lift safety limit

[kaffine]

Has anyone bought or made a auto shutoff for a lift when used with low ceilings to keep the car from hitting the ceiling?

I know the simple solution is to just mark my lift for the cars that are normally on it for how high I can lift but I'm sure once it is in I'll suddenly have friends that want to work on their cars.

I thought about getting the assembly from a lift with the overhead cross beam. The other option would be using a contactor and a light beam system. When the beam is broken it turns the lift off.

Any other ideas? Thank you.

 

[Cryptic1911]

I've seen some that have a hinged bar on the top covered in foam, so it pushes up and shuts off the lift.. that seems like the cleanest approach if its going to be an issue for you

 

[cyamaha2007]

^^^ive seen that done too

 

[Dave Heacock]

Most of the aboveground lifts use basically a piece of electrical conduit wrapped in foam which hinges on one end and trips a mircoswitch on the other end. It is safer to have a the conduit lift off of the switch which is normally closed than to try and have it activate the switch with the movement.

If you are not the do it yourself kind of guy you can buy a prefabricated assembly for this purpose and just mount it and wire it in. Rotary Lift sell it as a model FA7118, list price is $284.00. They are not the only mfg to have one available.