Mid Rise lift - transportation, install & impression

Dolfan · Jun 15, 2010

OK, first thanks to all that followed and responded to my previous threads on the merits of the different lift types. And help discussing the electrical needs. It's always opinionated but it helps work out the decision.

Being I had a Greg Smith location about 40 minutes away I went with the Atlas lift.

Lift transport and Unloading

For anyone doing the transportation themselves I strongly recommend this uhual trailer, it is built really tough and the long strong ramp was key in off-loading the ramp.

One thing that help was I had it loaded onto a set of 4x4 pieces so I could get under it once I got home.

As for the unloading I used two floor jacks to move the lift just a bit at a time out of the trailer and finally to the floor. Then you realize "I've gotta get it off the pallet now!"

Best trick there was a chain on one end to lift the lift off the pallet enough to get some metal pipes under it and then roll it down the pallet to the floor.

And down!

Ramps
For the ramp/runways I had a different approach I want to build these to be a bit lighter than stacked 2x12's and I also wanted some flexibility to remove the front and back to allow more movement around the car when lifted.

Here is the underside of the construction

The ends are lap-notched to fit together then a piece of threaded rod with a nut welded to the end is the fastener to hold the pieces together

Ramps in place and the C4 up finally!

Had to alter the ramp front as the ramps would slide as the car hit them, so added an extension that is only 1/2" think and sloped to get the car onto the ramp and hold it in place.

Power
The unit definitely needed a circuit over 15A, I don't know if 20 would have been enough but the said 30A, so I went to the trouble and did it that way and it lifts great with the 30A.

Lifting
One outstanding thing is related to the lift pads, you can see here I had to use the "truck" pads to lift the C4 due to the exhaust that hangs lower than the jack points. I'd be curious if other people have a similar issue?

Impression
Need more time to begin doing projects and I have a good list. I will say that if you put the car up and then push on the sides the car does sway a bit. I'll have to see how much movement there is when your putting leverage with a breaker bar or something during normal work.

I'll post my impressions soon on the first jobs! :thumbs:

930dreamer · Jun 15, 2010

Looks good, will look forward to your review.

bazzateer · Jun 15, 2010

I'll be looking at similar lifts for my garage when it finally gets built. Mine will only need to lift about half that weight though so should be affordable in a couple of years or so.

osu69 · Jun 15, 2010

Elegant ramps... My mid-rise gave me years of faithful service and it still sits on standby in my old basement workshop. BTW, I'm in Jefferson.

revlover · Jun 15, 2010

I really liked the ramps you built. At first, from the pictures, I thought it was something they offered with the lift, that's how good they looked. I know with a lot of these mid-rise lifts, they're low, but not quite low enough to get a Corvette over them. So I've seen a lot of people build ramps similar to what you've done.

I've heard recently that BendPak is going to start selling aluminum ramps with their MD-6XP as an option. I think that's a pretty good idea.

Nice write-up! Looking forward to more!

The Wizard · Jun 15, 2010

Nice setup. Thanks for sharing. I like your idea of making the ramps light enough to move around if need be.

Did you use 2x6's?? How thick of plywood did you go with?
As for upgrading the outlet to 30amp...did you do that yourself or have an electrician do it?
I ask, because I'm in the same boat as you. My outlets in my garage are 20amps.
Thanks.

Dolfan · Jun 15, 2010

The Wizard said:
Nice setup. Thanks for sharing. I like your idea of making the ramps light enough to move around if need be.

Did you use 2x6's?? How thick of plywood did you go with?
As for upgrading the outlet to 30amp...did you do that yourself or have an electrician do it?
I ask, because I'm in the same boat as you. My outlets in my garage are 20amps.
Thanks.

Ramps are built with 2x4's that I ripped just down maybe about 1/4" to get good square sides so things would sit flush. Then put 5/8 plywood on top, the ribs are about 4 1/4" apart and the total width is about 13 3/4" The construction is all glued then nailed and screwed, they can take plenty of weight I'm sure. Realistically the ramps are overbuilt but I've got a separate wood shop and I've done some "furniture level" carpentry so I just can't help it.

The electrical upgrade I did myself, but I have done a fair amount of home wiring myself. I had to add a 30A breaker to the panel but my home has cut off at the meter so I can make the whole house dark to work in the panel. Then as a rule I treat everything still as it is hot and don't touch anything I don't need to, put the wires in place with needle nose pliers and move carefully. Honestly if I couldn't turn off the panel completely like that I wouldn't do it myself, just to much risk for a $200 service call!

