Installing your own lift?

[Brconley]

I have the opportunity to buy a used 2 post lift from a retiring professional mechanic. I am a hobbyist with a couple old project cars and a dedicated workspace. I am trying to determine how difficult it is to install your own lift. When I had the shop built, I had the floor engineered with a view to add a lift eventually and already have a dedicated 220V circuit in place to wire it up.

I have pulled and rebuilt engines, done suspension modifications, and general mechanic work, but I've never assembled something that would result in me working underneath a couple of tons suspended in the air.

Any advice on how challenging this kind of project would be?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jack stand]

It's very straightforward and if you're able to help with the disassembly that'll be immensely helpful.

 

[Slowbuilder]

You may be able to get installation instructions from the lift manufacturer as well, for anchor bolt specs, etc.

I installed my Rotary SPOA9 after it was disassembled by the previous owner. It was pretty straightforward.

 

[bb29510]

itts really simple, drill holes, bolt down

one tip, right before you bolt down, after drilling holes, till the post back and throw some non shrink grout under the post then bolt down and squeeze that stuff out, it fill any void under the post

 

[bb29510]

use can shim it too if its out of plumb and then throw the grout under

 

[P0234]

If you can follow directions and aren't the type of person that has to redo things because of your mistakes, it'll be no problem. Lots of support here from people that have done it multiple times.

 

[finn]

Watch som YouTube videos. Pretty straightforward, but they’re heavy. Especially something like a Mohawk, compared to a lighter import lift.

 

[sleek98]

I ended up paying 900 to have mine removed. Trailered 80 miles and assembled.

I think it would have been ok for me to assemble it, however at the time it I only had a few days to get it out of the old shop and bring them to my new house.

 

[Drill Sergeant Arc]

Put in your overhead hoist, then put in your lift.

 

[TurnipTruck]

I had never operated a two post before I found a used Bendpak and put it up by myself. It was missing the latch covers and latch cable, but I was able to figure it out.

 

[vwpieces]

I installed mine myself...and I do mean by myself.
Get the dimensions from the manufacturer and or download the manual. Follow them...

Really not hard to do.

Also if the cables look the least bit worn, REPLACE THEM.

 

[AC-WC]

I installed mine a little over a year ago. Looking back why didn't I do this years ago? The 2 difficult things for me were 1) all the building mods and drilling the holes....Had an inexpensive HF hammer drill that was starting to smoke. Hole size was 1" and thought it better to start small holes (for location accuracy) and then go larger. Spent 45 minutes doing 2 or 3 holes. Once I got the SDS style hammer drill was done with all in about 30 minutes.
Hint-there are several good youtubes with squaring the lift to the door and basic install. I spent time making sure everything was square to the door and the columns square to each other. Highly recommend making a cardboard template of the base plates and using those as the templates to drill the holes and square up to the door. The columns do move if you try to drill the holes through them. Definitely recommend the shims at least for initial install. I did mine all by myself. The only help I needed was getting the towers vertical. Used engine hoist and tow strap, wife unhooked strap so I could push up full vertical. I'm only 5' 6". Absolutely would do it all again with no hesitation. Since you already do basic mechanical work you can do this.

 

[Walkers]

I installed mine myself...and I do mean by myself.
Get the dimensions from the manufacturer and or download the manual. Follow them...

Really not hard to do.

Also if the cables look the least bit worn, REPLACE THEM.

Since the cables do no work, they very rarely get worn.

 

[mmb617]

Anybody used to doing heavy repairs on cars should be able to install a lift. I did mine by myself 12 years ago and it hasn't fallen over yet. The hardest thing to do by yourself is standing up the columns, but car guys know how to figure that stuff out.

 

[firebirdparts]

Assembling it is trivial. If you can fry an egg, you can assemble it.

The problem is getting it bolted to the floor. You need GOOD not oversize holes, and sometimes people will think they did everything right, but they'll have a wedge anchor crank out/refuse to tighten. You can avoid that by using epoxy, I guess. You can give yourself a back-up plan by drilling all the way through the slab. We could have (need) a big long thread here on the best tools for drilling the slab. Big holes and a lot of them, and you're not allowed to make a mistake, so it's not trivial.

Personally I had to drill through the baseplate to stay on target (you can't go wrong like that). It is a tiny bit forgiving in terms of layout of the two posts relative to each other.

 

[housewolf]

Assembling it is trivial. If you can fry an egg, you can assemble it.

The problem is getting it bolted to the floor. You need GOOD not oversize holes, and sometimes people will think they did everything right, but they'll have a wedge anchor crank out/refuse to tighten. You can avoid that by using epoxy, I guess. You can give yourself a back-up plan by drilling all the way through the slab. We could have (need) a big long thread here on the best tools for drilling the slab. Big holes and a lot of them, and you're not allowed to make a mistake, so it's not trivial.

Personally I had to drill through the baseplate to stay on target (you can't go wrong like that). It is a tiny bit forgiving in terms of layout of the two posts relative to each other.

I hit rebar on a few holes but still managed to drill through and get a quick bolt set. There was one spot I hit two pieces of rebar tied together and the hole ended up too large. Epoxy did the trick. I’m an old hand at drilling/setting quick bolts though but mostly overhead. Setting them in a slab is comparatively easy.

 

[Imatk]

Agreed with above comments. I installed a MaxJax which is basically a low-rise two-post lift. I wouldn't say any of it was really "hard" you just have to take your time and measure and make sure everything is level.

Drilling the holes for me wasn't an issue but I've seen other people have issues as stated above with wallowing out the hole or not making sure they have enough thickness in their slab and thinking "it'll be ok..." and then it wasn't.

The current POS I have now is a full 2-post Bendpak GP7 that I had installed and has given me nothing but trouble from day 1.

But I had it installed mostly because I don't have a forklift or access to one and there was no way I would be able to raise the columns and then install the overhead hydraulic ram by myself.