zero'ing in on a Challenger SA10 2-post lift

[tff]

I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on a Challenger SA10 2-post lift. Fits my criteria... not the cheapest/not the most expensive, certified, symmetric, slightly less that 12' (left post is under a sloped portion of the ceiling @ 11'8"")…

I've attached a sketch of my plan. I built this garage with the idea of being able to have one car on the lift and still another in the garage at the same time. I don't intend to have 'large' cars or trucks... right now my two 'garage cars' are no more than 172" long. Examples in the sketch 185".

Suggestions welcome. One question - this lift can be set-up with a drive-through width of 93 or 99". Anything I should ck to confirm which to choose... i'm thinking 99" in order to give more clearance between the post and car door.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Northerndave]

I'd center the lift left and right, comumn centers in 14.5 to 15' ahead of the overhead door. Put the second car under the raised car at those times you need both inside. As you have it drawn you cant get the lift location car out without moving the other car anyways.

Your area in the sketch is almost exactly the same size room that i used to have a lift in. It worked well but i moved it to another area of my shoo and turned the room into a dedicated body work room to contain sanding dust.

 

[vavet]

Are you have the floor poured deeper in the area under the columns? If so, I'd be generous with that. Maybe do the full width. That gives you the flexibility to change your mind later if this doesn't work as well as you think it will.

As for centering the lift - I think it depends on how you intend to use the cars. Is one a project car and the other a daily? If so, that might make sense. If they're both semi-project or both dailys, you don't want to have to drive car1 in, set the lift arms, lift the car, etc before wifey gets home...every day.

 

[CraigStu]

Switch to an asymmetric and use the narrower width so you have more room to the right of the lift. As best I can tell on their website symmetric and asymmetric are both 10,000# capacity. When I was working as a Lexus tech we had 9000# asymmetric Rotary lifts. We lifted the big SUVs at 5500+ weight all the time

 

[pattenp]

The lift specs suggest no closer than 12' front or back to a wall or obstruction. Are you ever going to have anything such as tool boxes or a bench along the back wall? Did you look at the CL version that can be loaded either Asymmetrically or symmetrically?

 

[tff]

Thank you for the comments. I realize that since the garage is done, and I've already made certain choices, my flexibility is limited.
I was mainly looking for some feedback (which i got - thank you) and what I should consider when deciding on the drive-through width options this lift has.
-The small grey areas in my sketch are where the concrete was poured deeper, anticipating where the lift would go... so that is a constraint. These locations were driven by wanting to comfortably park 2 cars when not using the lift, being able to park a 2nd car inside when using the lift, I decided on symmetric mainly for 'comfort level'... not necessarily logic . Having said that I'll lay out the asymmetric version of this lift to see how that would look.
-My goal for the 2nd car is to 'store' in the garage as i work on another. It would not be a daily driver.
-I'm squeezing the front clearance down to 11' as I will normally have smaller cars and don't plan to have any cabinets directly in front of the lift.