Need a lift for my new Ferrari

www.Autolifters.com, model M6, 4-post. Heavy duty, commercial grade, built in USA, sealed bearings etc. Good for SAFE storage.
They are having a sale on them reg price 2395.00, now going for 1995.00.

My buddy got one for his TR, works like a champ.

Mine delivers next Monday.

DJ

 

I'll second the 'vote' for AutLifters. I purchased an M6 in 1999 and am a very satisfied customer!

 

fwiw, i have done a ridiculous amount of research into a dozen different storage lift companies. i'm planning to buy two or three of them once my new garage is built (i'm no longer fighting with the Conservation Commission, now i'm fighting with the Board of Health - it never ends!). so i haven't bought one and don't own one, so keep that in mind.

i've narrowed it down to either AutoLifters (cf. above) or Revolution Lifts, which is a division of the commercial Rotary Lifts company.

keep us all posted.

doody.

 

I have a 4 poster from www.teamlift.com . I paid $2600 for the lift, delivery and installation. I am pleased with it and park my Boxer on top and my M5 below with a 10 ft. ceiling with no problem.

 

my advice is to do your research. the construction standards of these lifts vary wildly.

one important piece of data is that they ALL sell for the SAME price. negotiate.

every guy who knows how to work steel seems to be making one of these things. build quality varies substantially between manufacturers.

doody.

 

At the bottom of this post see the graphics I grabbed from the www.autolifters.com site - you'll find them on the "Helpful Info" page at the Autolifter site.

For dimensions of the lift itself, go to www.autolifters.com/m6.html and hover your cursor over "Side View" and "Top View".

Their height calculations call for:
Height of bottom car (actually height of lowest locking point above car)
+
6" for ramp (4" of steel, plus 2" of lifting needed to release the locks)
+
Height of top car
=
Total clearance needed.

In your case the minumum needed is 107"
- Gives you 6" of room between your 42" tall 328
- Add another 6" for the ramp & lift amount needed to unlock
- Plus the overall height of the 330

You should have 4" to spare. That assumes your garage motor sicks smack over the highest point of the 330. Sound like you'll have the room.

The picture of my garage is deceiving. Since the lift is on one side of a 2-stall garage, the motor isn't above the TR6 at all (it's actually centered between the lift and the Maser in the other stall). Since my garage is pretty deep, I was able to move the lift forward, giving me even more clearance because the garage door doesn't reach far enough forward to contact the tallest point on the TR6. You may be able to do the same to give more clearance for the 330.

A couple of other 'tricks' may help. At my last house, I backed the top car onto the lift because the hood was lower than the trunk - the picture below shows just that method. Another trick is to not allow the garage door to travel to the full open position -- that may stop the top of the door right over the trunk of your 330, before it would hit the back window. I've done that too, when I had a different car on top.

I installed the lift myself, with the help of a few friends and 12-pack. The same group helped me dismantle it and reinstall it at the new house. It takes about 4.5 hours the first time, 3 hours when you know what you're doing.

Look closely at the safety and quality features called out on the AutoLifter's site and compare to some of the other lifts. Those features swayed me in favor of the Autolifter unit -- I have no regrets.

Brad

 

Brad,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the lifts.. I too am starting my quest for a lift to stack my new (to me) 308 and my Pantera.

I can't tell from looking at the pictures but are your posts bolted to the concrete or are they free standing? I'm assuming bolted down ismuch safer but I thought I had read somewhere that it is not required with these lifts. Is that true?

Scott

 

Scott, the four-post lifts do not need to be bolted to the floor. In fact, I purchased the optional wheel kit for mine and can move the lift around while a car is raised a couple of feet.

One other thought, there's no special floor thickness requirements with four-post lifts - frequently, the two-post lifts require a thicker concrete base than you'll find in most residential garages.

Brad

 

Great! Thanks for the info...

Hmm.. now to go try and take some decent measurements to see how I can make it fit. I think I too will have to back the top car on. But the two I am stacking are similar shapes so hopefully it will work in my garage.

In my case the ceiling is not the issue... there is a load bearing beam running across the garage. It is not centered on the ceiling though... it is closer to the garage door opening and is about where the top of the door stops when it is fully opened. Looks like I have about 5-6 more inches of clearance if I can get someone out to modify my garage door to open closer to that beam.

As it stands now with the door open I have 7' 6" of clearance...

Thanks again,
Scott

 

I had my www.teamlift.com lift bolted to the floor for safety and stability reasons. What good would wheels on it be anyway ? Any time I lift my car up I would be in the garage anyway. I highly recommend that you have the installer bolt it to yout garage floor.

 

I just purchased a Pro Park 7 lift, and am very pleased with it. It seems very stable with a car on it and came with a jacking tray, 3 drip pans and the caster kit mentioned above.

The toughest part was getting the "kit" off the delivery truck at my residence. The driver and I pondered many ideas, and in the end we ended up winching the 1500lb kit part way off the truck, then we took it apart, removed the pieces we could carry by hand, and I moved the 2 long tracks off with an engine hoist. It was an ordeal, but the driver was jovial about the whole thing.

The assembly was very easy, but I would recomment either an engine hoist or a few friends that are regular gym goers...

I would change 2 minor things though...(I think) all of these lifts have a single point 'release' lever that disengages the mechanical locks so the lift can be lowered. The sinlge lever is connected via steel rods to the 4 locks...thus, one long rod travels down the length of the lift. Mine consisted of a 3' long piece that attaches from the front of the lift and around a 12' long piece that has to attach from the back (they connect via a threaded sleve in the middle). Thus, to get this 12' long rod in, you need 12' of space behind the lift...as this is one of the last steps in assembly, I all ready had my lift pretty much in place, which is to say, back against the wall...so I'm all for that caster kit, which I used to spin the lift in my 2 car garage so I coudl get the steel rod in.

Secondly, the motor/oil res sticks out about 12" from the pole of your choice. This seemed like a waste to me, so I fabed up a hinge system that allows you to have the motor/oil res either totally away from the lift tracks (while driving a car on it) or right next to the tracks (so it's out of the way for the next car over).

I'm currently parking a 328 (which I think is 44.4" high) over (or under) a BMW M3 e36 (which is 53")...remember that you are stuck with the mechanical lock heights from the factory (unless you can weld and trust yourself), so for me, I needed to add about 10" (which includes the lift and the next higher locking point above either car. So my total was about 110".

Good luck, Battman

 

An advantage to having the wheel kit for your lift is so you can reposition it as required in case you rearrange tools or equipment in the shop. You might want to move it to another bay or in my case I may shove it outside on those nice days when I don't want to be cooped up in the garage while working on my car.

Beware. Not all 4-posters are designed for freestanding use. It is required for some to be bolted down. There is a picture on the Autolifters site of a fork truck ramming a leg out of position with the car on the lift. It is designed for shear loads while in use without having the pads bolted down. Looks pretty safe to me.

DJ