earthquake proofing a lift

[mikeyr]

well over 10 years ago, I got a 4-post lift to primarily use for storage, I can keep 2 cars in the space of one. I used to really worry about earthquakes and crushing the car underneath the lift and the top car but as time went on, I kind of forgot about it. I moved in Feb. as of this weekend, the lift is functional again BUT this time I have more than a 8ft. ceiling so the car on top is quite high (love high ceilings after all those years with 8ft.) I guess one reason I forgot about my fear of earthquakes was that in my old garage with only 8ft. to work with the car on top was never very high.

Short of bolting down the legs, what would you do to secure it ?

I really don't want to bolt it down as I don't know where it will finally be placed in the garage, maybe later I will bolt it down. Also my plan was to be able to wheel out in the driveway like at my old house but now with the ceiling height, moving it out to the driveway is no longer needed and may never happen.

I was thinking of bracing the legs to the garage wall but that might bring the wall down if the lift started to move

I was also thinking of a lift stand like this

, a couple of these at each end when storing a car on top might keep the lift from falling in a earthquake.

Or should I double check my insurance and call the car a total loss if we get a shaker (car is very rare, no. 986 of 1133 built). And the one on top is even rarer, one of around 20 built and only 7 known to still exist. By the way I am in S. Calif. so a shaker is a valid concern

 

[krooser]

Bolt it down... anything less and you are fooling yourself.

Takes 30 minutes and about $30.00 worth of anchors. This isn't the place to be creative.

 

[Stuart in MN]

If it's bolted down securely I think the lift itself will be fine, but you may want to think about coming up with a way to secure the top car to the hoist so it won't fall off - maybe some of those tire straps they use on trailers.

 

[rwhite692]

+1 for bolting it down. (From a fellow Californian)

If you are serious about it's stability in a quake that is the best thing to do. Jacks like the one you pictured probably won't stop it from swaying, bolting it down will go a long way toward doing that....And, realistically, are you going to remember to place and tighten those jacks, every time, just in case the "big one" hits?

 

[Jaguar Fan]

You really do need it bolted securely. And you really do need to secure top car to the lift if you want to keep it from falling off when the big one hits.

During the Loma Prieta earthquake in '89 in the SF Bay Area, we had a bunch of damage: the water heater pulled out the earthquake strap, for example. We lost about 28 inches of water from the swimming pool! That much went splashing out! That is a TON of energy.

Mrs. Jaguar Fan collects art; we had about 125 pieces of art on various walls. All the art on the N-S walls jumped up over their picture hooks. The art on the E-W walls didn't.

Just my .02.

 

[buening]

Odds are if you bolt it down and a big one hits, it will snap the bolts if you have a car on top of the lift (unless they are very large bolts, which I wouldn't recommend). Not bolting it down will allow it to slide around on the concrete during a quake and will likely prevent any damage to the base plates of the lift, but it may tear other stuff up when moving around.

Bridges are designed (typically) to snap the bolts at each bearing of the beam and then the bridges moves on the abutments. It's called a fusible link. The more rigid you make something the more damage it will have after an earthquake, something structural engineers learned after many California earthquakes. I would worry less whether to bolt or not to bolt the lift down, and worry more about securing the car to the lift and finding a way to prevent the lift from tipping over if an earthquake does happen. Think of a ball on top of a spring (or a pendulum). The more you shake the ground the more the ball will sway. Similar to your situation with the car on the lift. If you fix it very rigidly to the ground, the lift will sway more and will be more likely to throw your car off. The legs of these lifts aren't braced (diagonal to each leg) so it would definitely sway. Bolt it down but don't use enormous bolts. Just my 0.02

 

[Tscott]

Odds are if you bolt it down and a big one hits, it will snap the bolts if you have a car on top of the lift (unless they are very large bolts, which I wouldn't recommend). Not bolting it down will allow it to slide around on the concrete during a quake and will likely prevent any damage to the base plates of the lift, but it may tear other stuff up when moving around.

Bridges are designed (typically) to snap the bolts at each bearing of the beam and then the bridges moves on the abutments. It's called a fusible link. The more rigid you make something the more damage it will have after an earthquake, something structural engineers learned after many California earthquakes. I would worry less whether to bolt or not to bolt the lift down, and worry more about securing the car to the lift and finding a way to prevent the lift from tipping over if an earthquake does happen. Think of a ball on top of a spring (or a pendulum). The more you shake the ground the more the ball will sway. Similar to your situation with the car on the lift. If you fix it very rigidly to the ground, the lift will sway more and will be more likely to throw your car off. The legs of these lifts aren't braced (diagonal to each leg) so it would definitely sway. Bolt it down but don't use enormous bolts. Just my 0.02

I gotta say, I was thinking the same thing. The way they secure tall buildings against earthquakes is to mount them on giant slip joints. This allows the ground to move under the building while transferring minimal lateral motion to the building. Think of it like pulling the table cloth out from under the dishes. If you bolt the lift to the ground, you force it to receive all the energy from the quake. If you leave them loose, or even better place it on casters of some type, then as the ground moves back and forth your lift will slide. I have seen four post lifts with casters before, do they offer them for your model? If so I would consider installing them along with some sort of limiting strap to keep the whole rig from making its way around the garage during a quake. Kind of like the suspension droop limiting strap used on off road trucks and rock buggies. They allow the suspension to droop to a certain point and then stop it from moving so far as to cause damage.

Tom

 

[mikeyr]

wow, I had never thought of securing the car that is on the lift, that is a good idea. I have some wheel nets that I use when trailering, I can hook those up on the lift to hold the car in place, that wont be too hard. It will quickly become a pain in the derriere having to do that all the time though.

Guess I better figure out where I want the lift permanently so I can get some bolts in, I had hoped to avoid that until the garage was further along and I had worked in it some more to make sure about the location. Casters only work when the lift is down as the weight of the ramps is what lifts the legs off the ground so casters wont work at all in my case.

Thanks...

 

[Chris Adams]

The previous two posts are on the money.
Mount it with fairly easy to snap bolts, and secure it with flexible heavy cable. This WON'T stop it in a big one, but will stop it from moving around too much in a small one.
Nothing on a lift will survive a 8.5 up. Probably won't survive a 7 if you are within 20-30 miles of the epicenter.

Insurance will probably NOT cover the car.
Check with your car insurance carrier. Make sure you have comprehensive on the vehicle while it is in storage. That may be your only chance.

Very few insurance companies in California have a deductable below 10,000.
Many don't cover vehicles at all, unless they are 'off road' only, leaving on-road carriers to cover them.

Big ugly gray area in California insurance coverage.
I do have a company that covers with a much better deductable, but they are a non-California based company.

 

[mikeyr]

I am checking on insurance, agent thought it would not be covered by auto insurance and the house would not cover it for sure. Only insurance I have when its parked is theft and or vandalism if they broke into my garage. Still checking...

And I would not expect it to survive a 8.5, I doubt the garage would stand up to that, all it would take is for one termite to stop holding hands with another termite and down it would come.