Recommendations Please: Garage Car Lift.

Hey Darryl,

I don't think you can fit a 2 post with that height you mention.

I think 2 post go up to 113" tall. you might be able to get a 4 post. The shortest one i saw was 82".

I have the same problem, 7 1/2 ceiling.

Good luck.

 

If at all possible, you should "do something drastic" and redesign for minimum 10' ceiling height. I doubt that 7-7'2" would be adequate for even a 4-post, and impossible for a 2-post. Also I had a 4-post for 3-4 yrs, made by Eagle. It was adequate and I had no real problems, but next time I will get either than Rotary or Bend-Pak; both are the ultimate, used by most commercial operations (car dealer svc facilities, etc), and not that much more expensive than lesser, "consumer" brands such as Eagle. Finally, lift parts as delivered are very heavy, and unless you have experience with hydraulics, I would strongly recommend you get a professional to install it (both Rotary and BendPak have a service/installation network). Hope this helps.

 

Just so everyone is on the same page...

We understand your door opening is 7 feet, but how tall is the actual cieling?? For example, I have 7 foot tall doors, but my cieling height is 10 1/2 feet. With only an 8 foot cieling you wouldnt be able to lift the car more than a couple feet.

 

Darryl,

I spent the better part of this past Friday morning researching car lifts on the web and ended up buying a four post lift from Rotary / Revolution from a local Boston area lift supplier/installer (Lift Works in Rockland, MA) to stack a 911/993 cabriolet and a 360 spider. They will be installing it in 3 weeks. The 7K lb lift cost about $4300 including installation (I ended up buying a "taller" one that has a max drive under of 76 inches in case I ever want to park my landrover (75 inches tall) under it). Rotary does make 2 post lifts.

Rotary brand lifts are about $1500-2K more than lifts on ebay of similar configuration (for example, other 7K lb four post lifts can be bought for between $2-2.5K), but from the research I did, less expensive brands use certain internal features of lesser quality such as rollers, electric motors, bushings, etc. that may, depending on amount of use and storage conditions (moisture in garage, etc.) suffer problems 5 or 10 years out, whereas the Rotary lifts are said to be solid for at least 20 years. I spoke with several lift vendors/installers, and each said Rotary lifts are top of the line and many indicated it is a case of "you get what you pay for." The people I spoke with indicated the problems the lesser quality lifts might experience are in the electrics / hydraulics area, or in bushing and pulley roller wearout (but this depends on how often you raise / lower the car). The pulley bushings have a large amount of pressure put on them due to cable tension from the weight of car.

With your tight clearances (8'1" ceiling height), you have to closely check the charts or tables most lift vendors provide that each detail the various dimensions, including post heights. It seems like you will require a two post since the runways required for a four post will add about 5 - 6 extra inches. Is your thinking along the lines that a two post will let you stack the two cars with just the sum of the car heights? If the sum of the car heights works for you with 8'1", but you can't find a two post with post shorter than 8'1", one option might be to cut the floor where the lift posts will go and "submerge" the two posts below the level of the rest of the garage floor. In this configuration, you would never actually lower the lifts to their lowest level before the lifted car was released from the lift fingers.

I measured my 993 to the highest point - top of windsield - and it was 55 inches. I do not know how high the top of windshield is on a 360 or a 348 for you (Can someone post these heights, I woudl be interested in the 360 height???), but with 55 inches for the 911, that only leaves you with 42 inches for your 348 - will this work? Also, don't forget to realize that the rear wheels on the lifted car will dangle lower since they will be "ungrounded". This may cause them to drop below the 55 inch 911 height. I have seen my Porsche on a two post lift with unloaded wheels in a shop and it looks ugly, the wheels hanging down and providing clearance of 9-12 inches or so from tire to the fenders.

 

Rotary lift hands down.

 

Rotary and Mohawk. Other info is right, I have not seen a 2 post that will fit under 9 ft. I have a new garage under construction and we lowered the floor to get a full 10 feet. Even so, the 2 post will just fit in. A 4 post will fit, but you will have to measure to see the clearance.

