Greetings: I'm thinking of buying a lift for the TR. - Seems like it would not be unreasonable for a DIY. The question is how much vertical room is needed? That is, for the body to lift high enough in order to roll out the engine? My garage has only an 8 foot ceiling, and I'm not sure that is enough. Also, any input from those who have bought one would be a help. I see a variety in Hemmings. Thanks. -g
This is what i use.... I'd rate it 'fair'. Built ramp 'boxes' to drive the car over the lift & bolted 'em to the floor. The boxes are not required, but it makes things easier. The flat portion of the lift makes access to the oil tank difficult without the 2 inch extentions (see 'em out at the ends of the 'arms') in place . Using these 2" extentions makes the 'boxes' a big help. This should make the 30k service much easier. http://www.westernhoist.com/images/hr6_lrg.jpg If I had more room I'd for SURE spring for an asymetric two post lift with the hydraulics overhead. Be safe, these things can be dangerous! Rgds, Vince
1/4" plywood base, 2x4" uprights (3.75" height, 3 or 4 in each section) and 3/4" plywood top. The ramps are in 4 sections on each side; 1) front tire pedestal 2) mid section 3) rear tire pedestal 4) approach ramp The mid section and approach ramp are removable and the pedestals are lag bolted into the concrete. This way, the ramps stay in place while the car drives up (the car is stored on the ramps) and can still be removed for full access. The car sits on 'just' 4 pedestals of about 4.75 inches high when I need full access. The pedestals are just long enough to support each tire. The car will drive over the Western lift without the ramps, but it makes it difficult to set the pads under the belly of the car. I have enough room to scoot around under the car while seated on my rolling stool - but that is all. Should work well to lift the chassis off the engine during the 30k service. Once again, I'd only rate this arrangement as 'fair'. Best of luck, Vince Image Unavailable, Please Login
Make sure the lift is OVER 10 feet wide, between posts. I have one at 10 feet, and after putting my TR into it, there is STILL little room to open the driver's door. I drive my car to the right a little, on the lift. When I re-install it, I will make it 10'6" wide. I have a Mohawk lift. It requires 12 feet in height.
A 2 post lift will not solve your opening of doors issue. The easy way to deal with this is to get the car reasonable close to its lifting points but still able to open the door. Then leave the car in neutral with the ebrake off and put a block of wood behind the left rear wheel. Then push the car into the proper position and place the wood under the wheel again. Not the most fun thing to do, but it works and is better then denting your door panel.
The 2-post assymetric lift would solve the problem of opening the doors much easier. I personally don't like the fact that the weight distribution of the car is so off-set, with an assymetric lift. It just looks "scarry" to me. The anchoring of the lift, to the floor, would have to be VERY secure. This would possibly require a concrete floor of greater than 6 inches thick, with appropriate long bolts. Most all concrete garage floors are only 4 inches thick. Just my thoughts.
I totally agree with Henry...I've seen a couple of assymetrical lifts tip over with cars on them. One was just a Chevette, but the other was a concours winning big block Corvette. Concrete is very strong but not flexible, so you cannot "see" when it's near the point of failure, there are no clues and then "Boom". If you are building a shop with Assymetrical lifts in mind right from the beginning and poor the floor accordingly, then no problem. But if there is any doublt at all as to the floor's integrity I would not install one.
When I poured the pad for my new garage I made 2 special pads where the posts for the asymmetrical lift were to be located. The pads are 2' square and 18" deep, with plenty of rebar. A couple of bucks worth of concrete, but cheap insurance. If you look at the structure of an asymmetrical lift with an overhead beam most of the forces on the bolts are shearing forces, not pull-up forces. That said, it is very important to locate the vehicle with the center of gravity between the upright posts. For my 308/GT4 that means backing it in. I would imagine the same holds true for a TR. It kind of defeats the purpose of having an assymetrical, but it still works well for my other cars/trucks, and overall, having a lift is just a dream come true.
I bought the SS7000 residential lift from www.teamlift.com and am very satisfied. It has 4 posts and the total cost was $2600 for the lift, delivery and installation. I have a 10 foot ceiling and can park my 2000 Bmw M5(56 inches high) on bottom with my 1982 BB512i(44.1 inches high) on top or vice versa with no problems. As far as garage door clearance, I did have my garage door raised to give as much clearance as possible although I didn't need to as the back part of the upper car that sits under the raised door is much lower than the highest point of the car roof. Opening the doors with a 4 post lift is not an issue and with 9 feet width between post even my wife's Hummer H2 will fit. With an 8 foot ceiling, you could lift your TR about 50 inches off the floor with about 1 inch clearence from the ceiling. That would give you just enough room to work on the car with not much to spare. The minimum ceiling height formula used by Team Lift is the height of the car to be lifted, plus the height of the bottom car or the desired lift height if you do not intend to park a car below, plus 4 inches.(the ramps are a little less than 4 inches thick) So you would even have enough room to park a car on bottom as long as it was less than 46 inches high. While that is low, it is enough for a convertable, a small car or another exotic. So I say go for it, a lift is great to have and I highly recommend it.
Yes, I would definately recommend lagging the lift to the floor. Not worth a risk of the car falling or more improtantly, falling on you while you are working on it.
Not to be critical - to each his own. But the disadvantage of a 4-post lift is that it won't help if you need to work on the wheels, brakes, etc. They are great to solve storage problems, but if you need to do a a brake job, rotate tires, repack wheel bearings, etc. you are back to using a floor jack. They cost about the same. My 10,000 lb. asymmetrical cost $2300 delivered to my door. Doughnuts, coffee, pizza and beer for my crack installation team cost another $100.
My 4 post lift came with jack trays so I could jack the front and/or the rear of the car up off the ramps while the car is in the air. So I can rotate wheels, do suspension and/or brake jobs and other task that require wheel removal. Works great for me and it gives you the advantage of storage too whereas you can't use a 2 post lift for storage as you will ruin your suspension if you keep it extended for a long period of time. So it seems to me that a 4 post lift is much better for a residential application since it gives you dual uses, i.e., storage and maintenance.
I haven't purchased my lift yet but a friend of mine has for his TR. It's made by Autolifters, a four post drive on with sliding jacking beams and two adjustable drip trays to protect the car below. It also comes with a removable caster kit so the lift can be moved when empty to another bay or turned sideways against the forward wall of the shop when not in use. With all options I believe the price is a little over 3,000.00. Commercial grade only! Check www.autolifters.com DJ
