thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9'6" ceiling

[HKB3]

just thinking out loud for future planning. I don`t have a car or a tape measure handy right now
Looking at the specs on a Bend-Pak XPR-9FS which will fit under my ceiling and has a 72" lift height, my question is will a typical muscle/sports car (Mustang,Camaro,Nova,Chevelle, ect) fit under the ceiling at full lift height? with my "guess-a-mation" math it looks like I would have 42" from the bottom of the frame rail(of the car) to the ceiling of the garage.
What do you think? will it work?

 

[bazzateer]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

Not sure what you mean by 'frame rail' (I'm in the UK). If you mean the bottom of the chassis rails I think you're out of luck. Bear in mind a Ford GT40 was about 40" tall I don't think your muscle car will fit at full lift.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

any ceiling under 10'-0" and you'll be so hunched over you'll end up letting the car down and working on a creeper........which isn't all that bad if your sitting up on it, just not as nice as standing.

 

[brownbagg]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

my little toyota truck need 12'6 for me to walk under, I am 5'5

 

[HKB3]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

Not sure what you mean by 'frame rail' (I'm in the UK). If you mean the bottom of the chassis rails I think you're out of luck. Bear in mind a Ford GT40 was about 40" tall I don't think your muscle car will fit at full lift.

that is 40" from the ground to the roof, you have to subtract the distance from the ground to the lifting point.

PS trying to learn google sketch up...

 

[bazzateer]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

The GT40 roof was 40" off the ground.

 

[HKB3]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

The GT40 roof was 40" off the ground.

yes, I know this not lifting by the tires(like a 4 post lift)

sorry for the crude drawing

 

[rsanter]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

if you have a 10ft ceiling, the lift you need it called a maxjack
its the midrise lift version of the 2 post lifts

options
you could do a 'partial pit' under the lift for you so stand in.

you could also look at options for raising the ceiling

bob

 

[bazzateer]

Re: thinking out loud...2 post lift? 9`6" ceiling

yes, I know this not lifting by the tires(like a 4 post lift)

sorry for the crude drawing

Even so, sounds to me like your 42" won't let you have full height on anything much - maybe the Flatmobile?

 

[smallbloc]

I don't have a lift,but I do need a GT40, please, anybody!

 

[mikeceli]

I "know a guy" who has a two post lift, w/ a 9' 3" ceiling.

Yeah it's a PITA but WAY better than a creeper/jack stands!!

At first he hunched over, then bought a $25 HF roller chair. The chair is a BIG help!!

Corvette and "Pony Cars" of course, go up higher than sedans. Full size trucks, get high enough for brakes, rotations, LOF's anything where he dosen't have to get UNDER the truck. At truck settings the safties aren't engauged, 2nd reason not to get under.

Must also consider, some lifts when you command "down" the lift must GO UP, a couple inches, to release the locks.

SO.... he never gets his veh's RIGHT UP TO THE CEILING.

hE IS HAPPY w/ the lift , beats crawling around !! It has enabled him to do LOTS of jobs, he would not do W/O a lift. But, wishes he paid an engineer to re-configure the ceiling trusses, to raise it.

 

[justanengineer]

Dig a pit. Much safer/easier to use and you wont lose any space by installing it. Warning - make sure you design/build it properly.

 

[Jack Olsen]

This is an interesting thread.

My car is 49.5" tall at its highest point. The belly pan is fairly low to the ground, but I have 3" blocks that I can use with my flush-with-the-floor lift. The lift has 36" of vertical travel to it. I get 39" of clearance between the floor and the lowest point on the engine/transaxle when I use the blocks.

I have 9' ceilings in my garage, but I also have a traditional roll-up garage door, which reduces the height available to me to 7'2" -- which gives me about 2" of breathing room between the roof of the car and the low point on the garage door when it's open.

I apologize to those of you that have seen the pictures before, but here's my setup:

What I'm thinking about for easier access underneath is to adapt this old office chair so that it sits low, leans back, and can swivel (and raise and lower) a little to position me under there. Still not sure exactly how I'm going to do it.

Here it is with a stool that I could scavange a cylinder from:

 

[mrobins297aaa]

here's what I did at another house I lived at.

If your lucky enough to have rafters instead of trusses you can open up your ceiling and shore them up. I basically double all the rafters and added collar tie's to each one and added some 1/2" plywood and a million screws.

This ceiling was 9'-0" and I think by opening it up it gave me 11'-0" in the center which is enough for most cars. The vette in the pic is about 48" from the concrete to the top of the roof. Also if you notice I moved the garage door opener off center of the door to get it out of the way. I also had the opener on a toggle switch on the lift so i could cut the power to the opener when I had a car on the lift. I didn't want momma coming home and hitting the remote when I had a car on it. the garage was 22 x 21

the lift came in handy for doing the drywall also

just don't drop anything

 

[brownbagg]

those rafters are not safe

 

[mrobins297aaa]

those rafters are not safe

really?.........how did I know someone was going to say that.

well don't stop there tell us why?

 

[Charles (in GA)]

those rafters are not safe

really?.........how did I know someone was going to say that.

well don't stop there tell us why?

Probably not for a snow load. I'm sure it would stand some, probably has since you are in Michigan, but a heavy snow might be too much. Cutting one or two, I could see, but a whole bunch of them, not very strong.

Charles

 

[mrobins297aaa]

well its been thru 15 winters so far and still looks ok

 

[mrobins297aaa]

This is an interesting thread.

My car is 49.5" tall at its highest point. The belly pan is fairly low to the ground, but I have 3" blocks that I can use with my flush-with-the-floor lift. The lift has 36" of vertical travel to it. I get 39" of clearance between the floor and the lowest point on the engine/transaxle when I use the blocks.

I have 9' ceilings in my garage, but I also have a traditional roll-up garage door, which reduces the height available to me to 7'2" -- which gives me about 2" of breathing room between the roof of the car and the low point on the garage door when it's open.

I apologize to those of you that have seen the pictures before, but here's my setup:

What I'm thinking about for easier access underneath is to adapt this old office chair so that it sits low, leans back, and can swivel (and raise and lower) a little to position me under there. Still not sure exactly how I'm going to do it.

Here it is with a stool that I could scavange a cylinder from:

Jack you got one nice place there, if I only could be so neat..........better get those tires aligned......lol

 

[3x9RT/SE]

Thats the lift I ended up buying,Bendpak XPR-9FS,my ceiling is exactly 10'-0'',I put the cars about 4-6'' from the ceiling,and stand up under them fine,although I am 5'-7'',so if you are 6'-0'' you would be crouching down just alittle.You,like me have to be very carefull not to send the car right into the ceiling.I have two pieces of tape,one on the column and one on the carraige marking the max height I can go to.
Also,if your ceiling is 9'-6'',I think it's going to be a hard time standing the columns up as the height of them are 9'-6''.

 

[PreferredMotorsLLC]

My garage with just under 9' ceiling.

My friend is 6'6"

 

[Dolfan]

I tend to agree that a standard 2 post might be overkill as you would likely not be able to use much of its lifting travel. You might find this thread on the MaxJax helpful from my write up a few months back.

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75488

With a shop seat to work on this is a pretty good compromise.

 

[nperkins]

Hey preferred... any pics of that car at full height? I'm looking to do a lift with a 10' ceiling... Most cars will be fairly low (240sx, subarus, hondas, etc)... So i'm curious what i'm looking at for a max height...

Thankfully, i'm short (5'7")...