Query on car lift width

[Kainedogg]

Bear with me; I am in the midst of finding a 2 post lift for my barn. It has a decent width with 3 openings. I plan to put a lift in the middle, but want the widest lift possible (if there is such a thing)Meaning with the lift unoccupied I would like to be able to drive a dually or an RV through it without interference. I think the average width for these vehicles is 8ft (96inches) so just about any lift will do right? I am leaning towards Challenger or Bendpak but wan to make sure I will have enough room to navigate. It might be a silly worry, but someone out there knows.

 

[astroracer]

I think, if you go to the lift manufacturer's sites, you will find all of the dimensions listed in their product descriptions. I do know Bendpak has a wide and narrow install configuration so check their site for numbers.
Mark

 

[dynahoe]

atlas has wide and tall as do others x2 go check lift sites for dimensions

 

[koditten]

I can fit my car hauler between the post on my Atlas. Outside to outside of wheels is 102" and there is a couple inches of space on both sides. I do have to lift the arms up higher than the fenders, though.

 

[Kainedogg]

Fair enough gents. Thanks for the guidance and information.

 

[soapii]

A lot of the lift manufacturers offer a "wide" version of each lift. Basically the same lift just with longer arms.

--Joe

 

[jonjon1]

A friend of mine has a whip lift, 2 post clear floor and its abut the widest lift I ever seen, all american made too, from the steel to the shipping, done in one place {so I am told}...

 

[Ign]

Yeah, getting an 83" deck car hauler between the lift arms on my BendPak XC is an exercise in precision. I'd say most RV's would be impractical to impossible depending upon a wide variety of factors.

I don't know if the 12k and 15k lb 2 posts offer even more drive-thru clearance, I just know they get a lot more expensive in a hurry so I never looked at them closely.

 

[kaffine]

The problem I have seen is with asymmetric lifts the space between the arms in too narrow for the wheels even if the posts are far enough apart for the fenders. Had this problem with people that put rims on their trucks to make the front wheels stick out past the fenders. I haven't used the combo lifts that can do asymmetric/symmetric not sure if the arms can be positioned so they are in a straight line vs being next to each other like on asymmetric lifts.

Mohawk symmetric 10k lift is wide enough to drive a dually pickup through. Not sure if other symmetric lifts would be or not. I frequently back a 01 Dodge dually between the lift to unload equipment.

How about an in-ground lift? You can drive over them with one set of wheels outside the lift post and the other set between the lift posts. I did this a lot as a mechanic when working on trucks with the aftermarket rims that stuck way out since they didn't fit on the above ground asymmetric lift that I normally used. The in ground lift wasn't wide enough to drive the trucks between the arms but we could easily straddle an arm.