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Building: Fiesta Ecoboost, Porsche 924, Audi TT
posted on 12/12/20 at 06:40 PM
Car lift
Evening all
I've always been nervous about crawling under cars on stands etc and would like to invest in something that lifts a car safely.
I've got a 9 foot ceiling in my garage and no chance of raising it (room above) so a two post lift would be no good probably and I doubt I have
the width too.
I've looked at the scissor lifts and whilst they don't give the height to be able to stand under the car, they do look a bit more stable
than axle stands!
I guess they're a bit of a pain to wind up and down but it's not like I'd be putting cars on and off a lot. Cars tend to spend
months (years!) in the air with me!
I had one for a while, didn't really work well for my spitfire (backbone chassis, but the lift acted on the sills, so te chassis was hanging off
the shell, not ideal) But on teh plus side, I found teh tilting really handy. I had to do some welding to the front of the chassis, and with at full
tilt I had loads of space.
I have seen a low manual 4 post lift, that looked handy, not sure if it could be used with a jacking bar.
Big plus of the tilting lift is cost. I got mine "secondhand" but unused. Had it a year, used a few times, so didn't loose any
money. (I have returned to my Weber jack and decent axle stands)
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Building: Have a British Locost with mk2 Escort running gear
posted on 12/12/20 at 10:10 PM
I have a scissor lift in my under 8 foot garage and I absolutely HATE it. It is hard to work under and it's structure is always in the way.
About the only thing it is good for is changing the tires. Russ
I have a low roof in the garage but this lift gets the Suttol up to a working height inside.
I've changed an engine in an MX5 by removing the bonnet. Lift and remove the underside stuff,
then lower and lift the engine out with a hydraulic crane.
However, it's portable so can be wheeled out and then will lift 3.5 tonne to 1300mm.
Will lift on chassis, suspension, or use the outriggers and lift by the sills.
I have a 3ton scissor lift in my garage, 9ft ceiling . The lift has a 1m total lift
I have to say it's the best £1500 I have ever spent, it so easy to use, totally reliable and safe, needs a compressed air link to enable the
safety stop to be released and ensures if the hydraulics fail it only drops about 50mm
I've had it for about 5 years, it makes things so easy, yes its structure can get in the way a little but it's so much better than faffing
around with ramps and jacks etc
It's also mobile and I have used it on the tarred area in front of the garage on occasion, although it does weight about 500kg
Brilliant thing , wouldn't swap it, very similar to this one
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Building: up the courage for post thirteen thousand and one
posted on 13/12/20 at 03:56 PM
quote:Originally posted by lsdweb
I guess they're a bit of a pain to wind up and down but it's not like I'd be putting cars on and off a lot
I'm sure with a bit of ingenuity and the use of a welder, a large bolt or nut can be fixed to the winding mechanism to be turned with a cordless
impact driver.
I guess they're a bit of a pain to wind up and down but it's not like I'd be putting cars on and off a lot
I'm sure with a bit of ingenuity and the use of a welder, a large bolt or nut can be fixed to the winding mechanism to be turned with a cordless
impact driver.
They come with a 1/2" adaptor for a drill. My reasonably powerful cordless would work on slow speed (gearbox) once the car was lifted a bit off
the ground, as the geometry means it is hardest with teh jack fully lowered.
A decent mains drill with 2 speeds would work well. I doubt an impact driver would work well, they only create very tiny movements on each impact.
I guess they're a bit of a pain to wind up and down but it's not like I'd be putting cars on and off a lot
I'm sure with a bit of ingenuity and the use of a welder, a large bolt or nut can be fixed to the winding mechanism to be turned with a cordless
impact driver.
They come with a 1/2" adaptor for a drill. My reasonably powerful cordless would work on slow speed (gearbox) once the car was lifted a bit off
the ground, as the geometry means it is hardest with teh jack fully lowered.
A decent mains drill with 2 speeds would work well. I doubt an impact driver would work well, they only create very tiny movements on each impact.
I use a Ryobi 18v drill with a 5amp battery on low speed, works well,(not so well with the supplied 2.5amp battery) but I always use the hand crank
first to lift it about 4inches as you say
quote:Originally posted by lsdweb
Thanks for all the responses.
Some quite mixed views!
The tilt looks useful and scary at the same time - what stops the car sliding off?
Thanks
Wyn
The jacking points are rubber lined and the wheels not in the air are on the ground I also chock the grounded wheels, but
there is not much chance of the car sliding off, if any.
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Building: Sold turboblade, back to tin tops
posted on 15/12/20 at 12:16 AM
I have a two post lift in my garage, it’s great.
Although I have altered the roof structure to allow full height it mostly gets used with the car at waist height so you can work horizontally rather
than down.
It’s a screw lift BTW, fitted new load nuts and a single phase motor with smaller pulley.
Photo Archive
Building: Fiesta Ecoboost, Porsche 924, Audi TT
posted on 18/12/20 at 10:03 AM
Thanks for all the replies! Lots to think about.
The best deal I've seen is this Sealey one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/352803793169?mkevt=1&mkcid=28&chn=ps . It can be widened /
narrowed which is useful, as I'll have 2 cars going on it probably - Fury and Audi TT. The instructions do say that axle stands must still be
used though!
