ron in sc
Well-known member
Anyone make parking lift adapters that support the car by its wheels and which will fit a tow post lif?
Like photo below:
Like photo below:
Parking lift adapters for 2 post lift?
- Thread starter ron in sc
- Start date
jmait769
Well-known member
Mohawk has them: http://www.mohawklifts.com/wp/pr/product-pictures/specialty-items/tire-engage-adaptors/ Not sure how much.
Jay
Jay
I was thinking that someone with a CNC machine and some design and egineering experience could make them. I would think they would not be priced below $1500, based on the fact that the person who made a few of the ones I showed in photo were closer to $2000. He just made a few for some friend or something and he does not plan on making any more as far as I've been able to determine.
Slackerzinc
Well-known member
Wow, If they where cheaper I would seriously consider a 2 post over a 4 post!
Jagmandave
Well-known member
What would you consider the advantage is of those as compared to supporting the car on it's jack points on the lift in the normal way?
metaleltr
Well-known member
There are several schools of thought that say long term storage with the suspension hanging is bad for bushings so they should be kept at ride at when ever possible. These people also tend to say that the bolts going through said bushing should be torqued at ride height.
HMCFab9
Well-known member
I've also heard that you are not supposed to support a car long term with the susp at full droop. I also don't think it's good to have all the weight ON the suspension all the time either (if in storage / non-moving)
From my experience, my cars ride better in summer (they are stored half the year, as i'm in Wisconsin) if the suspension is unloaded during storage.
Ideally, you'd have Some weight on the suspension, but the majority on the stands (frame) When I store mine, I built my own stands that sit so that the suspension droops some, but there is still weight on the springs.
The adaptors for the lift you show look nice, but i'd think they may flat spot the tires in those places where the bars hold the tires.
If you go that route, i'd think any good metal fab shop could make those adaptors out of steel. They don't necessarily need to be fancy & milled out of billet aluminum. I'd make my own if I had a need for them.
From my experience, my cars ride better in summer (they are stored half the year, as i'm in Wisconsin) if the suspension is unloaded during storage.
Ideally, you'd have Some weight on the suspension, but the majority on the stands (frame) When I store mine, I built my own stands that sit so that the suspension droops some, but there is still weight on the springs.
The adaptors for the lift you show look nice, but i'd think they may flat spot the tires in those places where the bars hold the tires.
If you go that route, i'd think any good metal fab shop could make those adaptors out of steel. They don't necessarily need to be fancy & milled out of billet aluminum. I'd make my own if I had a need for them.
pmiranda
Well-known member
$1500 is cheaper than a 4-post... especially if you only have room for one lift.
Heck, even if you have room for a 4-post, if you're only using it for maintenance (adjusting sway bars w/ weight on the wheels vs. doing brakes w/ the tire off) I like the idea of having the free space. Best of both worlds.
Heck, even if you have room for a 4-post, if you're only using it for maintenance (adjusting sway bars w/ weight on the wheels vs. doing brakes w/ the tire off) I like the idea of having the free space. Best of both worlds.
My concern with using a 2 post lift for storage would be leaking.... All of my cars drip something (they are all at least 40 years old). - When I had a 4 post lift, I used drip trays to catch it....nowhere to do that with a 2 post, right?
I like the 4-post for drip trays (I have Porsches and if they stop dripping oil, that means they are empty). For me the 4-post works best since I do mostly storage and can get a bridge jack for future work when I'm putting my car back together.
But I do have a friend that made his own drive-on ramps for long term storage on his 2-post lift. He has some serious skill and probably made them for ~$50 in materials. (see first picture, hopefully he doesn't mind me posting the picture)
Also have another 356 friend that made drive-on ramps with loading ramps for a trailer. Just bolted them down to his lift arms and was good to go....even rigged up a drip-tray holder. (see second picture)
But I do have a friend that made his own drive-on ramps for long term storage on his 2-post lift. He has some serious skill and probably made them for ~$50 in materials. (see first picture, hopefully he doesn't mind me posting the picture)
Also have another 356 friend that made drive-on ramps with loading ramps for a trailer. Just bolted them down to his lift arms and was good to go....even rigged up a drip-tray holder. (see second picture)
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My rationale is that it seems you would wind up with flat spots in your tires. I agree with others that storing from the frame is no good for the suspension. It seems the best option would be something that supported the car the same way it would be supported on the ground.
