Check your concrete before you order that 2 post lift. I'd have needed to repour footers in my garage, as the 45 yo floor was not thick, or hard enough.

 

I bought a 2-post lift and installed it literally by myself. I’m an engineer by trade, so I did my homework and figured out what I needed to do. All lift manufacturers will have their recommendations, so definitely refer to them, but I went a little over & above that for a bit of safety.
5”-5-1/2” thick 4,000 psi concrete with rebar for the base. Each post has six 3/4” concrete anchors set 5” deep and torqued to 140 ft lbs. Hole locations are not a worry, you set the posts in place and simply drill through the base plate holes on the posts. Don’t waste your time with your 1/2” Chuck hammer drill, go rent a true impact hammer drill. It took me 1 days to drill 6 holes with my 1/2” drill and about 10 minutes to drill the other 6 with the rental.
The lift itself doesn’t have to be expensive. I got mine used from a dealership that was upgrading to 10,000 lb lifts. I had to replace the cables because I was changing the width & height of the lift, but I was still into it for less than a grand. And it is built like a battleship.
And wow, what a game changer for a guy like me. Before, I would get so tired from all the up & down, you know, roll out from under the car, get to your feet, go to the toolbox, get back down on the creeper, roll back under, then repeat because you have the wrong size. It just wore me out and made it not fun to work on my cars.
Now, if you have to go to the tool box, no prob, just duck your head a bit and walk over to the tool box.
Get the full size lift!

 

Thanks for the input and will talk with all the lift companies that usually are at Barrett Jackson next year and see if they have any event deals going on.

 

I don't trust 2 pole lifts that are only anchored to the slab. They look like they would tip over. Do I have room for a 4 pole? As much as I hate dealing with jack and jackstands, I am not seeing a good alternative for my situation.

 

When we remodeled our home I dug up a portion of our concrete slab in one area of the garage.
I found that the concrete varied from 3 1/2” thick to a little less than 3” thick.
Before I would install any 2 or 4 post lift I would cut out 14” square sections of the garage floor, dig at least 12” deep footings, add rebar and place good anchors as you pour about a six bag mix of high strength concrete.
But I’m known to over engineer and over build everything because we live in earthquake country.

 

So finally someone has mentioned MaxJax. Like OldCarBum I had to improve my 50 year old cracking garage floor. At the end of the day, you can just unbolt the posts and store them off to the side. I have lots of pix from deconstructing my car, but I'll show this one. Try this with a QuickJack! I generally leave the passenger side lift in place as it is out of the way.

 

Same with the Triumph C7000 but it doesn't included wheels. I use a hand truck to move them to the wall. All the fittings are quick release too.

 

I like the quick jack as well but when in a tight space or small garage where space is tight when not in use flat out sucks and having to bolt it to the ground every time sucks too but for a major job when you need to do repairs the quick jack would be great because the access to the sides of vehicle .

 

It seems I was not thinking ahead when I had my garage built. They specified a 4 inch slab, which means it is probably 3 inches in many cases. All 2 and 4 pole lifts require more than 4 inches to anchor into.

I looked into a quick jack and set up takes just as long as a jack with jack stands from storage. If you leave them set up on the floor, it goes faster. Also not sure if it would even work with my C3 with side pipes. They hang pretty low. Also when I jack up my C3, I support the front closer to the engine mounts to reduce flexing of the body. Maybe that is not a huge concern since most of you are lifting from the standard point behind the front wheels. I guess for now I will stick with the hassle of jack and jack stands. But one of these days, a 2 or 4 post lift would be awesome.

 

I didn't think the Quick Jack requires bolting to the ground. As long as the garage floor is flat, they are not bolted down so you can slide them into place. I watched a few videos on them. If you hang them on the wall and store them, it does take some time taking them down and getting them hooked up to use. Not any faster then a jack with jack stands. If you have room to leave them on the floor and lines hooked up, they are easier to use.

 

I have a friend with a Max Jax 2 post lift that has gotten almost constant use for about 10 years. He just recently had a seal leak but other than that he’s had all kinds of vehicles on it without issue.

 

I had a kwik-lift years ago which worked well but was a huge foot print on the floor.
Now this old fart uses Race Ramps. They have some pretty innovative designs. Recently did a trans swap with them, plenty of height.
Low approach and they seperate after car is raised to allow plenty of room to work.

 

Every 4-post lift I’ve seen does not need to be anchored. Heck, most of them offer wheel kits so you can move them out of the way when needed.

Also, there are many thousands of 2-post lifts correctly installed around the world that don’t tip over. It’s the poor installs you need to worry about.

 

I meant the maxjax needing to be bolted sorry .

 

I like the race ramps as well for service work and when I need to do something where I need to raise the rear end up its easy to get jack under .

 

I could not find this clearly explained on other posts and I know it is out there somewhere. Can I jack my 76' from the diff and front cross member to put it on 4 jack stands? I have read that doing one at a time can be tough on the frame.

 

In general, yes, but I don’t do it that way.
You could damage the front crossmember if you don’t protect it.
I jack the front first by placing my two jacks at the front frame jacking points, one on each side and jacking a little side to side, then place jack stands right next to the jacks.
I do the rear both sides together at the rear jacking points on the frame then place the jack stands.
Chock all four wheels before you start and place the transmission in first or park.

 

That’s how I always did it, no issues.

 

Yes. While you might dimple the front crossmember if you aren't careful, overall this method is much safer to both you and the car.

What I do is put the front on RaceRamps. Then lift by the diff (or a straddle-bar on the rear spring, across the exhaust), and get the rear on jackstands. Then, if I need all 4 wheels in the air, I lift by the front crossmember, only a little bit, to get the front on jackstands. Removal is the reverse.

This way, the car is never tilted, lifted by a corner, or pivoted more than a few degrees on jackstands. Below is step 1. The 2x8s under the rear wheels give me the clearance I need for the spreader bar and cheap floor jack.

 

So my front crossmember is dimpled by previous owners. How might that be repaired if even possible??