[Jazzbass]

Thanks to Vicegrip, TrakRatt, and others for the excellent responses on this thread.

So, progress update. Last major test was to make sure the slab was thick enough. 4" is the target, so the test is to drill down 4" and make sure you're not hitting dirt and there's still concrete. Test set up:



and... voila! 4 inches!



Next up was the door. If you saw my garage door thread, I said:

Originally Posted by Jazzbass

I debated getting ceiling height tracks to make the garage more lift-friendly, but decided against it for now as I'd have to move a lot of stuff to make room. According to my measurements, I could get 9' of total height which is still not quite enough to accommodate a lift. If I change my mind later the installer said they'd come back and install the full height tracks for $300.

hahahaha... no. Actually, the total is $530. . Needs new springs, drums, and crossbar. The lesson? I didn't ask the right questions and the door installer didn't go out of his way to help me out here. I should have asked for a real, itemized estimate for a post-installation high lift conversion when I was getting the new door, instead of having an off-the-record conversation about it. This would have made the installer actually think through the price of the conversion. Had I been given a $530 upgrade price at the time, I'd have gotten it all installed at once. Lesson learned.

So, back to the lift. Above my garage is attic space, not living space. Because of this I was actually thinking of getting something like the BendPak XPR-10A-LP. This is an asymetric lift that is almost perfect, except it's 12' high. My ceiling is 10' 8", so I need another 16" for this. So I was debating punching up into the attic to accommodate the late 2' or so of the lift height. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know . I do things like this. I really like how this makes the space work. With the asymetric lift in the "narrow" config, I have lots of space to work with the car up or down, and I'd have a clean floor (the 10' lifts have the cables running across the floor, the 12' lifts they run above):



Down side is, obviously, that whole "ceiling is too short" thing. I could make the work if I wanted to, but it'd be work. The BendPak XPR-9 lift would just nicely bolt into place. Speaking of which, here is the XPR-9 with a slightly revised position based on the great feedback by others in this thread. I've move the lift post 16" from the left wall (diagram says 15" but that's for the plate, the tower is 1" further in) so getting around the car is now easy. In the narrow config you can see the 911 still fits in the garage. Because the XPR-9 is a symmetric lift, it needs to be positioned further towards the door than the asymmetric XPR-10a, which can fit further back towards the workbenches.

[BlackTalon]

I went with the 12 foot tall lift as well, eben though my ceiling is less than 11 feet. So I have to do the punch-outs/ box-ins, too. My thought was I could reuse the lift later in a purpose-built garage that would have a higher ceiling. Of course later I visited VG's garage and his 9-footer would have been just fine.

[cmartin]

The clear floor is nice but you learn to work around the hump if you have to. Other than tripping the only real issues I've had working on one is positioning a transmission jack. A fuel tank, transfer case or transmission gets interesting but not impossible when the jack is cantiwapis.

[Vicegrip]

I would like to have the clear floor but you better like to do drywall if you go with the 12. Me, I am an odd duck and find DW almost zen like. Cut the board close enough and fasten to the studs. Tape in, let dry and then start the thin skim coats with each skim coat faster and nicer than the last. Pulling it so tight on the last rounds that there are almost no knife lines to shave. Raw looking to what most people think is solid in little time. If I had a do over, now knowing how long I am going to be in the house/shop and where the work was going to go I might do the taller lift into the ceiling to get rid of the plate.

I do have to pull gear over the center plate and broom around it but all in all it has not been something I red face wished were not there. lets face it. We are talking about our very own personal service lift. Floor jacks, jack stands, laying on backs looking up at the crap falling your eyes and getting up off the ground to get a tool is for poor people.

[N0tt0N]

Grrrrrrrrr

[Trak Ratt]

Another nice feature of the cross the top is the auto shut off. Not hard to rig one yourself but still. Also, it provides a great way to run air to outside hose reel. Let's face it stumbling over hoses running across the floor sucks

[Vicegrip]

Very true but....Auto cut off is because of the cross bar. Floor plate lift with high ceiling does not need one. In Jazzrace's present condition the ceiling will be the limit for ether lift. The auto cut off as supplied will be well up in the ceiling unless it is lowered to the true high limit.

