A lift and some other things

I found this place a while ago during a search for information on lifts.
I have a low ceiling in my garage at 8'2" but am having trouble getting up and down off the floor due to a long time knee injury, knee replacement, rebuild the replaced knee after Work Comp broke my knee cap testing me for fraud. And finally dealing with a now dead patella (the blood supply has been cut off) that Work Comp broke again doing the same above test 3 yrs after repairing it. Now my Dr wont go in for another surgery since the brainiacs at Work Comp says its would be a surgery to repair it and I might get better, He recomends we see how long it take for it to break then its a maintanence surgery not a fix it to get better and they can't make me do the same test again Makes a 26 yr sober guy want to toss a few back every time I think about it
Anyway I started looking for a mid-rise scissor lift, thought as long as I was getting in for as much as they are I could go in more. Found the triumph new portable 2 post lift but as I measured up things there is a major crack in my floor right where the left post has to go, scratch that idea!!!
I then started looking for a 4 post lift, thinking I wouldn't have to bend down at all, but with a 7 ft door and only being 22 ft from the door to the front wall and having a 3/4 ton dodge cummins pickup in the family, the only way to get the truck in (it has a lift and of course bigger tires) would be to let almost all the air out of the tires. So that wasn't going to work.
I found a heck of a 4 post on craiglist but it was way too big for me an open front alignment that was being updated because it would not work with the newer smaller cars. I was nice put that on the deals thread someone from here who did not want to be named saw it, bought it, and called me to say thanks and offer me a lift he happened to pick up doing construction work at a car dealership a couple hundred miles from me. He never put this hoist up as he bought it from the dealership the last day he was there without measuring his shop, it was 9 inches too high.
So to make this long story short I bought this old Rotary 2 post home and have been setting it up, the plan is to tear out the ceiling and open up the garage so I can get most things up higher. The big pickup of my son's and my suburban will probably not get over 4' high but they will get up in the air further than my end lift will take them and I can sit on my scooter.. A much better thing than laying on a creeper and having to get on and off!!

Oh I see I posted a couple pics of my crack in the floor. I do have a plan for it and the anchor's you see next to it are not wedge anchors, those are grade 5 ready rod 3/4" a full 12" long ( I only had a 12" bit for the hammer drill ) the garage has concrete block walls set on the slab and I would guess some rather large footers at the edge the hole closest to the wall is 7" from the wall and there are 8" block, a 3/4 foam insulation board, a 3/4 furring strip, and 7/16 OSB on the wall so it is about 17 inches from the edge of the concrete. I torqued the anchors down to 150 ft lbs with no problem. They must have built this garage when concrete was the same cost as fill or close to it.
here is a picture of the wall being covered this year. I did the North West and East Walls earlier this winter, ran out of money to do the South but did enough of it to set the hoist in place here is a pic of what I did to the wall

I covered up all the windows there were 2 4'X6' windows on 3 walls. I like natural light but have been to court twice in the last 6 yrs because I have a son who (poor SOB) looks just like dad other than the grey hair. Workers Comp keeps sicking private eyes on me as they think I am faking my injury yet. I still havent figured them out. LOL They take a picture of him working thru a window and its a court battle to get my benefits redone.
I can't believe what that R-4 foam board did for heat etc. the wall temp on the south wall on a -25 day is 42 the walls I had done it was usually within 1 or 2 degrees of room temp what ever I set it at that day.
I am sitting up tonight waiting for the snow to start we are supposed to get 12 to 14 inches this weekend here. Should be fun!
I move snow in the winter, cut grass in the summer as a part time job to keep from going nuts. I set the hoist the first post with the cherry picker but had to cut so much ceiling loose to get it up. The second one I decided to try my little tractor out on it stood it up outside (with the top extensions off) on the bucket and tied it down to the bucket at the bottom and the top. rolled the bucket down a little at a time and brought it back to make sure it didn't over load the loader, was able to tilt it down under the door drive it in. roll the bucket up and lift down and slide the second post in a 2X2 hole (too cold to cut all that ceiling open loose all my heat thru the holes) anchored both posts then went up in the attic and put the top on hooked up the cables and ran hydraulic line across. did a temp wire up job to test it all goes up and down. we had success and got it going

I think Spring has sprung But don't quote me on that, did a couple garden tilling jobs for people this week but it is supposed to freeze yet at night again. Did manage to get more done on the Lift, We have it up and running!!!!!!! no where near finished but usable!
here are a couple of pics of how I fixed the scary cracked concrete.

