Finally bought a lift

[CTScott]

I've been thinking about buying a lift for over a year now. A couple of years ago we built an addition on our house that gave me a 1320 sq ft garage, which I designed with enough headroom for a lift. I designed the garage with clear span, where there are no posts or beams in the way. Because I was building the addition between the house and an existing studio building, I was limited in width to 30 feet (which makes for two nice wide bays facing the road), but it is 2-3 cars deep. I added a third garage door, centered on the back to make the depth a bit more useful.

I was all set to buy a relatively inexpensive ($1500) two post lift, and then a friend of mine showed me a video of that exact lift being tested and failing at far less than the lift's rated capacity. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLUjq6ijvVc

So, it was back to doing research and trying to find another lift that would fit, as my ceiling is just over 9 1/2 feet high, but all of the decent lifts needed 10 feet or more. After reading all positive reviews and talking with a couple of owners, I ended up deciding to go with the DanMar Max-Jax two post lift. It was $1999 from Northern Tool (with free shipping). I installed it on Friday evening. Drilling the ten 7/8" holes in my garage floor was bear, as I spec'd 5000 PSI concrete when I designed the garage. The lift is portable, where the two hydraulic lines have quick disconnects and the posts can be unbolted and rolled out of the way (although I plan on leaving it permanently mounted). I centered it on the rear garage door, so I can either pull a car into it from one of the front bays, or drive around the back of the garage to it.

The maximum lift height is 53". With the height of the ceiling in my garage, I can lift a Yaris liftback that height with 1/2" of clearance to the ceiling.

Here are some pictures of Crashy's first ride on it:

Lift1.jpg
Lift2.jpg
Lift3.jpg
Lift4.jpg