A common height related failure is not the center of the car hitting the roof but an open hood or trunk. I had someone prop a 914 front trunk lid up with a jack handle and then drive it through my shop ceiling. This would have missed the center bar safety.

High limit bars are simple to make too. 2 loops holding a cross bar made from 3/4 conduit with some pipe foam for the bar system. At one end you mount a 1900 box with a momentary on switch. the end of the conduit rests on the momentary switch keeping it on. Lift the bar and break the loop. Wire the switch through the control power to the motor controller. I had contemplated adding a high limit bar that ran from front to back rather than across the top of the car. This would protect from open hoods and the like better than a cross bar in a low roof setup. I then though "Na, Ill just ban dumb asses (except myself) from using the lift". So far this has worked well.

I bet Mr.Bock wishes he had a cross bar cut off. He had a controls failure and drove his 911 into the cross bar. Got to listen to it while it crunched away too. Having a service disconnect within reach while near the lift is important too. A control relay can weld in the on condition and the only cure is hitting the disconnect or breaker. A safety bar does not prevent this condition.

[dnwong]

Originally Posted by Vicegrip

Very true but....Auto cut off is because of the cross bar. Floor plate lift with high ceiling does not need one. In Jazzrace's present condition the ceiling will be the limit for ether lift. The auto cut off as supplied will be well up in the ceiling unless it is lowered to the true high limit.

A common height related failure is not the center of the car hitting the roof but an open hood or trunk. I had someone prop a 914 front trunk lid up with a jack handle and then drive it through my shop ceiling. This would have missed the center bar safety.

High limit bars are simple to make too. 2 loops holding a cross bar made from 3/4 conduit with some pipe foam for the bar system. At one end you mount a 1900 box with a momentary on switch. the end of the conduit rests on the momentary switch keeping it on. Lift the bar and break the loop. Wire the switch through the control power to the motor controller. I had contemplated adding a high limit bar that ran from front to back rather than across the top of the car. This would protect from open hoods and the like better than a cross bar in a low roof setup. I then though "Na, Ill just ban dumb asses (except myself) from using the lift". So far this has worked well.

I bet Mr.Bock wishes he had a cross bar cut off. He had a controls failure and drove his 911 into the cross bar. Got to listen to it while it crunched away too. Having a service disconnect within reach while near the lift is important too. A control relay can weld in the on condition and the only cure is hitting the disconnect or breaker. A safety bar does not prevent this condition.

That is a very good point with regards to hoods or trunks hitting the ceiling. So it might be better to have custom bar going front to rear to catch those situations. Alternatively, using garage opener sensors mounted on the ceiling might work too. I will have the same problem with having to box in the top of the lift between the floor joist. Definitely plan to put a power shutoff near the controls as a backup.

[Dr K]

When we redid our basement, we spent a fortune moving all the ducts, gas lines, etc. between the joists and into a false wall on one side, so we could raise the ceiling about 6". Then our neighbors discovered that the foundation went down 18" past the top of the floor, brought in a bobcat and tore out their floor. The put the floor just above level with the bottom of the foundation (within code) and got >1' extra height to the ceiling. It cost them just a little more than our ceiling-raising project, and they ended with a far superior solution. I've always wondered about flattening out the uphill driveway a little and making the floor lower to get more ceiling height.

[Trak Ratt]

Originally Posted by dnwong

That is a very good point with regards to hoods or trunks hitting the ceiling. So it might be better to have custom bar going front to rear to catch those situations. Alternatively, using garage opener sensors mounted on the ceiling might work too. I will have the same problem with having to box in the top of the lift between the floor joist. Definitely plan to put a power shutoff near the controls as a backup.

Most lifts now require using 2 hands as a safety device. Watching your car go up seems like a reasonable way to spend your time. That said I ran the '84 Carrera's tail into my overhead door! No damage and plenty of noise to wake me up. Don't have the same attention problem anymore. BTW My ceilings are plywood not sheetrock so...

When we had t our shop built I had 220 outlets installed at mid level on each wall. Extra one for compressor. Like VG points out being able to quickly shut off any tool is a plus