WackyBob

Good Morning Gentlemen,

My wife finally gave me permission to buy another toy in addition to the C7.

So that means I need to buy a parking lift because she said her car is not getting kicked out of the garage.

Here's my question. What is the best and also most economical 4 post lift to buy? I want to make sure it will run on a standard electric outlet. Also do I need to get a different kind of garage door opener or will mine still be up high enough to leave room for the lift?

The opener itself hangs 8 ft. 2 inches above the ground. The tracks for the doors are 8 ft. 4 inches from the ground.

Here's a pic of the garage ceiling:


Your help is appreciated.

proeagles

I would go with a Direct Lift 8, get the aluminum ramps, and it runs on standard electric outlet. You need at least 10 feet from the ceiling, 12 would be better and you will need to go to a side mounted door opener which will raise the doors to the ceiling for more clearance. You may get away with your current setup if you can get the lift in between the two door openers. I would put the lift on the single garage door side because the lift is quite wide and may render your two car garage unusable.

JoesC5

Are you going to place the lift in the single door space, or the double door space?

bucker2

Built a new garage a few years ago and went through the calculations you are asking about.
Using a four post you first need to see if height of garage is adequate. Take (height of car to be on ground) + 2 in (clearance ) +( height/thickness of Ramp ~4" ) +( height of car on top) + 2 in. If this number is less than ceiling height a lowest spot the cars will fit height wise. Once you pick a lift you will need to check safety lock height positions and maybe adjust up above clearance based on nearest lock height.Most post heights are in the 80" range and would fit. Biggest problem I see from you photo is with car in top position on the lift you will not be able to open you garage door all the way. You can have the tracks moved close to the ceiling to address that issue and then of course the bottom of the raised door becomes you ceiling height lowest point in doing the calc. above

I purchased an Eagle Equipment brand 4 post after 5 engineers I worked with at the time did an analysis of 6 brands and decided it was the best value for a group buy.

WackyBob

In the double space. My idea was to place the lift slightly off center so that two of the posts line up in front of the shovel hanging on the wall. That way being about an extra foot over the right will ensure the 2nd space on the 2 door is still usable. How wide are most of the lifts? I can make 9 ft 2 inches work by placing it slightly off center.

RicK T

Please be careful with your "and most economical" thinking. I'm sure you aren't thinking the way that sounds but this isn't the kind of thing to "cheap out" with. It really isn't safe to think that the car weighs 3500 pounds (about) so a 5000 pound lift sounds like it's plenty. Not the case, you should be thinking something rated at least twice what the car weighs, so like a 7000 pound lift is the smallest, "cheapest" you should consider. A great many members here actually go with a 9000 pound lift just so they know it can handle anything. Just sayin'.

Looks like you have a 10 foot ceiling so you're golden. We usually recommend getting a Liftmaster 3800 Jackshaft opener, mounts on the wall instead of the ceiling so it gets rid of that center opener track. Then get your door tracks modified to a "high lift track so the door goes up closer to the ceiling.

A couple pics to show (courtesy of C6FirstVette a few years ago):

Before:


After (same door just new high lift track and wall mounted Lift Master):


Result:
"

WackyBob

The ceiling is 10 feet 3 inches. I'm guess with the tracks raised it will probably be 9 feet 10 inches of clearance between the floor and bottom of the open garage door. The C7 is 46 inches tall. The new car will probably be 4 feet tall. That gives me 24 inches for the ramp thickness as well as the space for the lift to lock in between the cars. Generally how far apart are the locking positions? I would hope every 2 inches or so? I'm also sure it varies by lift.

WackyBob

That's EXACTLY what I'm looking for! Do you sell them? How far apart are the posts. I want to make sure the 2nd space isn't rendered useless.

Wichard

When I put in a lift at my last house I removed the door opener on one side (single side) and opened the garage manually. This saved the expense of modifying the rails and drive mechanism. My ceiling was 10'- 5" and I had no problem storing two Corvettes.

Not sure of your height but you will need some additional height over just the physical dimensions for the over travel of the lift to set it on the lift dogs plus some additional margin. Be sure to include the light in the calculation if it will be above the roof.

For safety I always check that the lift is resting on all four dogs with my finger. Also secure the lift with lag bolts in the floor.

I bought a Superior (made in USA) but unfortunately they no longer make that model as it seems all the more affordable units are now imported.

JoesC5

You're good to go. My ceiling is 10'6" and I have plenty of room. I could easily go with a 10'0" ceiling. The 56 is 50" tall and the Z06 is 49" tall.

I did extend the door tracks to get them closer to the ceiling and raised the opener. The lift is placed offset to the wall and at an angle. The opened door clears over the hood of the 56. On the 64 coupe, it clears over the rear window, but I have the lift placed 43" from the garage door.

The length of the garage also plays into the calculations. The further the lift is from the garage door, the less you have to worry about the raised door clearing the car on top. if your garage is deep enough , you may be able to install the lift and not have to rise the door tracks and motor.

The other lift has the 64 and it is 50" tall and the Mercedes is 58" tall.