I would try a 20A circuit before planning to upgrade, maybe people with mid-rise lift depending on make have been OK with that.

Dolfan · Jun 19, 2010

UPDATE - Doors Raised

Got the garage doors raised by a company that I felt gave me a fair price. Two guys worked about 3 1/4 hours on raising the two doors. New 32" radius track, same openers to save money. After seeing these guys work on this I'm glad I hired it out.

I now have about 10' of usable space under the track and opener. Won't be able to double stack a SUV over a vette, but two vettes, or a trailer and a vette would work fine, if I decide to add a 4 post in the future.

jgoglick · Jun 19, 2010

Do you mind if I ask how much it cost you to have the door raised? I will need to do that in my garage eventually.

Dolfan · Jun 20, 2010

jgoglick said:
Do you mind if I ask how much it cost you to have the door raised? I will need to do that in my garage eventually.

I paid about $365 a door. That was with new torsion springs, new cable, larger drums, all new track that was heavier to handle the large radius that put more weight on the vertical track?

I kept looking for parts online and I found it hard to find things so given I would guess that at least $100 per door is parts I thought the price was pretty good. I think it would have been a tough job doing it myself.

jgoglick · Jun 20, 2010

Thanks for the info. That seems reasonable to me too. :thumbup:

The Wizard · Jun 20, 2010

Thanks for the detailed response in post #7 Dolfan, much appreciated. I'm going to follow your lead and build ramps similiar to yours.

As for raising the garage doors, was it really necessary? With low profile vettes, and the lift raising 4' max, wouldn't you have enough clearance? Or am I missing something?

As for adding a 4 post lift later, wouldn't you have been better off raising the doors all the way up to the ceiling? Looks like you'd gain another foot or so. Of course, you'd have an additional expense of the Liftmaster 3800 sidemount openers, but that could be offset by selling the old openers.

Dolfan · Jun 20, 2010

The Wizard said:
Thanks for the detailed response in post #7 Dolfan, much appreciated. I'm going to follow your lead and build ramps similiar to yours.

As for raising the garage doors, was it really necessary? With low profile vettes, and the lift raising 4' max, wouldn't you have enough clearance? Or am I missing something?

As for adding a 4 post lift later, wouldn't you have been better off raising the doors all the way up to the ceiling? Looks like you'd gain another foot or so. Of course, you'd have an additional expense of the Liftmaster 3800 sidemount openers, but that could be offset by selling the old openers.

You're right I would have had to ad new jack shaft openers in order to get the last 5-10" of space. Right now it just wasn't worth the added $650 or so. I did need to raise the doors as I have other vehicles like my Dakota Quad Cab to put on the lift and it needed more space.

I'f I go with a 4 post it will most likely stack the two vettes, a vette and a trailer, or a vette and a FF project, or a vette and a purpose built race car. I have to many ideas as you can tell. But in all those scenarios I'll have room.

Dolfan · Jun 21, 2010

Project #1

Pretty simple but needed to change the oil in my C4 vette, so lifted it up and notice that the drain plug sits pretty much right over most of the hydraulics area of the lift? OK, what to do? I started to think about some type of funnel type catch/drip pan that I could cobble together.

Finally, I think back the car in to swap the ends of the car around on the lift.

Did this and things get better, the back end of the lift is much more open, but there is one cross bar between the bottom of the lift where the drain pan needs to sit but it didn't stop me. In the future I'll probably put something under the pan to straddle the cross member for the pan to sit evenly.

Other than that access was good and it's much different doing even a simple job like this with the car up about 30" in the air.

Would a 4 post have been easier here......Yes, but when I start doing a lot of brake and shock work I think I'll be happier.

Just wanted to keep this thread informative on projects and impressions of things for others to consider.

Dolfan · Jun 23, 2010

Lifting Pad Solution

As stated previously in this thread for cars with extra low points like exhaust or other items the lift can make contact first with these points before the lift contacts at the jacking points. This is when using hte "standard" pads that have only about a 1/2" rise off the arms.

My solution was a set of custom pads.

I used a left over 2x12 I had and traced out the hexagon shape of the lift pad, then drilled the two holes where the rubber pad is mounted to the steel plate. With new M6x50mm bolts I could now put the pads on top of the spacer and attach this to the bottom to get that height that was needed.

The idea with the paint was to paint them a color so the stand out a bit since I don't want to leave them under when loading due to their increase chance of catching something. I didn't have any "Safety Yellow" on had so the rust red color had to do.

