Anyone Using a Hoist to Increase Parking?

[ol' yeller]

After responding to the "Other Side of the Garage" post, I got to thinking about my storage situation. Are there any members out there who currently use a car hoist (like the Backyard Buddy) to increase storage in their garage? I have almost a 12' ceiling in my garage which should allow storage of 2 cars on one side of the garage. Are there any pitfalls to consider? It seems like this might be a good solution for about $3,000. I'd appreciate your thoughts and comments.

[Guest]

My father, one of the BCA Reatta Technical Advisors, has two car hoist. They are of the drive on type as opposed to the type with the arms that swing under the car. If you have the ceiling clearance and the width of about eight feet, they are great. The drive on clearance is close and they take a minute or so to raise or lower, but they will double the car storage capacity.<P>My father and I have changed the transmission and final drive on his 1979 Riviera and just changed the half shaft on his 1966 Toronano using the lift. It affords great under the center of the car access, although the tires/wheels are still hard to get to. He has a sliding cross member that can be slid fore and aft and used with a bottle jack to support the vehicle from underneath.<P>If you have the clearance and under 3000 dollars, the four post electric/hydraulic lifts are great. Sure beats crawling under old cars, especially when you have old bones.<BR>

[Barney Eaton]

I have a two post unit I purchased as salvage from a repair shop being remoldeled into an office building. I was able to get this 7000# rated unit for $1500.<P>While looking into units, I was advised by one person that the four post type are harder to set-up because all four post must be parallel or you can get binding. Other things to consider is your ceiling heigth.<BR>Width of garage is important also, if you install one on one side of the garage, will you have room remaining on the other side for a car. My two post unit is about 9 feet, outside to outside.<BR>Another consideration is the type of work you plan on doing... a two post will need a third support if you plan on dropping rear ends or transmissions and there is a major reduction in the weight distribution.<BR>The four post are all (I believe) drive on units and that makes it difficult to remove a rear end. The four post also are at the extreme ends of the unit and can sometime be in the way. <BR>If you have a good size garage I highly recommend a lift.

[Guest Stan Leslie]

I have a four post lift (Eagle) and have been very happy with it. Use it primarily for storage but also useful for many repairs. Can use cross beam and bottle jacks for other repairs, as mentioned earlier. Most kinds are basically the same design using one hydraulic cylinder with cables to each corner. Most are scaled down somewhat from the commercial models to better fit in a home garage. Will need to rework garage door track in most cases to clear upper car and will need a 9-10 foot ceiling minimum to accomodate. I have a 15 foot ceiling, so I just reworked my door to go straight up, which seemed easier. If you take this approach you should add a second (redundant) door spring for safety purposes.