This is 1/2" X 3" X 5" X5' long angle with 1/4" X 2" X 2" angle welded to it to set over the bolts that are in the lift mounting arm which is 1/2" plate.
then 4 more anchors spread out across the 5' length which spreads the weight out and holds it all down. have lifted my 1 ton dump truck which had a load of debris from removing the ceiling (after trying with lighter loads) which weighed 11256 lbs when I took it to the dump ground. just lifted it about a foot as the truck is longer than the building just thought I would stress the **** out of it and see if things moved. It never even made the pump groan I could stop it and start it under load even. not sure if I want to put that load on things often but I am a redneck I just had to try it

Here are a pic or two of it lifting different things my boys chevy pickup, the wifes Lincoln town car, and my Kubota tractor will give more info on the mower lift attachment shortly

as a refrence I am about 6' to 6'2" depending on the time of day and how long since I flipped over on my inversion table. My son is 6'4" and I think at 23 he hasn't started to shrink during the day yet LOL

man, tight fit!

It is all tight the Garage was actually built as a one stall with a large work area and a full bath. It was originally built to build fiberglass boats in actually from what the old neighbors by me say.
there is enough room for most things actually have to worry about the garage door put a switch next to the lift so if you put something up it kills the opener, we have too many cars and trucks with openers built in that somebody could cause some bad stuff opening a door.
With the pickup nothing was closer than 8" when it was up all the way, I went into the attic and checked but the pics didn't come out (somebody has too big of a thumb).
here are a couple of my adaptor for my lawn mowers (and the kids and grandkids quads it really works great for them)
the first pics are the bottom bracket 2"X4" tubing 1/4" thick walls I drilled 3/4" in them then inserted a nut inside screwed the rod down and welded the bottom of the rod into the tubing then tightened the nut up and put a spot on that after all every thing hangs off that. The Factory lift adaptor come out pulling the pin and dropping the center pin off, the front bracket has 1 1/2" hole in the top and 1 3/4" hole in the bottom to drop the pin thru. The back lift arm is solid on the bottom so I drilled a 7/8" hole to allow my rod to go through

here are a couple shots of the ramp set up. Each ramp is made with 2 8'X2"X2"x1/4" wall angle with a piece of the same welded underneath the ends to keep it from pushing forward or backwords. in between that spotwelded in are pieces of 9' long overall (3 or 4 pieces each) 10" X 2" C-channel extruded deck plate a very aggresive bite believe me you dont walk on em barefoot! the channel overhangs the front just so I have something there for the attachments to rest on if I have the blowers or loader on one of the tractors. Hydraulics will settle and its supprising how dropping a 500lb snow blower 18" changes the center of gravity.
The ramps are just a 12" piece of the C-channel with a piece of 2x2 angle welded on to hold them up and they do overlap 3/8" on the ramp or so but they are strong enough and supported so my tractor wont tip them if they are not tight against the hoist itself.
the Kubota is the heaviest right now with the cab the blower and the weight brackets all on for winter at about 2900 lbs and if I don't center it on the ramp and leave 2" of tire hanging over one side it will bow the angle about 1/2". I always try and break things right away knowing that sooner or later I will put it on wrong LOL
You can also see some paint on the floor just sprayed around the bottom bracket so I know where to set them to use it. just pull the 4 pins take off the factory lift brackets roll the ramps into place on some equipment dolly's, place the bottom lift brackets in the paint marks drop the lift down put my 1/2" x3"x3" custom washers over the bolts spin the nuts down finger tight and slide the ramps to the width I need

and a couple of pics of my tractors the reason I bought the lift in the first place.
The yanmar with the tiller in front of my old dump truck (bought not running 4 yrs ago for $1200. spent $40. on parts it misses but still won't die. I am planning to make a trailer out of it when it does.
the Kubota in mowing attire
my 9 yr old granddaughter mowing on the yanmar (I have so many safety switches on it I dare let the kids use it in the open)
and one of the Kubota with the blower and cab on it.

Both of these tractors have 4 wheel drive with differential locks you can see them in my avaitar picture last year I got the hauler stuck it weighs about 16000 lbs we unloaded the tractors I had a son and a future son in law with hooked about 60 ft of straps to each tractor to get them on solid gravel and pulled that thing out of 6 inches of clay only bad thing is there were not any other rednecks around to get a picture LOL