opinion on lift placement

[jonese]

My garage is going to be started next week and even though I don't have a lift currently in my budget I plan on getting one in a few years. I want to take the extra precaution now of making the concrete a little thicker in the areas where the two posts of the lift will be. I've worked in several garages that had lifts but never had one of my own so I have no experience finding the best place for one. That's where all you come in. I drew a very rough sketch of where I'm planning on putting them now. I plan on getting something with asymmetric arms because that's what I have experience with, something like the Atlas NINE. The garage will be 30 feet deep and I want to put the posts 10 feet from the back wall and centered on the second door. The arms of the lift will be pointing towards the doors so a majority of the vehicle will be closer to the doors. The overhead doors will be 10 feet tall so in the upright position they'll be about 10 feet from the posts which I think will give me enough clearance from raised vehicles(just regular cars, trucks nothing huge). I originally thought to put the lift in the first bay on the left however I got concerned with having the post too close to the edge of the pad. Would that be a problem especially if I have the opportunity to reinforce the pad now?
Thanks in advance.

 

[ScaldedDog]

I think you're on the right track. Make sure you space it far enough from the left wall to allow you to park whatever you want to park there, without making it too difficult for folks to get in the passenger door. You might shift the lift to the right slightly to accomplish this, and then you'll have to be careful not to scrape larger vehicles up against the right side of the garage door opening as you load them on the lift.

Mark

 

[camarotoolman]

Make sure you have room to have a car up and the garage door up too. I can't and it *****. Cause its so hot here, but up north it might no be a problem cause of the cold.

 

[jonese]

Ok now scaldeddog has me thinking about how big a pain it will be to have to constantly be walking around a lift whether there's a car on it or not. It might be better to have it in the first bay after all then as long as I leave enough room on the left side by the wall to do work.

 

[ScaldedDog]

I opted for an in-ground lift for exactly that reason, and put it in the second (of three, in my case) bay where you show yours. I tweaked it slightly to the right to make bay 1 decent size. Pulling cars onto the lift is easy, but I have to be careful with the Excursion.

Mark

 

[kenners]

If you have not started the build yet, you might look into a larger space between the two doors to permit parking space with the lift columns.
My owners manual for the new lift I got and am presently getting ready to install says 12' 8" from front wall to center of column for full size cars and 11' 8" for all others.
Those dimensions include a 2' workbench and then 3' between workbench and front of vehicle.
I was looking for dimensions from columns to the door. Ended up going to local Les Schwab and measured from their 16K lift to their door and it was 15'

 

[CARS]

Ok now scaldeddog has me thinking about how big a pain it will be to have to constantly be walking around a lift whether there's a car on it or not. It might be better to have it in the first bay after all then as long as I leave enough room on the left side by the wall to do work.

That is why I don't have one. I have a 2 post "fore and aft" lift and a mid-rise scissors lift in my shop. I do body work and posts are a pain in the ****.

 

[jonese]

It's a pole building with the poles 12' on center so there isn't a lot of room to move the doors. Right now they're going to be centered between the posts but I can probably have them moved left or right about a foot. I don't do any body work so that's not a concern.

Do many people flip their posts around so that a car has to be backed into it? I know that would make a lot of work to get the vehicle backed in and positioned properly but it would leave more room to work around the front of the vehicle.

 

[darkk]

We set up our 4 post lift with 6 foot between the front of it and whatever we planned on putting in front of it. Like workbench etc...