You guys think I can get a lift in here?

Can you modify the trusses/vault the ceiling or would something above not allow that?

What do you have for clearance now, 9ft or so?

 

I hear ya brother! It'll cost me $100K to get a house in my neighborhood with a bigger garage. I could sell a car and make that money - which of course defeats the purpose - or dip into savings. Apparently I'm becoming practical (or mature? ...uh, probably not) because back in the day the savings would diminish. Best of luck with your plan!

 

are those 9' ceilings?

you may be able to find a few options here: Car Guy Garage: Car Lifts

 

What's the footprint?

Have house movers jack up the entire place and set it back down on a cinder block wall.

Now you have taller garage doors and enough ceiling height for a lift

 

I have a MaxJax with 9' ceilings and love it. I would prefer 12' ceilings and a full height lift, but I'm happy with what I have...

 

Do you have a picture of yours fully lifted?

 

Fully lifted, I'm able to roll around on a stool under any of my cars/SUVs. Halfway, I'm able to work on the brakes, etc while on a stool.

Halfway: http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m44/vjlax18/1149189_10153155196495092_633971603_o.jpg
All the way up:
1479200_558281260919131_1847947375_n.jpg Photo by vjlax18 | Photobucket

(I can get the SS all the way up with the door closed)

 

The half height lifts are designed to work in exactly the space you have.
I will be looking into one very soon.

 

Center island in the kitchen

 

I have 100" ceiling in my garage and I got a 4 post lift in. It required some alteration of one of the posts (the one under the door when it is up), but it works.

I stack the 355 and a TR6 on it.

If you want any further explanation of it. let me know.

 

Maxjax

 

You need to decide also what the purpose of the lift is. If it is for storing more vehicles in your garage then a 4 post does the job best. If it is to work on your cars exclusively then a 2 post or the maxjax would work better.

 

Then a 4 post is what you'd need. I would get a measurement of what could fit under the 4 post when there's a car on it.

 

If it is a 4 post lift you decide on, the height of all 4 posts need to be considered. The front two you should have no issue with but if one of the back ones falls under your garage door when the door is raised, then your ceiling height for that post is less than the other three and depending on how you locate the lift left/right in relationship to the door, the above may impact two posts.

Just a heads up because it looks like you have a low ceiling with no real possibility of effectively raising it by doing vertical door jacks either.

It can be done as I did it, but it did involve altering a post and cables.

 

it may be possible (hard to tell from the picture) to add another panel to the garage door and get it closer to the ceiling when it is raised. I did that on my garage and it gives me some more room.

 

And I have a 4 post lift in my garage.

It's somewhat limiting what I can put there. right now, I have my Mondial Coupe on top and a VW Karmann Ghia Coupe below.

however, That's about all I can fit in there. I did squeeze in a BMW 328 once. Tight fit.

My wife's car 85 MB W123 won't fit, neither will here BMW X3. And forget about my F150.

Having said that, I do have 2 cars in that one space now (Mondial and VW). And, It's great to work underneath the car.

One option that I got with the lift, was a sliding lift jack. That allows me to lift either the entire front or back of the car, while it's on the lift. sort of like a 2 post lift, within the 4 post lift. Makes working on tires/suspension much easier.

Another cool option is the wheels that let you move the lift around the garage, even when you have a car on the tracks. makes it easy to position/reposition/clean around it.

The last think I'll mention is that I had the garage door opener and tracks modified. Since my ceilings are low, I didn't want a garage door opener to eat into that space. So I had a side mounted opener installed (LiftMaster JackShaft). And, I had the overhead garage door tracks mounted as close to the ceiling as possible.

My lift is a Direct Lift ProPark 8.

Hope this helps.

Sid

 

I didn't have to add another panel to get my garage door closer to the ceiling. I ordered something called a "High Lift" kit, that basically extended the garage door tracks up to within a couple of inches of the garage ceiling.

This was a retrofit from my default (builder installed) door tracks. Doors remained the same, but tracks moved about 18 to 24 inches up higher.

And, as I mentioned in my previous post, I pitched the standard garage door opener, and installed side mounted openers - Liftmaster JackShafts. That way, nothing was between the top of the car and the ceiling.

Sid


P.S. Forgot to mention - I had it all professionally installed. messing with tightly wound springs on a garage door didn't seem like something I wanted to mess with.

 

Chas - I have no idea whether this helps or not. I have a three door, three car garage and wanted to put four cars in it. Looked at the lift idea, but would have had to raise the 9.5' ceiling. Couldn't justify that so I stumbled across GoJak - A dolly system so you can move cars around with a dolly on each wheel (temporarilly of course). Now have four cars in three car garage. The downside is that I can only get three out without using the dollies to move the other one to a garage door opening. Anyway, you might want to check it out if you have not already considered it. It solved my issue. Jim