Garage Depth

[CBSuperDuty]

Question for you guys. I am still trying to work out a shop to use for storage of my pull truck and possible my Dodge Quad Cab (short box). I am guessing that neither of them are over 20' long. Occasionally we pull the engine on the pull truck. What would you guys think the minimum depth we would need would be to pull the engine and not open any doors? Think 30' would do it?

 

[PhantomEB]

Measure out the longest you have, then add on at least 5-6 feet to comfy pull engines out with. My folks have a 22 deep, and my coronet is 18 feet long, kinda need to push it out the door 2-3 feet since i have a built in bench thats 2' deep.

But yeah 30 feet should do it easy. I sure would love a 30 foot deep garage but I think myself I could get away with 24-26.

 

[kbs2244]

I wowuld love to have 10 feet in front when I am working.
30 feet should be fine.

 

[PAToyota]

I built my shop 24' deep based on the Toyota pickup and daily driver car I had at the time. Although it will fit, pulling the K2500 into the shop brings it right up against the workbench at the front and I have to step up on the bumper to get around the front end of it while I can barely squeeze behind it with the garage door down.

I'd say a bare minimum is length of the longest vehicle plus three feet behind plus three feet in front plus another two feet for the width of a workbench or cabinets in front. And that would be minimum... Anything beyond that would likely be appreciated - although there is the possibility that more extra space would accumulate junk...

 

[boiler7904]

From the Dodge website, a 2008 quad cab short bed truck is 227.7" or 18'-11 11/16" long. Ford and Chevy are right at 20'-0" for a crew cab with short bed. If you've got plans to upgrade to a bigger truck in the future, plan the garage accordingly now. I'd go with the additional clearances that PAtoyota recommended except allow 30" or 36" at the front in case you have a deeper tool box, a welder, lawnmower, etc. that will always be there.

 

[Lyaec350]

It's a tight squeeze to get my K1500 ext cab short bed in my 24' deep garage (with 16" of shelving on the back wall).

It fits, but it's tight.

 

[PAToyota]

I'd say a bare minimum is length of the longest vehicle plus three feet behind plus three feet in front plus another two feet for the width of a workbench or cabinets in front. And that would be minimum... Anything beyond that would likely be appreciated

I'd go with the additional clearances that PAtoyota recommended except allow 30" or 36" at the front in case you have a deeper tool box, a welder, lawnmower, etc. that will always be there.

Couldn't agree with you more! Although you could probably reduce my clearances to a foot and a half or two feet in front and behind the vehicle, I'd certainly recommend going more than the three feet of clearances if at all possible and adding from there for other things as you say.

 

[larry4406]

Mine is 28 feet deep. My 2003 Ford F350 crew cab with long box fits fine - about 3 feet on either end. Could not pull an engine, however.

Mine is clear spanned, no interior steel or columns to suppor the roof (full loft above). Your depth may be limited by your truss span or willingness to accept an interior support beam with columns to hit your doors on.

 

[PAToyota]

Mine is clear spanned, no interior steel or columns to suppor the roof (full loft above). Your depth may be limited by your truss span or willingness to accept an interior support beam with columns to hit your doors on.

Even at 24' deep I used three steel beams to span the garage to eliminate any interior columns - mainly due to the woodworking shop floor loads on the second floor.

I'd highly recommend clear spanning things in whatever way available to eliminate interior columns.

 

[CBSuperDuty]

So is there any issues with clear spanning 28' - 30' trusses if there will not be a 2nd story. This will just be a basic garage/shop. I don't forsee working on the Dodge much in there. Just mainly for parking and to work on the pull truck. Thanks for the help guys. I got a couple lines out on used steel and pole buildings but trying to be resonable with what I can afford and with the economy I don't want to spend all of the extra cash on a huge shop that I don't get to use because I can no longer afford the house. That is a bit extreme but you get the idea.

I see some of these shops that are awesome and any man would love to have them but some just can't justify spending that much. Hell my hobbies already cost way to much. I am just trying to get a game plan of different scenarios for this fall so I can get something put up and store and work on my toys at home instead of a buddies shop and the wife can get her garage back and park inside.

 

[boiler7904]

28 - 30' span for wood trusses is nothing. At work, we've had them as long as 80' without any problems. Truss manufacturer can design them for your span around the loads that you'll have i.e. garage door tracks / opener, heater, etc. 28 or 30' is about as long as you'd want to set by hand without a crane or forklift though.

Believe it or not, one of the limiting factors will be the roof pitch and the overall height of the truss for transportation reasons. Here, they can make a truss up to 12' tall and lay it flat on a trailer before there are problems with delivery. After a 12' height, you have to piggyback the trusses or set one on top of another which is a little more difficult but gets done all the time.

 

[dcjredline]

I wouldnt think you can pull an engine out of a vehicle in 6' I would say add 10' MINIMUM. Figure 6"-1' from the back of the vehicle to door and 10" for room to pull an engine comfortably.