Bruce Wolfe wrote:
> 1) What auto lift do you prefer and why?
I'm in Canada and these things are heavy to ship,
so the pool of lifts I chose from is likely different
than the pool of lifts you will choose from.
Anyways...
My lift is a Hydralift, which is a little different
than most four post lifts for hobby sale in the US.
My lift has the four posts bolted to the floor,
and the platform that goes up and down the lift
relies on it for positioning. Think of it as four
posts bolted to the floor on their own, and
a platform with rubbing blocks that is "trapped"
in between these four and is raised and lowered
by cables.
Most of the US based lifts are a unit that isn't
bolted to the floor, the posts are held by the platform,
or there are additional "ties" between the posts to
keep them vertical.
My list looks a hell of a lot more solid than the
other types, but perhaps not in any useful way. The
bad news about my type is that you can't move
it around, some lifts have casters so you can fine
tune it's position in your garage.
With mine, I had to guess the day I got it and it's
been there since. I'd prefer it about 4 inches
back and outside from where it is now, but I'm moving
house so I'll remember that in the new place.
My lift is visible in some of these pics:
http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/midget/midget_overdrive.html
> 2) How big (wideXtall) should the garage be to accommodate
> said lift?
My lift fits very comfortable in one bay of a suburban
two bay garage. (20x20 feet outside, attached to a house
so two walls are shared with the house and the door to the
house on the side)
The posts close to the wall are four inches from the
wall (as close as they can be safety-wise, so the floor
bolts have solid concrete).
This puts the two other posts more or less in the middle
of the garage, which works just fine. It's still easy to
drive the other car in and out, and since the posts are
front and back it doesn't get in the way when you open
the doors on either car.
My garage is 10.5 feet high, which is enough room to
park two british convertibles on top of each other.
It's also enough room to put a british convertible
up to the roof and stand underneath, but I'm only 5'6"
so that's not true for everyone including you.
However, I have found that I usually don't like
to stand anyways. I prefer to sit on a nice rolling chair
under the car, it's more relaxing and it also means
you can reach the tools you have spread out
on the floor.
For that height you have lots of room, my MG Magnette
is a REALLY tall car and I still have oodles of room because
I only lock the lift around chest high.
Note that you might have to high lift your garage
door so that you can open and close the door when a
car is on top.
I did mine with no parts, just some grinding and welding
to move the track around. Works fine, I can send details
if you want.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
Any part can be removed with the careful application of too much force.
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