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car lift

2K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  Redtruck-VA 
#1 ·
Looking for some wisdom here, my new house is currently being built and I have a 2000 square foot workshop cellar underneath the house. Building regulations state that I can't have a sloped driveway into the cellar so that only leave me with a lift to get the car in.

My plan is to use a 4 post lift which I can use to transport cars to the cellar but also to work on my truck when needed. Problem is that a regular heigth 4 post lift costs about 2000$, but they only lift about 70 inch, the lift I need has to be able to lift 120" for me to safely and easily get the car from ground level to cellar level. The prices however for a 120" lift triple or nearly quadruple unfortunately.

I don't really know how 4 post lifts work, so therefore my question here, would it be possible to extend a normal 4 post lift from 70 to 120"? Extending the legs themselves would be the easy part, it's the lifting mechanism I'm worried about?

Open to any and all ideas!!

Under construction :)



 
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#2 ·
Wow, that looks really nice Cristof! I can see not having a sloped driveway into the cellar, water would be absolutely impossible to keep out. Here in the hills of Iowa, houses with basement or cellar garages are built on hills and have level drives into them usually on the backside lol The drive either goes around the house or there's alley access. It will be tough to get another 50" out of a lift like that. Are you looking at lifts with electric or hydraulic jacks? Are there regulations against building your own lift?
 
#3 ·
I might not live in the land of the free, but I do live in the land of no (or very few :)) lawyers, so no regulations about building your own lift for personal use :)

Type of lift I'm looking at since it seems the easiest to cheaply but safely extend is the electrohydraulic system that works with a hydraulic ram in combination with cables an pulleys.
 
#7 ·
:popcorn::popcorn:
 
#8 ·
At work my 4 post lift is a hydraulic ram that pushed out pulling cables thru a pulley system. It lifts 72" high which is normally fine for most things. Since you need to go so far maybe extending the stuff would work but it will
Make it not as strong ESP the cable ram part. Not saying it can't be done but possibly not as safe. Buying a ready made lift is likely
The smarter thing in this Instance just saying. Or is it possible to put the lift on a 2' raised pad and use a ramp to drive onto lift vs buying a correct lift.
 
#9 ·
I have to say at first I also thought this, but the more I looked into it and realised how simple the lifting system is the more I see this as a project I can safely do myself, it would probably be even safer than buying a chinese lift.

Plan is to buy a second hand quality (ie domestic made) and lengthen the posts, I'm a welder, will overdimension the extensions, will put doubler plates over the weld, I'm positive this will cause no problems, will also lengthen the safety latch bars, so that the safety system works over the full 120" range of the lift.

For the hydraulic side, doing the cables in double shear will effectively double the forces on the ram cables and pulleys, so all will be updated to that rating + some overdimensioning, also the mounting plates for everything will be strengthened. Even with buying all these new parts I'll probably still be able to do it for half the price of buying some chinese lift.

Now if I can only keep all the oil seals in place and prevent the lift from seizing all will be well :D:D
 
#10 ·
Got lucky today, bought a 3mtr high 4 post lift for 1/4th of the new price at an auction today! No more laying on the driveway when working on the truck :).





 
#13 ·
Man that is going to be so freaking awesome! :dance::dance::thumb::thumb:
 
#15 ·
Fantastic! Problem solved :thumb:
 
#16 ·
Good find, now you don't have to move the family down stairs and have the garage on the ground floor. lol
 
#17 ·
It's home, the hemi @ work and looking good doing it:D:D



Don't mind the front bumper, had a fight with a sidewalk and the sidewalk won :sad::sad:

 
#19 ·
:thumb::thumb::dance:
 
#20 ·
That is going to be very cool..
 
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