Auto lift recommendations

[BobDixon]

I'm so excited. My wife is letting me get a lift for my garage :D Now all I have to do is find one. I'm probably going to go for a 4 post since it will mostly be for storing a project car.

Since there seems to be numerous lift companies all saying how everyone else sucks, I was wondering if you guys have recommendations on who to stay away from or who has a good lift for the money. The Backyard Buddy seems to be a nice and sturdy lift but they are over 4K.

Thanks,
Bob

[SalineCO5]

After a bit of research, I went with the SR-7HN from superlifts.com. I got a package deal from them that included drip trays, aluminum ramps, jack bridges, and caster kit for around $4K.

Yes, you can get lifts for half that price, but they are made in China. I don't trust Chinese steel (it is generally "weaker" than American) and I don't trust their welding. The lift I bought is made in Missouri. My neighbor bought a China made one around the same time and it has worked well for him so far (They look similar, haven't really scrutinized his to see any differences).

Some things to consider:
Before ordering - MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE. Make sure it will fit, take into account the base plate sizes, heights of the columns, max height of the lift, space between the ramps (so you can work on the car)... I went with the narrow lift so it fit just right into my garage. So far I have put a range of vehicles from my mustang to a Chevy Silverado extended cab on it. The Chevy just barely fit length wise, mirrors had to be folded in to fit the width.
Shipping: Freight shipment delivery to a dock is required. I ended up having the lift dropped off at a business in Gunbarrel that was nice enough to accomodate me. Gave the dock manager $$ for the inconvenience, and it ended up being a major one for them. They really didn't have anything that could easily move the lift off the truck and onto my car trailer.
Weight: The ramps are extremely heavy, especially the one with the hydraulics on it. Expect some scratches during shipping. They also forgot to send the wheels for my caster kit, but they got them to me in 2 days.
Install: Straight forward except I had to have a rod cut and threaded locally as I would have had to put a hole in the house to get it installed. Found from the company they would have cut it for me, but in general ship as one piece.
I got varying advice on 110v vs 220v. I went with 110v after being told that 220v would run any faster, but after placing the order was told 220v would move the lift faster. I have no idea if it would have made a difference. I do know that it dims everything else on the circuit when it starts up. Oh, other thing is that the caster kit comes in handy when after you get everything together you find you need to move it 6 inches back. Put the wheels on, give it a push, and you can put it wherever you need it.

Attached is a pic of what it looks like when it is shipped.

You are welcome to check it out if you want.

[GingerGSR]

I built a 2.5 car garage in 2004 and I bought a Bend Pac recessed "pit-lift" for it. It has a 6000 lb capacity and a 32" lift. I use 4x4 blocks to hit the lift points on my cars and to give me another 4" of lift. It has worked very well for me but I didn't need to use it to raise a car for storage (I have a 3 car carport for that).

[PaulL]

I chose a four post lift from AutoLifters for the following reasons;
- I was interested in stacking cars as much as working on them, and 4 posts are better for this than chassis lifts
- The AutoLifters design was almost identical to Backyard Buddy, in which the ramps slide up and down the posts on collars that wrap around the posts, instead of in slots. I felt more secure with this style.
- AutoLifters used American steel and was built by Americans, but although they were in business for 20+ years, they went bankrupt a year or 2 ago because they couldn't compete with the cheaper Chinese lifts.

If you plan to stack cars, I will also repeat ... MEASURE TWICE!

It's a tricky calculation figuring out if everything will fit .... the ceiling equired is something like this;
- determine height of car on bottom (such as 53")

- determine height of ramps when locked in a slot above this (the ramp locks might be at 52", 56", ", etc ... so in this case, the ramps will lock at 56", and are usually 4" think, so the upper ramp level will be at 60")

- add height of 2nd car on top (such as another 53" car)

- add about 3 more inches to be able to lift ramps above locks then set them back down (you have to raisethe ramps above their locking point, then they snap into the locks, then you can lower them a bit)

So, your ultimate clearance is;
- ramp height when above lower car: 60"
- plus height of upper car: 53"
- plus locking clearance : 3"
- Total height of ceiling required in this case is 116"

You will likely need to plan on hi-lifting the overhead garage door as well.
Most garage doors break off and roll back right at the door height. So you will need to hire someone or modify it yourself to raise it higher up the wall and break over flush against the ceiling instead.
This is also an interesting feat as the pulleys and cables and springs aren't designed for this.

[SalineCO5]

Superlifts offers a low price Chinese made lift as well as the ones they build themselves just for the same reason - hard to compete against the low cost imports.

I saw some of those "outside the post" lifts, but they were all Chinese imports. Didn't notice anyone producing them domestically.

Garage Works in Loveland was carrying the Revolution Lift (I think it is just a renamed Rotary) when I was looking this past Fall. It was more expensive and a little narrower if I remember right.

Don't forget about your garage door opener if you have one as that kills clearance. If you need an opener, go with a Dalton i-Drive. Also, you might not need to make a change to your garage door if you can raise it up enough after you get the first car into the air so that you can slide the second car in. That is what I do (but I also have 8' high garage doors which help).

[Matt Leicester]

Look at these guys. http://eagleequip.com/ We had one of their lifts when we had our shop, it was very reliable, shipped to our door, and was pretty easy to set up (we had a twin post frame lift). They have all sorts of auto equipment, and the prices seemed reasonable, at least ten years ago...

Matt Leicester