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Forgot to say if you invest in a two post car lift do avoid lifts having a leaf chain on the floor like the one in the picture. The chain tunnel is always in the way for the car and when moving a jack around. You may trip over the tunnel.
Åke
Petza914, where did you get the LED light strips? I need something similar.
Kits came from Amazon and I linked 3 of them together with a motion sensor for each of the 2 light runs. When I walk by the lift, all the lights come on automatically and shut off about 4 minutes after they no longer sense motion. If I want to shut them off, they're plugged into the round power block that's magnetically mounted to the lift cross bar bracket and I can just push the power button on that. Since they have to move up and down with the lift, I secured the extension cord in the articulating drag chain you see.
More info on the lighting in post #108 in my Cayenne Turbo S widebody build thread here - - https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-955-957-2003-2010/959688-misha-widebody-cayenne-957-turbo-s-project-2.html
For the overhead door and opener, I've mounted the door tracks so the door closely follows the ceiling. Tracks center about 6" below the ceiling, allowing room for the the door (which sits above the tracks), a screw-drive opener bar, and florescent lighting to fit. At the current home, I installed shaft-drive openers at the end of the torque rods. Much quieter and don't get in the way.
I'm using a MaxJax two-post lift so I can move it out of the way when it isn't being used. The pump is wall-mounted, with the hoses routed to the areas next to where the posts stand when in use. The rest of the time the hoses roll up under cabinets and out of the way.
Main work-bay lighting is 9 surface-mount quad-tube florescent fixtures in the space. Would have gone with recessed mount pans except for loss of fire barrier and R value. Would have gone with LED panels except they weren't bright enough at the time. Walkway lighting is LED cans, so no need to light the whole work-bay like a Monday Night Football stadium when it's just a space.
Florescent and LED work-lights get the duty underneath the lift, supplemented sometimes by head-mounted LED lights. The floor is a light gray porcelain tile, giving reasonable reflected light underneath. It's also really easy to keep clean, a good thing because it's pretty easy to get dirty too. I tried a couple of the LED magnetic work-lights underneath, but found that there's no good way to hang/mount them to get good light but avoid getting blinded by them half the time. The distributed LED strips look like a good way to go for the four-post lifts. They are way inexpensive and easy to install. I use them for under-cabinet workbench lighting where they are superb.
The two post lifts with the track on the floor do take some getting used to. Tripping has not been a problem but pushing the car forward and backward takes extra effort given the bump on the floor. Overall, two post lifts use less space than the four post lifts but both have compromises. Access into and out of the vehicle is compromised with the two post, but working on the wheels and underside of the vehicle is easy because there is nothing in your way. One of each (four post and two post) would be the ultimate solution but I'm not to that point because space is not a problem... YET!
I am using a variety of lights depending on what I'm doing on the car. If there is one thing that makes working on the underside of a vehicle difficult it is having light shining into your eyes and not up into those dark overhead spaces where you want it. My solution so far is to have a variety of cordless rechargeable units and headlights available as well as a pull down corded unit. I really like Petza's idea of having the lights on a motion sensor and will give some thought to making one of those set-ups for the two post arms.
It is good to have unlimited headroom when doing projects like motor mounts/major cleaning, oil pan gaskets, torque tubes, etc. This shot (below) was taken before the major re-organization and painting of my garage began.
Lighting for this project was mostly by headlight and small magnetic battery powered units... Constantly fiddling with lighting was a problem...
The new magnetic LED rechargeable light sticks I have now are much better but I have not taken pictures of them.
In some ways the super strong overhead lighting creates challenges; glare from above and shadows underneath.
Those thinking about a two-post lift should only consider the asymmetrical kind. They solve the door problem. (I might save someone a lot of trouble installing the common Bendpak version - the instructions can lead you astray: The post with the pump must go on the left as you stand in the doorway. Do NOT install it in the narrow configuration. Only careful reading saved me from these pitfalls.)
Those thinking about a two-post lift should only consider the asymmetrical kind. They solve the door problem.
Could you expand on that? What's "the door problem"? Can you give an example of an asymmetrical two post? I'm planning to install a two post alongside my four post in the new shop but I've never actually used one.
Also, about overhead light; I've mounted my upper lighting on the walls slightly above the top of the lift using downward pointing LED fixtures (
Could you expand on that? What's "the door problem"? Can you give an example of an asymmetrical two post? I'm planning to install a two post alongside my four post in the new shop but I've never actually used one.
Also, about overhead light; I've mounted my upper lighting on the walls slightly above the top of the lift using downward pointing LED fixtures (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1), 3 per side, to reduce stark shadowing under the car, it works pretty well compared with ceiling mounted lights.
A 2 post lift is what you need if you intend to work on the car having good access to the underbody. My lift has a fluorescent lamp mounted on each post.
What lift is that???
Ok, guess I'll share my details since I got called out in the original post (that's my car)
First off, don't get too caught up on brand names unless you are buying a Rotary or one of the other professional brands. Many of the lifts are the same re-labelled for different companies. The "Rotary Revolution" is just a re-labelled Direct Lift and in many markets more money. Rotary bought out Direct Life several years ago.
