2-Post lift placement

[zmotorsports]

For those that have two post lifts and lift large pickup trucks such as four door longbed Ford, GM, Dodges, how far is the center of the lift post from the rear garage door.

I have decided where I am going to place it from the wall, and I want to give myself as much room between the front of the vehicles and my workbenches as possible. I ran a tape measure and I am about fourteen feet from post center to the garage door. That would give me roughly 16 feet in the front between the column center and workbenches. I am wondering if this is enough in the rear?

Any recommendations from those who have a lift and have first hand experience I would appreciate it. Thanks, Mike.

Sorry, I meant to say 16' from column center to the workbenches not 16' from front of truck to workbenches.

 

[LIVELY]

MAN YOU have 16 feet of space between the front of your truck and the front of the workbenches !!
You have a GREAT garage

 

[CUSTOMMANCAVES.COM]

Because of space restrictions, I placed my 2-post appx. 11' ~ 12' in from the garage door. I cannot lift long-bed/crew/extended pick-ups without having the door open. My guess would be about 14'+ for proper clearance when lifting trucks.

Edit: My lift is asymmetric if that helps.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks guys. If I keep the post center 14' from the garage door the post will be 16' from the workbenches. I have a floor seam a foot from there so I cannot merely move it one foot and split the difference, which would be ideal 15' front and 15' rear. I would have to go about two feet which would give me only 14' from the center of the column to the workbenches and 16' from column center to the garage door.

Has anyone installed their two post lifts straddling a floor expansion joint? Mike.

 

[chadman]

If it's asymetric I would go to 16ft. I have an asymetric set at 15ft. from the door per Rotary's minimum recommendation. I have an extended cab truck with a 6.5ft. bed. It fits fine but I think I would have trouble with a crew cab with an 8ft. bed.

 

[mastech08]

We have 7 two post rotary lifts at my work they are between 13-14 ft. From the doors. I have no problems fitting a crew cab full size truck on them and still have plenty of room to walk behind it.

 

[milner351]

I have a 30ft deep building, from your measurements I'm guessing you're close to that too.

I also have a problem in my shop for setting the hoist in the center
- a floor drain and sump pit.

I located mine about a foot closer to the door to avoid the floor drain.

I have slider doors (hate them but they were there and do allow for more interior room)

My hoist is an asymetric design.

I have lifted crew cab long box trucks - and the back bumper is less than a foot from the slider door - so if you have traditional overhead doors - this may be an issue.

I followed the general layout dimensions that came with my lift - if anything - I would have spaced the driver's side collumn further away from the wall to allow more room to work on the side of the vehicle - and maneuver things around the column.

 

[Stilwell]

I am still in the research stage myself but if I go with long-side entry into the building I am thinking of setting mine closer to the door than the front wall by a foot or two. I will mainly be working around the sides and front of anything on the lift and less frequently on the rear.

I am not going to use an asymmetrical lift (have not found one with enough capacity to lift a a crew-cab, long-bed dually with a diesel and I really like the wheel adapters Mohawk Lifts have available, but not for their asymmetrical lift) and have been told by a shop manager that most cars will be roughly centered in the posts of the lift with the dually cheated toward the front (of the truck) a bit due to the weight bias to the front.

With all of this in mind, I am using the length of the truck as my gauge so that their is two or three feet between the back of the truck and the garage door.

Of course if I go with short-side entry all of this is out the window and I will have to make the placement decision based on how much room I want in front of the lift.

 

[Stilwell]

milner351,

What kind of lift do you have?

 

[milner351]

I bought my lift through Greg Smith's equipment when he only had one store in Indy - my brother lives there, so pick up was a non issue.

My lift is made by Whip industries out of TX - I'm not sure if they still make lifts or not - but Greg Smith doesn't carry them any more. It is a 10,000lb model and it came with the square rubber lined steel lifting pads with four different height steel adaptors - for pick ups I have to use a chunk of 4x4 ontop of the lifting pads to deal with the raised frame section in the rear.

 

[CUSTOMMANCAVES.COM]

There will be a significant difference (3' ~ 4') in placement if you're dealing with a standard lift vs. asymmetric lift. I parked my biggest car (Astro van) in the space where the lift was to be installed to get an idea of where to bolt it down. Used chalk-marks as a guide.

 

[Stilwell]

Thanks, I'll check them out but I do really like the wheel adapters from Mohawk but Mohawk is very pricey.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks guys. The lift I purchased is an Ammco 10K 2n1 which has arms that can be configured in either symmetrical or asymmetrical fashion. For a large pickup truck I would have the arms in symmetrical configuration and I think 14' from column center to garage door should be enough. Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

We have 7 two post rotary lifts at my work they are between 13-14 ft. From the doors. I have no problems fitting a crew cab full size truck on them and still have plenty of room to walk behind it.

Are your Rotary lifts symmetrical lifts? Mike.

 

[mastech08]

Zmotorsports they are asymmetrical

 

[m.james]

I think eight feet around you car is more than enough.

 

[carcruse]

Whatis the recommended clearance from the posts forward??

 

[wssix99]

Has anyone installed their two post lifts straddling a floor expansion joint?

Is your joint an expansion joint or just a control joint? (Expansion joints will have elastic material in the center and a control joint is just "carved" out on the top layer of the slab: http://www.johnbridge.com/articles/concrete/concrete-slab-control-joints) If its just a control joint, its not structural and shouldn't be a big deal. If its a true expansion joint, you won't want to mount your posts any where near it. (Even to the side of it.)

 

[zmotorsports]

Is your joint an expansion joint or just a control joint? (Expansion joints will have elastic material in the center and a control joint is just "carved" out on the top layer of the slab: http://www.johnbridge.com/articles/concrete/concrete-slab-control-joints) If its just a control joint, its not structural and shouldn't be a big deal. If its a true expansion joint, you won't want to mount your posts any where near it. (Even to the side of it.)

Sorry, it is a sawcut control joint, not an expansion joint. I ended up positioning the columns far enough away (12" and 16") so I should be fine. The literature stated no fasteners closer than 8" from any cracks or seams/joints. Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Whatis the recommended clearance from the posts forward??

The recommended clearance as per the literature that came with the lift states minimum of 12' from column center to any fixed object in front as well as 12' from column center to door in the back.

I ended up at 4' from the side wall, 14'6" from the column center to the shop door in the rear and 16'6" from column center to my workbenches in the front. So far I have only had about 5 vehicles on it but it seems to be about right.

Thanks again for everyones advice. Mike.

 

[slice]

installer said 13 ft was normal from door. i moved mine to 15 ft no issues with long bed trucks 30 ft deep on that side

 

[JohnReynolds]

Re: 2-Post lift placement - side room needed?

Have been out of touch for several years, but am back to working in and on the garage.

I am getting ready to put a 2-post lift in my garage and need some practical information - how much room to you need on each side of the lift? I have a 17.5x38 garage, 14' ceiling, entry on the short side in the middle. I also have 2' feet of cabinets on each side wall, effectively giving me 13.5 feet of width to deal with. I do have a side door about 12-13' in and am considering putting the lift 15' in so I can hopefully put my 8' bed 1999 Dodge Quad Cab Diesel on it.

Options I see are:

Offset the lift to one side about 1-2ft
Remove the cabinets (how much room around each post should I clear?)
Install with the cabinets making sure the doors/drawers still open.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

John

 

[Cvjeticanin]

lot's of good info in this thread!