My lifts were available in both 6000# and 7000# pound capacity. The two lifts were strictly the same but the 6000# lift has 110V 3/4HP motor. The 7000# lift has a 1 HP motor. I selected the 3/4 horse motor as it will run off a 15 amp circuit(14 gauge wire) and that is what I have for the garage door opener. I didn't want to run a 20 amp circuit(12 gauge wire). The only difference is that the 3/4 horse motor doesn't have as much hydraulic pressure as the 1 horse so it takes a little longer to raise the lift. Both have the same 3" diameter cylinder, so the capacity is determined by the area of the cylinder's piston times the hydraulic pressure, not by the strength of the lift itself. Generally, the lifts can support 2 times their rated capacity, so my lifts could handle a 12,000 car. You don't need over a 6000# capacity lift, but most are rated for 7000#.

I have no problem putting the wide Z06 on the lift to change the oil etc. as it is 90" between the cables. It is 92" between the posts and is 101" wide(not counting the feet). As you can see, the feet only extend past the posts by a couple of inches, but since you are not installing the lift next to a wall, it doesn't matter to you.

As you can see, I have the two lift's motors plugged into the door opener's receptacle(yellow cords) but since I only operate one at a time, there is no problem with the 15 amp circuit.

My ramps are 4 1/2" tall and 24" long and weigh 20 pounds each, made of steel. I have no problem lifting them(and I'm 73 with a bad right shoulder). I also don't have a problem driving my Z06 up them to get onto the lift.

bucker2

Locking positions on models I looked at were between 4" to 6" spacing.

JoesC5

My locking positions are every 5", but unless one is down to where every inch counts, it's not that important.

FredC7

I went with a 7,000 Eagle lift about 8 years ago. It cost me $1699.00 with free delivery. I set it up myself with a little help with the heavy ramps. I also have a 16 foot wide double door. My limiting factor was the height to the top of the opened door. I fixed that by raising the door opener, replacing the 7 ft door track with 8 ft tracks and adding another door panel on the top of the 7 foot door. That allowed the door to open properly and raised the opened door up about 16 more inches above the cars. The additional door panel made it an 8 foot high door in a 7 ft high opening. My roof slopes back so it is around 9 1/2 feet in the middle above the cars. With the opener in the middle between the cars it does not interfere so I did not have to go to a side jack type lifter.
You do not have to use the single bay for the lift but if you do then you will run into the problem of the door opener being too low over the top car.





Jag XKE on top





C6 over CTS





Acura NSX over C6 with 88 959S on the side





C5 over C6 with Ferrari F430 on the side





New C7 over new CTS with C6 in storage on the right side





Great for detailing cars

JoesC5

It's not necessary to add another panel to the door when you raise the door tracks. All you have to do is add an extension to the "L" shaped bar that connects the chain to the door.

WackyBob

Thanks for the info. A few questions.....
1) how far above the ground in the bottom of your garage door opener?

2) How far above the ground are the garage door tracks? I think you mentioned you moved them up from 7 feet to 8 feet is that right?

3) You mentioned your double door is 16 feet wide. Exactly how far apart are the posts of your lift. (not measured from inside the posts but from the outside edge so the width of the posts themselves are included in the measurement)

4) Does that Eagle lift run off a standard 110v household outlet?


Thanks in advance for your answers.
PS- nice cars!

scottsh

I can't help with the lift, but I'd just add that adding a 20amp (or larger) circuit to a garage is usually trivial if the breaker panel is in the garage. I added several both inside the drywall and outside (using conduit) for my woodworking tools and it was a piece of cake.

If you can't do it yourself, I can't imagine it would be that expensive. Meeting code is usually pretty easy too - just make sure you don't cheap out on the wire and fixtures and keep to straight runs (no splicing).

orwollma

My setup required the addition of an extra panel to the garage door and the raising of the door opener and tracks. In the second picture, you can see that the tracks and opener are lower in the stall without the lift. As one earlier post stated everything has to be measured carefully before ordering the lift. My garage had 10', 4 1/2" ceiling height, BTW.





1940 ****** street rod over our C7 and Ducati ST4s behind the Vette. Ducati 998S sits between the lift and our Yukon Denali (not shown) in the closest stall.






With the Denali, everything's a tight fit but all vehicles are enclosed.

AndyA221

Good info

HAD2HAV2

Quality Lift. I purchased all the extras.



The Hydraulic lift that is attached to the rollers of the lift.

FredC7

Yeah there have been some very nice cars in my garage. Too bad they were not all mine! The 1988 Porsche 959S sold at auction for $1.1 million. I disagree with the poster that said you do not have to add another panel when switching to an 8 ft track using a 7 ft door. If you just raise the opener it will not pull the door up even using a longer J-hook. The top of the door needs to be at the curve in the track for the door to follow the track when pulled by the opener. The curve is 15 inches higher with an 8 foot track. Just adding a longer bar will pull back but the door will not go up along the curve. I did add a longer J-Hook to a friend's door so that we could move the opener up higher, but we did not replace his tracks so he did not need another top panel.





Opener is attached to the beam above the middle of the door.

These shows the opened door right above the hood of my C7. I can fit my CTS-4 under the lift.