Edit: Whoops, just saw HMCFab9 beat me to it!
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curly8888
Member
not sure if anyone mentioned this but if you use the fork support on the tires for your lift with long tern storage you could end up with square tires
my neighbor had a truck on his tow truck forks for only two weeks and and ended up with indents in the tires took about 50 k to round them out again
my neighbor had a truck on his tow truck forks for only two weeks and and ended up with indents in the tires took about 50 k to round them out again
casetractorfarmer
Well-known member
Now could u use these for every day use looks like it would be easyer and quicker to set up
metaleltr
Well-known member
Yes it would, so long as you didn't need the suspension hanging free.
mikeyr
Well-known member
Why dont you ask the guy with the one in your picture ?
Here are more pictures and his contact info (you may have to register to see the pics)
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142010957-post15.html
Mike
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rnscustom
Well-known member
Glad it was brought up , havnt seen this . I'm not sure the arms would spread out far enough for a regular car ( impala's , gto's ) but maybe , slso seems like it would be hard to spice everything just right to drive the car on ( am I thinking wrong ) . Why not just make two troughs just like a 4 post and mount those to the arms . Also a good solution to the low to the ground cars
rnscustom
Well-known member
Probably a lot cheaper to make
sberry
Banned
I believe they have a bit of weight rating due to twist? They certainly could be built out of steel simpler, all welded from common stock materials.
Contrary to belief many/most bushings and pieces of steel are not living things with feelings. If there is a factory service memo on it then there is probably reason to worry about how its stored. Tires get stored on flat spots all the time. Cant help but to take the weight off of those.
People seem to believe there is some perfect way or thing and there has mystery **** in it, 4 wheel drives, engine oil etc. In most cases unloading a spring, taking weight off is a good thing.
We got people here believe their engines will blow up if they change the oil cold. A lot of car storage ideas are not much better. There are a couple things with stored that help, main one is to move it once in a while, turn the bearings, roll the tires and make sure the brakes not stuck, roll engine over.
Bearing and race pitting happens a lot from stored stuff as does parking un lubed steering. Might not be anything wrong with letting radiator pressure off and if this was valuable or worth the effort run some clean brake fluid thru.
Contrary to belief many/most bushings and pieces of steel are not living things with feelings. If there is a factory service memo on it then there is probably reason to worry about how its stored. Tires get stored on flat spots all the time. Cant help but to take the weight off of those.
People seem to believe there is some perfect way or thing and there has mystery **** in it, 4 wheel drives, engine oil etc. In most cases unloading a spring, taking weight off is a good thing.
We got people here believe their engines will blow up if they change the oil cold. A lot of car storage ideas are not much better. There are a couple things with stored that help, main one is to move it once in a while, turn the bearings, roll the tires and make sure the brakes not stuck, roll engine over.
Bearing and race pitting happens a lot from stored stuff as does parking un lubed steering. Might not be anything wrong with letting radiator pressure off and if this was valuable or worth the effort run some clean brake fluid thru.
sberry
Banned
Yes. I could see a couple light weight channels or pieces of mobile home I beam with studs/bolt on the end as working quite well and could even tack some simple plate fore and aft where the wheels run on/off.
sberry
Banned
I will rig up as needed especially for 1 off jobs, have a set of brackets for my mower as it is so routine it was well worth making them but I really do as much with the stock stuff as I can. Mostly because I got to move it all, store it all, find it again etc. We even add some lifting brackets to a couple things due to the fact it was way easier than coming up with specialized adapters we didn't need for much else.
rnscustom
Well-known member
Nice thing about the channels si you could move them in and out to fit anything without ever removing them , nice for storage too
lakeroadster
Well-known member
Some ideas here... see post #142 & #143: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=347432&highlight=lift