Will it Lift?

 Yep, that seam in the slab, even if it just a cut for crack relief is the issue.  Its not a game ender, just takes more work.

using an asymmetric lift will allow you to move the towers off center a bit to get away from seams etc if inches count. Thats what I did. Also, the fact that I'm lifting 3500lb sports cars not 8000lb crewcab trucks makes me a little better about my 4" floor even though its within the spec of the manufacturer. 

How wide is the garage? My Challenger EL10 2 post is 11 feet wide overall. How far is it from the floor to that big beam in the ceiling? Whats above the ceiling? (attic space, living space). You can swap the door opener for a wall mount pretty easy, and the car will be lifted between the door tracks. Downside is the door must be closed when using the lift.

A 4 post will go most anywhere with less requirements for the floor, but once you buy bridge jacks etc they cost more than a 2 post and take up a lot of space.

In reply to Jaynen :

For all our talk of slab thickness, it's really not that big an issue.

A day with a demo saw and a jackhammer plus a little bit of concrete, and the whole thing is fixed.

I recently bought a high lift kit from DDM at the recommendation of the forum, and it went smoothly.  I’m confident i could buy the bits and make it work myself but for what they charge it’s not worth the hassle

docwyte said:

ShawnG said:

Considering that most home automotive work other than oil changes is wheel / tire / suspension stuff, a 4-post is likely going to be getting in the way more than it is useful.

A bridge jack can help a bit but I'd rather have a two-post. 

Disagree here.  I have a 4 post lift with bridge jacks and I use it all the time for wheels off work.  It's works really well and is easy to use.  Drive on, lift the car, drive off.  Simple.  Plus it's fabulous for storage, it fits better in a home garage and works just fine with the garage floor depth.

Do the lift "runners" get in the way? The bridge jack seems like it costs more than half the price of the lift is that usual?

I mean, do I need to fit 2 cars no, but I will get way more acceptance from the wife if she can still have a car in there, I don't mind parking in the driveway as much. Above the garage is living area. The ceiling in the garage is quite tall probably over 15 ft?

Looks like the garage is 22.2 wide 25.6 deep. There are steps and a small landing going into a mudroom off the kitchen

In my personal opinion, yes, the runways get in the way.

You can park under a 2-post.

in the shop we have 6 8000lb Rotary 4-posts, a 10,000lb Rotary 2-post and a 12,000lb Rotary 2-post. Two of the 4-post lifts are equipped with a rolling bridge jack and a bridge beam for jackstands each. The majority of work gets done on the 2-post lifts and the 4-post units are mostly for storage.

After a while, having to step over the runways or having the runways be in the way of whatever you're working on starts to get old.

A 2-post lift is also great for removing the body from the frame if that's something you might find yourself doing.

That being said, some lift is better than no lift at all.

Having a garage that I can leave a car in parts in while wife can still park will be an improvement even if I have no lift :)

Jaynen said:

 

Looks like the garage is 22.2 wide 25.6 deep. There are steps and a small landing going into a mudroom off the kitchen

That's a nice combination of deep with tall ceilings. You could buy some surplus pallet shelving (like the kind used by stores like home depot) and make yourself all the shelf storage you could ever want at one end with the flat surface at top serving as a small storage loft.

The house has a huge walk in attic so all the things my wife used to store in the garage hopefully won't be there :P

At 22.2' wide, I'd be concerned about the width of a 2-post.  Even with one post fairly close to the wall, the other post will encroach into the 2nd parking bay.

Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have a 2-post and if I could have a garage bay dedicated to "car work" then I'd have one.  But in a multi-purpose garage where you aren't working on a car every day they just require too many compromises during the other 95% of the year I wouldn't be using it.  

I agree any lift is better than no lift at all (I do have two of them), but now having owned at least one lift for over 10 years, I can honestly say that being able to stand under the car is a feature some people put too high a priority on.  I don't really miss not being able to with my scissor lifts.  

In reply to Ian F :

Man that's good to hear!

(I had a 2 post, and am considering a scissor)

In reply to SVreX :

I'm not saying you won't miss the 2-post. You definitely will at times. But I still say it's a matter of compromises and priorities. 

Ian F said:

At 22.2' wide, I'd be concerned about the width of a 2-post.  Even with one post fairly close to the wall, the other post will encroach into the 2nd parking bay.

Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have a 2-post and if I could have a garage bay dedicated to "car work" then I'd have one.  But in a multi-purpose garage where you aren't working on a car every day they just require too many compromises during the other 95% of the year I wouldn't be using it.  

I agree any lift is better than no lift at all (I do have two of them), but now having owned at least one lift for over 10 years, I can honestly say that being able to stand under the car is a feature some people put too high a priority on.  I don't really miss not being able to with my scissor lifts.  

I don't think I will be doing much middle of the car underneath it type work but being able to have it higher than jackstand level would be nice for not having to lay on the ground. I have a friend who really likes his quick jacks but not sure how high those go

In reply to Jaynen :

My ex- has Quick Jacks.  She really likes them for her modern cars, (her ND, '18 VW wagon and R53), but it she found it doesn't work for her classic cars (the lift is designed to lift the car by unibody pinch-welds and things get iffy if those welds aren't the lowest part of the car near the edge). But on the plus side, when she's not using it, it sits on casters and slides under the work bench, out of the way.  Which is really nice. She didn't like how my scissor lift marred the concrete when I had it there (while crack-free, her garage floor is prone to marring). After she spent a lot of effort and money epoxy-painting it, she's picky about it (the second lift I bought I originally sent to her). The scissor lift doesn't seem to do anything to the floor in my garage.  She is prone to a bad back, so she likes the lift for detailing her cars (her true passion). The quick jack gets them high enough to make that task require less bending over.  

Yeah some of these BendPack Scissor with center access seem pretty cool

https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/mid-rise-scissor-lifts/mds-6lp/

In reply to Jaynen :

That is a nice one. Even better would be cutting the slab and recessing it so it's really out-of-sight, out-of-mind when not being used. 

I have two of these. https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/mid-rise-scissor-lifts/md-6xp/

I like the portability - to work on my minivan I will roll one of them out into my driveway. 

One of my many home/garage projects is to build up my garage floor so the lifts are recessed but with a lift out section so I can still roll the front one outside when needed.  Unless I can rework my garage in such a way that I can work on the van inside. 

I saw that one, I guess it looked less stable to me but no less so than jackstands, no issues with going under low cars? I think lifting my excursion might be a bit heavy for one of those but it would be fine for the miata, seems like it lifts a bit higher than a quickjack which is nice

It goes to 4', which has been fine for most tasks I've done.   It does seem like it would be inherently less stable, but even with the minivan in the air it feels stable.  Drive-over clearance with low cars is an issue. I have a pair of 4x12 ramps I use for clearance. That is one of the reasons why I want to raise the floor - to effectively recess the lift to clear the sports cars. 

I have some boards in my enclosed trailer I could use for that, 4' seems plenty high how tall is it when its down?

Mostly about 4", although a few bits stick up higher.  This is just low enough so the minivan will clear it for parking, the van is just a bit too low to allow getting the lift pads in place under the lifting points.  That said, this can be a problem with some 2-post lifts as well.  The less expensive models can have "fat" arms that won't go under low cars with the pads in place.  If you ever watch the GRM Live show on FB, I've noticed JG has had to pre-lift some of the cars to get enough clearance (usually done prior to the show, but you can see the pads sometimes).

ShawnG said:

In my personal opinion, yes, the runways get in the way.

I would say they *occasionally* get in the way -- when you want to access something which is recessed on the bottom of the car within 6-10 inches of the edge.  That's not a common place for parts, the only job I can think of where it's really been annoying is the OEM muffler on my M3.  Most of the time I don't even notice them except as a place to set tools.

That said, a 2-post lift will let you lift a body off a subframe which is a trick that a 4-post lift just can't do.

Ideally you want a 4-post AND a 2-post.  They both have their advantages.  We usually don't have space/funding for both.

I chose a 2-post for my shop because I am not always using the lift, and I didn't want to be tripping over the the thing when I'm doing other stuff.  A 4-post takes up a fair size footprint, my 2-post really only takes up a post and arms on either side.  I also put my lift further into the shop so I could have both car doors open without hitting the lift posts, and still close the roll-up door. 

A 4-post would make doing alignments SO much easier.

If I had an actual shop I would probably design it with the lift in mind, but just being the garage attached to the house and not only my play space I probably have to compromise