shaft(s). When a drive shaft is out of a RWD vehicle, you must set the park brake and/or chock the wheels or the vehicle will roll. Few four-post jacks can lift a pickup truck by the frame enough for the wheels to clear. Sometimes you have to do this. Ramps can also get in the way of some operations. For example, sometimes oil that comes out of the filter when you remove it can get on/in them. You need the bottoms of the vehicles totally free and clear.

I recommend a two-post asymmetrical lift, like this one (illustrative purposes only):



Note how the car is positioned rearward so the doors clear the columns better. This reduces the chances of dinging the doors (I would still glue some pool noodles to the corners) and makes getting in and out of the vehicle easier. Your disparity of vehicles is a little bit of a problem but can be overcome. A 10-12000-lb.-rated needed for the F-350 is way overkill for the Corvette and Honda, and these cars are low enough to the ground that you may have difficulty getting the arms and pads of the lift under them without damaging plastic bodywork. Select carefully.

Whatever you do, don't get a lift like this one.



The plate on the floor between the colums is to cover cables that run up the columns. This is exactly where you need to put your transmission jack when working on the trans.

So, I bought a four post lift for storage in a single car garage. With a finished drywall height of 10’3”, I can get my 59 above and my 911 under it. My concrete is about 5-6” and I used anchor bolts for good measure. I bought mine used and it came with the caster wheel things that I don’t use cause it’s in a fixed position.

Like others have said, you can’t do suspension work while on the lift…unless you buy a sliding bridge jack. This allows you to roll essentially to any point in the car to lift it. I now can work on brakes etc while on the lift. It’s awesome.

So you’ll need at least 10.000for good measure. Try Alldvantage or Bendoak. It’s pricey. Get drip trays if you’re storing a car underneath.

Oh, and get 220v. I believe it will raise twice as fast as the 110v motor.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Do it right. Get a movable four post vehicle combo lift with rolling jacks.

It will give you drive on and the jacks allow frame lift.

I do not like the 2 post as they just pose a danger of load shift and dropping a vehicle.

(Blame the USAF and drag racing background for my OCD safety POV)

This style.

https://racetoolsdirect.com/pr...lift-extra-tall-long

https://racetoolsdirect.com/pr...r-4-post-lifts-rj-45

Not that I have a garage big enough for a lift (goddamn postage stamp sized houses here), but that seems like a ton of stuff in the way of actually getting to the underside of the car. I'm trying to envision using that style of lift, but I can't imagine even getting my skid plate off with all that stuff in the way.

I bought a 2-post asymmetric 10,000# Rotary lift after laying on my back on cold, hard concrete for 50+ years; best decision I ever made.

Aileron - how thick is your concrete floor? Any special concrete/pads beneath the lift columns?

You could sell me the S2000 or ,hell, even the Corvette.

This is what I want to avoid:

Only enough room for one click on the rachet mechanism. Should have seen my trying to get the breaker bar and six sided socket on those bolts.

+1 on the Bendpak, 2-post, asymmetric. That’s what I’ll be getting.