DutchGT3

I live in the SF Bay Area and am getting a BendPak 4-post lift for my new .2 GT3 for two reasons:
- Need to park 3 cars in a standard 2-car garage
- Want to perform different jobs (oil changes, brake pad changes, muffler bypass etc) on the GT3 myself

When installing the BendPak lift you have to choose between bolting the posts to the concrete floor or going with an optional caster kit that let's you move the lift around inside your garage. Given that I have the floor area of a standard 2-car garage, the lift has to be placed on one side of the garage. If I bolt it down and want to change my brake pads I have to put the car on the lift facing forward, perform the pad changes on one side, put the car on the lift facing rearward and then perform the pad changes on the other side. So obviously I'm leaning towards going with the caster kit and moving the lift to the middle of my garage when I want to do work on the car.

Somewhere in the lift paperwork it talks about seismic safety and that got me thinking about whether in the case of an earthquake I'll be better of with a lift that is bolted down. Even in that scenario I can see pros and cons. With lots of RLs in the Bay Area and several of them having lifts I'm assuming others have gone through this thought process as well. Please let me know what you ended up doing, i.e. bolting the lift to the concrete floor yes/no or go with a caster kit while knowing that we're due for a big one.

Alan Smithee

You also have the option of not bolting it down and not installing the casters. That is what was recommended to me, what made the most sense to me from a seismic standpoint, so it's what I did (and I have no need to move it around). You will get different opinions, however. There is a lot of discussion out there on the subject.

Howydo

RobbieRob

If an earthquake hits, be more concerned if your top car is strapped down to the lift because if not, it will do damage to the cars down below when it comes off. As for bolting and not bolting you will get many different answers. If a big quake comes you would actually want the bolts to break off to allow for some movement, something absolute ridged will tear itself apart due to not having room for any movement, like bridges, they are designed for the bolts to shear off and just sit on the abutment to allow for this movement. If you keep it on casters, just have it strapped/chained down to a more permanent anchoring point and the straps/ chains will allow for the movement during a quake but it will only travel so far, then you can unstrap it and move it around when working on your cars. I deal with some seismic bracing but definitely not enough to have the proper answer. Either way you decide to go, keep the top car strapped down to the lift if you are in an earthquake area, just have one assembly moving around in your garage instead of two(the lift and the car/ both as one).

DutchGT3

Good point, will definitely look into how to best strap down the car when on the lift.

The way the BendPak caster kit works is that it is only temporarily "installed" when moving the lift. It isn't permanently in place so the decision is really to bolt down the lift or not. I'll likely go with not bolting it down and using the caster kit when wanting to move.

David Carp

I'll take a cut at this for you. I am an SE in California.

During seismic activity the earth shakes, or moves back and forth, and also up and down. The shaking is sometimes measured on the ricther scale which is a log base 10 scale. A richter 3 is ten times as vigorous as a richter 2. In general the greater the scale number the greater the ground movement.

If your 4 post lift is not anchored to your slab it will move due to the earth shaking. How much it will move is probably impossible to predict even given your exact building location, distance from a fault line, and a scale number. There are too many unknowns.

If you 4 post lift is on casters (or even without casters) it will probably move around quite a bit during periods of intense shaking. The lift (with car on top) will move until it hits something and the force of this collision could be quite significant during periods of intense seismic activity.

Given that the earth movement may include up and down accelerations the car on top of the lift might move off the wheel supports and fall, as was noted above.

Codes for buildings, non building structures, and building components are required to be anchored adequately to resist all seismic forces. It is not acceptable to let an object move about inside a building. I have designed anchorages in hospitals for light weight flat screen TV's, computer battery back ups, kitchen appliances etc. just to give you and example of how small and light weight components are treated.

I have also designed anchorages for 2 post lifts for school shops. I can tell you that none of the 2 post lift mfg's recommendations for anchorage are even close to adequate. Not to start a discussion that will lead to acrimony; but if you have a two post lift I would lower it when not in use and be ready to get out from under it if you use it in earthquake country unless you get a design for the supporting slab and slab attachment.

I am unaware of any bridge or other structures, non building structures, building elements and components, that includes allowing bolts to fail in shear. There are some structures that are designed to accommodate building movement. I have only seen these on high rise buildings and these installations are rare.

montoya

mooty

^ LOL most impressive

Mussl Kar

I have 2 standard Bendpak HD9s and 1 castor kit. They do not recommend moving the lift around with a car on it, but I think it can be done. RTFM. The other thing is that the lift needs to be down to use the castors. The weight of the deck platform pushes down on the castor lever and that raises the legs off the floor. The lever MUST be fully horizontal to move the lift and my experience is that I needed to stand at each corner for a while for that to happen. Otherwise the castor plate will be at an angle and not swivel at all. Moving the assembly takes a bit of muscle but not too bad. Best with two people because it is not so easy to get it to go where you want.

4pipes

gimp2x

i have a caster kit I will sell you, mine is now bolted so I have no use for it, something to consider is that if your driveway is anything but flat, when you back the car off the lift and tap the brakes, it will pull the entire lift forward the garage door exit, scary when it happens

that's why mine is bolted now, these casters are huge and in my way, someone buy them!