Anyone ever had a tire rack break or fall off the wall?

I am seriously trying to maximize space in my garage.  I have one tire rack hung, but it is in a spot where it would do minimal damage to a car if it collapsed.  It's an amazon best seller, so I don't think it is best quality.  I'd love to hang two more, but if they failed they would damage a car for sure.

Have I just over analyzed this, or is it a lifetime of seeing "things" happen?

I have two of those racks hung on the back wall of my garage, and if either of them would fail, the hood and/or windshield of a car is probably getting smashed. For my own peace of mind, I put some big lag eye bolts into the rafters and got a length of vinyl coated wire rope to run through the wheels and the eye bolts, secured by a carabiner. That setup should have enough load capacity to hold for a while if the rack were to fail, but I haven't load tested it, and of course, the racks have never failed.

FWIW, Tire Rack sells a tire rack. 

Pic of the Tire Rack tire rack. 

I almost did. Homemade wooden rack, I missed one rafter with the lags. Went along side the rafter, and everything seemed secure. Till one day I noticed it pulling down the OSB sheeting.

If you can get up into the attic, I might suggest drilling up through the center of  the rafter and using bolts with washers and locknut.

I have the Tire Rack rack in my garage. Been hanging there for 14 years with 4 225-17" wheels on it. If it falls it wont be pretty.....

Who makes that for Tire Rack so I can buy one without the middleman?

Lumber isn't THAT expensive.

I made this out of scraps.  Just make sure you catch studs.  Mine is also anchored to joists in the ceiling above.

Thanks guys.

I'll just double bolt and secure it.  I have one less car and more tires than ever.  SWMBO wants more room in the basement, so the winter tires are banished to the garage.

No lie - pulled my Viper out of the garage and not less than 30 seconds later my wooden tire rack twisted a bit and a spare wheel off my Land Cruiser hit the ground.  Would have really messed up my Viper.

After that I did two things - reinforced the rack a bit and strung a cable through all the wheels and then through an eye in the ceiling.  Belts and suspenders sure.  But also cheap insurance.

I built mine.

Appleseed said:

I almost did. Homemade wooden rack, I missed one rafter with the lags. Went along side the rafter, and everything seemed secure. Till one day I noticed it pulling down the OSB sheeting.

If you can get up into the attic, I might suggest drilling up through the center of  the rafter and using bolts with washers and locknut.

 Be careful drilling holes all of the way through rafter or truss bottom chords. A 1/2" hole will be removing 1/3 of the wood of that member and after a snowstorm or other event could really wreck your day. Better to put a long 4x4 or double 2x4's spanning several rafters above and resting on the bottom chords in the attic and bolt through that letting the rafters just hold everything up. :)

I had two of them over my garage door before I chanded it for high lift. Worked great with street wheels/tires. I did have an issue with slicks that would go flat would fall through it (big tire little wheel). Was an unpleasant surprise one day but luckily nothing was under it at the time.

APEowner said:

I built mine.

 

That's a really good spot. Will check to see if I can steal your idea!

Datsun310Guy said:

I did have one of these break that had a box of tiles on it. 

The damage was not pretty on a brand spanking new car. I still shudder when I see them. 

The two tire racks I have have been fine for the last 10 years though. I bought them from The Tire Rack and they are bolted to a cinder block wall. 

I have one that looks virtually identical to the Tire Rack tire rack. One of the "feet" in the bottom corner of the rack pushed in the drywall and made a hole about 8 inches by 12 inches in the wall. The feet on mine were a smaller diameter than the Tire Rack tire rack, so put more pressure on the contact point. I ended up lag bolting a sheet of 3/4" plywood to the wall, then lag bolted the rack through the sheet into the studs. Something to be aware of when buying and mounting a rack.

Here's a picture of my belt and suspenders:

The cable thing is genius