After two months and dozens of phone calls, I settled on the lift based on the person selling it. Every other shop I called had to make phone calls to the ware house, determine shipping expenses (to their site, not mine) and other hassles since they didn't keep much in stock. Through sheer luck I discovered a lift re-seller 30 miles from my house (not sure how I missed him in my research, he needs to work on his marketing) with over $100,000 in inventory in stock at all times. Five lifts on display and based on other local people who've worked with him, assistance with installation if needed. He's installed quite a few of his products so a couple times I was puzzled, he was quick to help over the phone (I never expected him to come over for free though, and thankfully that wasn't needed).
He also has a two person team if installation is needed for around $500.
Installation isn't difficult, but very heavy so plan on having 4 strong people. We made do with three and a cherry picker.
Next challenge was the garage door. As you can see in my photo the opener is very close and the garage door handle is less than 1" off the hood when opening. My plan was to install a high lift kit and Liftmaster jack-shaft style opener. Just like my saga finding a lift supplier, local garage door companies were baffled with the ides of installing a high lift kit. The one place familiar with the process quoted me $1,300 with the opener and is booked out several months.
They were very helpful and I plan to use them again with my other door. One thing to note, if you need a new spring shaft (most will not) opt to source a one piece locally versus the two piece they supply.
They come in less power models too, I prefer the white light from the LED's over the florescent and plan to slowly convert over. As for lights under the lift, haven't gotten that far yet.
Current setup with the garage door modified and new opener. I still have to clean-up the wiring, angle iron, and install new ceiling receptacles in the attic for the opener.
Could you expand on that? What's "the door problem"? Can you give an example of an asymmetrical two post? I'm planning to install a two post alongside my four post in the new shop but I've never actually used one. ...
You pull into such a lift so that your mirror is roughly aligned with the column. That means you can swing your door as wide as you wish to get out, and it's far more convenient when access to the car is needed when you're working on it; for example, pulling the hood release. The forward lift arms are shorter than the aft arms, hence the term "asymmetrical".
Here's a product idea: a spray can of temporary white stuff. You spray the things you're working on underneath the car, so you don't have the oily-black-on-greasy-black visibility problem. Some sort of water soluble white paint?
Thanks, that answers several other questions I had, especially required concrete slab thickness (4" min.), I poured the new shop with 6" steel re-enforced concrete. One thing about the 4 posts I like is they don't need to be bolted into the concrete so they "float" during an earthquake. Being in central California I've always been a bit edgy about 2 posts so I'm probably still going to need some more re-assurance. The transmission shop I use has about 6 two post overhead style lifts and they aren't worried about earthquakes so I suppose they've been convinced, I just need to know what convinced them...
First off, don't get too caught up on brand names unless you are buying a Rotary or one of the other professional brands. Many of the lifts are the same re-labelled for different companies. The "Rotary Revolution" is just a re-labelled Direct Lift and in many markets more money. Rotary bought out Direct Life several years ago.
Good info Hacker. The Backyard Buddy 4-post I have is different construction than all other 4-post lifts. Maybe this one falls into your "one of the other professional brands" comment, but to my knowledge, it's the only 4-post lift that uses closed uprights and closed.ramp attachments that ride on those uprights. All other 4-post lifts I've seen use an open channel vertical upright, and is the reason I bought the Backyard Buddy, that and they were willing to customize it for me. Was it a lot more expensive yes, but I had a very specific use case with a lot of requirements and I liked the way the lift locks and the safety catch setup. In the event of a cable or lock failure, where the furthest one corner could fall was to the next notch
Good info Hacker. The Backyard Buddy 4-post I have is different construction than all other 4-post lifts. Maybe this one falls into your "one of the other professional brands" comment, but to my knowledge, it's the only 4-post lift that uses closed uprights and closed.ramp attachments that ride on those uprights. All other 4-post lifts I've seen use an open channel vertical upright, and is the reason I bought the Backyard Buddy, that and they were willing to customize it for me. Was it a lot more expensive yes, but I had a very specific use case with a lot of requirements and I liked the way the lift locks and the safety catch setup. In the event of a cable or lock failure, where the furthest one corner could fall was to the next notch
Maybe I shouldn't have used the word professional, but wasn't sure how to put it. I know people who spent double the money on a Rotary just because of the perception of quality with added cost. For the average hobbiest, it's a waste of money IMO.
Just saying don't get too caught up with brand names since there is some re-labeling going on. The backyard buddy is a great unit, friend of mine has one. The reason why I like the open hangers is adjustability. With some more tweaking I should be able to gain another 2 inches or so in lifting height before the 79 gets crushed. At first I wasn't too sold on the design until I visited the Porsche dealer and saw their 4-post lift for doing alignments was the same design (different brand).
The only reason why I went with the XL version of this lift is lifting height. Even-though I cannot go all the way up with a car installed, empty it goes high enough to park my Yukon underneath it. Someday I plan to install re-engineered trusses to gain another couple of feet of lift.
In Europe we have the usual Chinese stuff and the Danish company Stenhöj. I have a 2-post lift made by Stenhöj also used in all Volvo dealer workshops around the country.
Åke https://www.autopstenhoj.com/en/maestro-35-981.html
Last edited by Strosek Ultra; 12-10-2018 at 06:56 AM.
12-08-2018, 12:11 PM
