Well, last week I realized a life long dream of having a car lift in the garage. Works absolutely fantastic and you cant beat the price. A forklift for unloading is a must but you can see a little ingenuity is required to get it home
I stood the posts up off the ground by myself, and I weigh 140lbs, but I would recommend getting help.
The concrete bolts they supply work for a 4" slab which is all that is required. However if you have a 1' footing to drill into like I did, you will need to buy actual collar lock cement bolts. Bolts require a 3/4" hole. You will also need to buy a lift shim kit for lift leveling.
Garage door (open) measures 11'9" and I can raise the Roc up about 3" above my head.

Total came to about $1960

Shim Kit 15$
3/4" hammer drill bit 34$
5 Gal AW-32 hydraulic oil 45$
(5) 3/4" collar lock cement bolts 12$
Lift $1749
100' Conduit & wire (220v) 105$
Never having to pull out the creeper again PRICELESS
Extra parking spot in the winter PRICELESS
Look on peoples face when you show them you have a car lift in your garage PRICLESS

Undercoated the car, changed my clutch, built custom exhaust and am in the process of building SFC's since I put it in. Sooooo much nicer to work than what I'm used to.

 

 

i wish.....

 

very cool

 

way better option than the bend pak ! thanks for sharing you saved me some cash

 

Fantastic, I must say now I'm older I've thought of investing in one of these.

 

Jealous...

 

That is beautiful.

 

Thanks for the comments. It has really been nice to have.

Went out a couple days ago and was doing the suggested maintenance and checking the lift over. Not sure when it happened but the cement near the wall just couldn't handle the load I guess. I'm very glad I caught it before something bad happened. There are a number of instances I've read on the net of people installing their lifts on a 4" slab, but it didn't work for me.
So time for a proper footing. Cut a square 6" from every side and we got the concrete mixed today. Ended up being about 13" thick. A month to wait for a cure and I'll re-install and be happy again!

 

Oh wow. That cracked that concrete pretty good.

 

Back in business.
Poured pad and waited 28 days to cure.
Realigned and leveled the lift and voila! Good as ever.

 

Very nice. I'm jealous!

 

Someday....some day I WILL have one of those! haha

 

It has been so nice to have. Suddenly oil changes and fuel filters are almost fun to change!

 

Looks epic. I was going to ask if a 4" slab was enough but question answered. Another option may be to mount it on another longer plate to spread the load a lot further across the slab. Or weld/bolt some large fillet plates on each side of each leg.

 

Yeah that may work but I know a 14" slab isn't going anywhere, especially rebarred to the 12 foot deep foundation!
When in doubt, make it stout! Especially with a 3,000 pound weight over your head...

 

I can't wait to put in a lift. Unfortunately, thanks to my low ceilings, I have to turn my carport into another bay, which involves pouring a slab and raising the roof. In other words, it's going to be a while.

 

2 posts make me nervous and this is one reason why. I love my four post. And, yeah. I had to do some creative carpentry to make it useable.

 

Nice!
I love the roof extension. I thought good and hard about getting a four post, even had one cheap here locally some guy was selling. But given my garage dimensions and layout, it just couldn't be done. Just too big of a foot print which leaves shelves and such with no place to go.

Haha seems like there's always something else to do! Now I'm looking for proper accessories for my lift!

 

Pics of the new footing!

 

I wanted a 2-post as well, but settled for a 4-post. I was nervous about it just like watajob. I think I made the right choice because the 4-post:

- Doesn't need to be anchored
- Is mobile
- Won't fall/fail because of concrete issues (of course that's never an issue with the footing you poured)

This is the one I bought:

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/At...rage-Pro-8-000

Cost me $2200 delivered, but I dind't have a forklift fo the guys at Home Depot helped me out.





After getting it together I had to modify my garage to be able to lift vehicles to a workable height. Here's what I did:

From this:



To this:



The lift is also mobile, so I can also just wheel it out into my driveway on mice days:

 

Hey that turned out pretty good! Gotta love home depot! I like how it is on rollers also. The only thing I dont like about 4 posts is it limits your ability to move under the car a little. I've worked under both and just prefer the 2 post.
Any estimate on shipping weight for that thing?

Snapped some pictures of the new footing. Been using it like crazy and no problems yet (everyone seems to want to be your friend when you get one of these things!)

 

Very nice. The repair turned out well.

 

Its shipping weight was 1700lbs. I've seriously considered 2 post because of how often I smack my head into the lift, or need to be standing RIGHT where the lifts ramps are. It can be cumbersome doing front suspensions, but that's just me being a *****.

I don't tell anyone about my lift for that exact reason. I'll help close friends, but I sure as hell don't want 4th degree friends coming by!

I also ran a 100A subapanel and 1" gas line to the garage. Now I can use my TIG welder and stay warm in the winter! The garage is detached so I had to dig a 70' trench in the middle of 100 degree summer weather. Well worth it though!

 

Oh, did you use any high strength concrete for the footing? Any extra rebar?

 

Nice first gen Riv I see there Rob.

 

I love Lifts but don't have the $ to get one so if anybody has an use one sheep let me know.

 

The concrete was coarse Sakrete, bag said high strength on it but who knows. Guy at home depot said you would get a nasty finish with the gravel concrete and suggested the sand instead but I think it turned out fine. The rebar in the picture above was all I used. As dictated by the stress cracks in the 4" slab, the stress is rotational (torque) so securing the new 14" slab to the foundation in the house via rebar will solve that problem. As far as PSI on the cement it's self, if you figure 9,000 pounds divided by two surface areas of more than 81 inches^2, that comes out to be 55.5 PSI, hardly significant to any cement. Not to mention I don't have anything that weighs that much anyways

 

Now you buy a 4-post, and I'll buy a 2-post. Even with both I'm sure I'd find something else to want.

 

And we are going to ship it to PR?
Talk about needing a miracle.
I would look it to the semi portable 2 post lift, maxxjaxx, I have them and they work great.

 

So did you pour 1 or 2 new footings?

Also did you drill into the new concrete, or sink the bolts in while it was still wet?

 

Only 1 new footing against the wall. The other side is set on the footing that holds the house and its bigger than the one I poured.

I drilled new holes. Aligning and leveling is such a dynamic procedure that it would be hard to get perfect just using J studs in the wet concrete.

 

Thanks for sharing the post.

Also thanks all guys for sharing beautiful idea

 

The lift in my bird house.. (and a few of my cars)