If you do have a low ceiling, consider a really nice scissor lift like the one from Mohawk:
http://www.mohawklifts.com/consumer/scissor.php

A friend has one, and it is very well made. In a pinch, this is what I would do.

 

A 328 is 44 inches, and I believe the 348 is a bit taller. Sounds damn snug...

Not sure how your earthquakes are out in Virginia, but in SoCal I think I'd go four post.

 

"I spent the better part of this past Friday morning researching car lifts on the web and ended up buying a four post lift from Rotary / Revolution"


Just ordered mine - also seemed to be the best way for me to go.

 

Does anybody know what the Mohawk scissor is going for??

Looked at there site, but they don't mention price.

Thanks

 

This topic is of interest to me so I checked out the Rotary web site.
The link is http://www.revolutionlifts.com/.

One of the customer pictures is a very tight fit using two Corvettes.
http://www.revolutionlifts.com/photo_Gallery/images/Jim%20Sears%20-%20Winter%20Haven%2C%20FL.jpg

It also seems like a good idea to get the drip pan option or the solid floor option.

The ramps for the top rack seem to hang down when the car is on top. The ramps are removable but they are probably somwhat heavy and I suspect that would get old after a while if you had a tight fit and had to remove them every time in order to drive the lower car in underneath.

They appear to have two models of four-post lifts: the RFP7 and the RFP7-XLT.
The key differences are:
A. Rise = 5' 3" vs. 6' 4"
B. Length Overall = 15' 10" vs. 18'
C. Width Overall = 8' 11" vs. 9' 5"
D. Inside of Column = 7' 9" vs. 8' 3"
E. Between Column = 12' 5" vs. 14' 7"
F. Height of Column = 6' 8" vs. 7' 9"
G. Width of Runways = 20" vs. 20"
H. Height of Runway = 4 3/4" vs. 4 3/4"
I. Width between runways = 35" vs. 41"
J. Lift Capacity = 7000lbs. vs. 7000lbs.
K. Time of Full Rise using 115v = 85 sec. vs. 105 sec. (or using 220v = 32 sec. vs. 40 sec.)

Does anyone know the cost of these two models? And how much to do a typical installation?
The price of $4300 quoted in an earlier post sounds pretty good if it is for the larger RFP7-XLT lift fully installed.

 

Well, I called Mohawk and the model USL-6000 is discontinued.

Dang, that was a nice one too.

 

I hope (or asssume) you considered the loss of probably at least a foot of "altitude" in ceiling height for the garage lift mechanism. A roll-up door will obviate this however.

 

The Rotary product web site has an interesting PDF file that shows how to calculate roof clearance.

Link is: http://www.revolutionlifts.com/library/pdf/byb.pdf

Other issues are a 2 inch minimum clearance from top, 5 inches for runway height (between cars), and height of bottom car rounded up to the next incremental lock position (which is every 6 inches).

So, in a worst case scenario, a total of 13 extra inches may need to be added to the lower car's roof height, then add the upper car's roof height. A best case scenario is a total of 7 inches added.

 

Agreed. This lift was the one I was interested too but the team at Mohawk explained it became too expensive to produce (closing in on 10k).

If you have the space for a two-post, I strongly suggesting looking at the Mohawk System 1. I have previously owned a 10k Rotary 2-post and while it got the job done, the Mohawk is better in just about every category (except price of course).

I know of a gentleman in NY who deals in used Mohawk lifts. I have never purchased a lift from him, but he is able to locate used USL-6000s. PM me if anyone wants his email.

 

"I hope (or asssume) you considered the loss of probably at least a foot of "altitude" in ceiling height for the garage lift mechanism. A roll-up door will obviate this however."


Robert - Good point, of course - we're building a new structure that was designed with a lift in mind, so no problem for us. Also, the lift mechanism is small and installed beside the door - you still lose altitude because of the door tracks.

Regards, Will