This solution gives me an intermediate height pad between the very low original and using the tall "truck" pads.

Michal · Jun 23, 2010

Be careful on heavier cars. I've had wood break when jacking a car up.

Dolfan · Jun 23, 2010

Michal said:
Be careful on heavier cars. I've had wood break when jacking a car up.

I agree and was looking to do something with steel, but the fact that these pads are sitting flush on the steel plate it should work fine. I'm using this with my C4 corvette only right now and it only weighs 3350# so I think it should be fine.

If I had a more HD welder I would have built something from steel! :thumbup:

Michal · Jun 23, 2010

Yeah with a C4 I wound't worry too much. Looks good though :thumbup:

.

Scramblur · Jun 23, 2010

If you want cheap and safer pads, use plywood stacked and glued. It won't fall apart, quick, cheap, safe and easy.

sammm · Jun 23, 2010

I know a lot of Z06 owners (I'm an ex-owner) use hockey pucks with eye-bolts threaded in them to go up in to the jacking 'slots'.

78Bird · Jun 23, 2010

Michal said:
Be careful on heavier cars. I've had wood break when jacking a car up.

My impression was that was a solid chunk of 4x4... Wood is extremely strong in compression like that, I'd think it would be more than strong enough for anything that the lift could safely support.

Dolfan · Jun 23, 2010

sammm said:
I know a lot of Z06 owners (I'm an ex-owner) use hockey pucks with eye-bolts threaded in them to go up in to the jacking 'slots'.

Yes, I have those for my Z06 as well, made a bunch for me and a buddy. But the C4 has different jacking points and the exhaust was right in line with the lift cross members.

With the hockey pucks on the Z06 I don't expect any issues. I haven't had it up on the lift yet, but will after my next SCCA event for some maintenance.

mechamunch · Jun 30, 2010

Those are some very nice lift modifications. Did it take you a long time to get everything just the way you wanted it?

Dolfan · Jun 30, 2010

mechamunch said:
Those are some very nice lift modifications. Did it take you a long time to get everything just the way you wanted it?

The ramps did take me a bit longer than anticipated but then again, they weren't just simple static ramps. I think it will be nice for bigger jobs to be able to remove one side of the front or back when doing a bigger job over multiple days and being able to have my rolling shop chair freely in and out from the car.

The pad modification was super simple and easy, basically trace, cut, drill, paint. I think it took me longer to find the longer metric bolts to attach it with.

I could have cut time by not painting, not routing the edges smooth, etc., but I figured doing it the way I wanted the first time.

I will say this though, now I need to add carpet of something to the end of the ramps when the tires sit as when teh car sits on the painted ramps and then I left it, the ramps stick to the tires! :shocking:

The other day one held onto a tire until it was about 16-20" off the ground until it popped off.

Dolfan · Jul 2, 2010

Project #2

Well this is just part of the project on my 2001 Dakota pickup, it just passed 100K miles and I plan to do oil/coolant/trans fluid/diff service.

So today I got it on the lift, that was no problem and got it off the ground. Decided to begin and just drain the oil. This is the second time for an oil change on the lift and I think I can say there is something about this particular job that isn't going to well on the lift.

If you don't also have a high oil drain pan type you have an oil stream dropping bout 20-40" into a pan and let's just say that gets messy. So once again having ALL the right tools comes into play!

More to come

Dolfan · Jul 4, 2010

Project #3

OK moving on to the transmission pan for fluid and filter change. Now I've done this before and since transmission pan don't have drain plugs this is always a messy job.

In this case with the mid rise lit the transmission pa on the Dakota as totally accessible but the issue was the drain pan placement, it needed to g with where the hydraulic rams are. So I added a 4X4 piece of wood to make a level area and then put the drain pa on a 5g paint can I use to dispose of my old oil. Still a messy job as you drop the trans pan to one side but other than the distance of the draining the lift work fine, had the truck high enough that I could get under on my shop chair, a few times I just sat on the floor.

Not too bad but having a proper drain tool would really help these tasks.

SteveU · Jul 5, 2010

I have a Lisle transmission drain pan funnel which is 24x36" rectangular, think the cost was around 35 which would fit into a 5 gal bucket and is large enough to catch everything. Here is a link, they also have one that is 24x24 square

http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/p-2988-lisle-17902.aspx

Dolfan · Jul 5, 2010

SteveU said:
I have a Lisle transmission drain pan funnel which is 24x36" rectangular, think the cost was around 35 which would fit into a 5 gal bucket and is large enough to catch everything. Here is a link, they also have one that is 24x24 square

http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/p-2988-lisle-17902.aspx

Yeah, proper tools will make this easier/cleaner. I need to get something to have a drain pan up about 30-38" or so. I looked at the site you included, some good ideas on things to add.

Dolfan · Jul 15, 2010

Project #4

Need to check out the brakes on the Z06 before a track event this coming weekend so I figure I'll get the Z06 on the lift for the first time and this will be a breeze. Well first off the Z06 is a wide car, wider than it looks, and the jacking points are all the way at the outside near the rocker panels. Much to my disbelief, the arms on the mid-rise lift only give about 1/2 to 1" of additional width compared to the packing points. :headscrat

So this means that first you have got to hit the spot over the lift exactly so that the arm are swung out almost perfectly straight. But a bigger issue came up, during assembly of the lift there are 5 different positions for each of the arms to be mounted, so after trying to hit the jacking points, I realized the arms were not attached to the lift in the optimal points for my cars. On the C4 corvette or my truck it was simple and there was plenty of flexibility to hit the jacking points, but on this car it had to be darn near exact! :shocking:

So what I thought would be a 5 minute process to get the car up in the air, turned out to be a 30-45 minute session of "tuning" the lift for my cars. I gotta say I wish the arms were at least another 2" long!

Any other people have similar issues with particular car on a mid rise lift?

mikeyr · Jul 15, 2010

Dolfan said:
Any other people have similar issues with particular car on a mid rise lift?

Yes, but in my case its because the arms are too long or can't fold inward for the super narrow car I have.

LWW · Jul 28, 2010

Wouldn't a 2 post lift have been a better solution than all the mods you've had to construct to overcome all the compromises you have to make when using a mid-rise scissor lift for anything other than tire, wheel, brake, suspension work?

Your garage just begs for a MaxJax. With the doors raised, you could even get a standard 2 post in there.

Dolfan · Jul 28, 2010

LWW said:
Wouldn't a 2 post lift have been a better solution than all the mods you've had to construct to overcome all the compromises you have to make when using a mid-rise scissor lift for anything other than tire, wheel, brake, suspension work?

Your garage just begs for a MaxJax. With the doors raised, you could even get a standard 2 post in there.

Your question is a valid one. I looked at all lifts when I was making my decision. Funny thing is the tasks you listed are the most common for me. Add to that differential fluid changes, trans fluid change in the rear of the Z06, etc this is the bulk of it. I'm not doing a lot of exhaust work, or dropping transmissions or engines, at least not right now.

I did consider the two post but putting that into my center bay would have made the use of the garage during normal days tough! Most 2 posts are at least 125-135" wide and that puts the post way out near the adjoining bays.

Your comment about the MaxJax is a good comment, probably a better fit for me as I could remove them when not in use. If I could have visited someone with one setup maybe that would have sealed the deal. I was worried about the additional time to always need to set it up. Before having a lift every job required about 15-20 minutes to get the car up and properly on jackstands was part of what I wanted to get away from. I wanted to pull the car in, set a few arms, hit a button!

One thing I can say now is that if I had it to do over I would immediately cut the concrete and recess the mid-rise lift. I think that solution would make the mid-rise a much better tool.

djd99 · Jul 28, 2010

Dolfan said:
Your question is a valid one. I looked at all lifts when I was making my decision. Funny thing is the tasks you listed are the most common for me. Add to that differential fluid changes, trans fluid change in the rear of the Z06, etc this is the bulk of it. I'm not doing a lot of exhaust work, or dropping transmissions or engines, at least not right now.

I did consider the two post but putting that into my center bay would have made the use of the garage during normal days tough! Most 2 posts are at least 125-135" wide and that puts the post way out near the adjoining bays.

Your comment about the MaxJax is a good comment, probably a better fit for me as I could remove them when not in use. If I could have visited someone with one setup maybe that would have sealed the deal. I was worried about the additional time to always need to set it up. Before having a lift every job required about 15-20 minutes to get the car up and properly on jackstands was part of what I wanted to get away from. I wanted to pull the car in, set a few arms, hit a button!

One thing I can say now is that if I had it to do over I would immediately cut the concrete and recess the mid-rise lift. I think that solution would make the mid-rise a much better tool.

Rent a concrete saw and recess it...... If it were only that easy it would be done right.

Mid Rise lift - transportation, install & impression

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