2/4 post lifts for home garage use - Help

[60six]

hi

Been thinking about a 2/4 post lift for the garage - Didn't realise that there are now a lot more options - Anyone have any knowledge or experience on these?

Just a quick search on eBay brings you the myriad of options

www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=car+lift&_pgn=2&_skc=50&rt=nc

[Dez]

Buy brand name second-hand rather than cheapy no-name new.

For one they’ll be considerably less to start with, and two youll have spares backup and a service network. A lot of places refuse to work on the cheap Chinese ramps but are perfectly happy working on older brand name stuff. Pretty much all wearing parts for the older brand name ramps are still produced.

Personally I prefer stenhoj (danish) over Bradbury. I’m on my second after I lost the first in a fire and they’ve both been great. Both were around £500 second hand.

Also, consider what you’re gunna use it for. I hate 2 poster lifts personally, not a lot do good for what I do and a total pain with low cars. I find a 4 poster with a couple of good jacking beams far more adaptable and useful, but then I’m not just doing servicing like most people are. .

[slater]

They all have thier pros and cons but i have to say I still rate a good 2 poster over any of the other offerings. 4 posters simply take up too much space. 'mobile' scissor lifts and single posters get in the way of working on the middle of the car etc. The only other type I'd consider is a proper scissor lift sunken flush in the ground.

The thing with a two poster is they are reliant on having a good floor and possibly having to sink the whole lift into the floor to get low cars on. I understand why people opt for the mobile lifts as thue don't want the hassle of all that.

[daklone]

I've often wondered; with a 2-post lift, could you not just put a beam across the arms either side and drive onto it like a 4-post?

[VW]

Its worth bearing in mind what your lifting.
My friend has 4 rotary 2 post lifts and i cant really put by bedford cf on them. The problem is it needs to be supported on the chassis rails and as they are so high up inside the sills it just doesnt feel safe. I'm sure it could be done with the extenders etc, but it would need something like 12" of extension on the arms.
For this reason i use his 4 post instead. If he didnt have the 4 post I'm sure we could find a way, just worth bearing in mind.
The 4 post is great, but sometimes access around the wheels is a bit more awkward than on a 2 post.

[kevins]

When we lift transits on 2 post lifts at work we use ratchet straps to make sure it can't move.

I have an old 4 post lift at home, only cost a couple of hundred pounds and is perfect for what I need, allows me to store 2 cars in a single space and with a jacking beam working on most areas is pretty easy. The only thing that is a bit of a pain is removing fwd transmissions or when I have needed to paint the underside of a car.

[ian65]

I bought a 4 ton 2 post lift from Automotec and it's the best money I spent on my garage build.



I did a load of research and quite a few local garage businesses were using this exact same lift and all highly recommended it. Automotec are based about 0 miles from me so I went there and spoke to Steve the owner who couldn't have been more helpful and did me a great deal. A mate of mine also wanted one so Steve did us a deal for 2 lifts and we collected them from his unit.

The lift has already paid for itself many times over and is superb.

This is the one I bought...

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-POST-LIFT-CAR-VEHICLE-RAMP-HOIST-4-TON-4000Kg-NEW-TWO-POSTER/264314245094?hash=item3d8a5b4fe6:g:R-YAAOSwrklU2xSB

you can see from the photo above the faith I have in it.... last winter, as well as using it for working on my cars I also used it to store one above the other to keep them out of the snow.

[Dez]

What I like about a 4 poster with a jacking beam is you can set it 3’ off the floor so it’s like having the entire car on the bench, with it jacked up and the wheels off etc. You can lay all your tools and parts out along the ramp bed like you would on the bench and it makes for a nice work area. 2 posters you have to have a work trolley or something and you’re back and forth to it all the time, and it’s invariably never big enough or solid enough.

I think the age of the car you’re working on matters a lot though. Moderns (70s onwards) are designed for ‘bottom up’ servicing and repair, whereas older stuff isn’t designed like that and it’s more about having it at a better working height.

[OGDB]

I’ve always preferred the use of 2 posters over 4. However I’ve never seen a car fall off a 4 poster... well I have but it was a very avoidable occurrence! I have a friend with a 4 post lift, oddly his one doesn’t have the support beam, only the lifting platform.

I would love one in my garage once it’s rebuilt, but I am concerned about how high the pent roof will be.

I am very tempted by these store away scissor lifts. I may get one of these and see how I get on with it. If I use it enough I could possibly justify a 2/4 poster.

[comfortablynumb]

Thanks for this thread and all the replies. I’ve been considering a lift for a while for my barn, and it’s giving me food for thought.
With apologies to the op for the hijack, is a decent concrete pad good enough for a 2 post, or should I be looking at doing the whole floor? Tia

[forkliftfred]

I've been considering one for a while too. The trouble i'm finding is they mostly seem to be 3 phase. I only have a 240v supply. I'm guessing it could be costly to convert?

[slater]

It depends what type it is to a certain extent. Some bolt onto a steel sub frame that helps spread the load on the floor but unless you sink it in they make getting low cars on impossible. Some bolt stright to the concrete. I think from memory they spec a 6inch thick slab/floor minimum on the latter but you might want to check that. The floor in my shop is barely 3 inch thick which is why ive not gotten around to fitting one yet.. my plan is to dig an H shape trench in the floor and fill it with reinforced concrete to a deapth of about a foot. As long as the slab is as big as the car I cant see there being any problem.

[slater]

And to answer the 3 phase question a screw type would be as easy as swapping the motor. You do need a fairly large motor on them tho so you may find you need the supply upgraded. (It's not going to work off a 13amp plug i wouldnt think!) The hydraulic type just use a pump and I'm sure single phase pumps are available but it may cost a bit more than just swapping the motor.

[VW]

A friend has just finished putting his lift in, he took the motor to be rewound to single phase as its specific to the lift and not easily replaceable.
The motor company played with it a while and converted it to single phase with a capacitor.

I don't know the ins and outs, but it took them a while of playing to find the right value and you loose a little power, but its done the job for him.

There are many ways to overcome the 3 phase issue though.

[ian65]

Sept 13, 2019 7:02:49 GMT comfortablynumb said:

Thanks for this thread and all the replies. I’ve been considering a lift for a while for my barn, and it’s giving me food for thought.
With apologies to the op for the hijack, is a decent concrete pad good enough for a 2 post, or should I be looking at doing the whole floor? Tia

you definitely need a reinforced concrete floor for a 2 post lift. When I built my garage I put 15mm of compacted type 1 roadstone, 25mm of sandblinding, 1200g dpc visqeen, steel mesh reinforcement then 150mm of C35 readymixed concrete. Additionally underneath each lift column I dug out a pit 1000mm long, 600mm wide and 600mm deep and put a steel rebar cage in each one before mass filling it with concrete as the floor was poured.
The 2 post lifts bolt down to the floor with M20 rawlbolts and there is a lot of pressure and stress on the floor when you have a car on the lift...

check out the photos of my floor construction here...

forum.retro-rides.org/thread/197207/another-garage-workshop-mancave-thread?page=1


.

[ian65]

Sept 13, 2019 7:19:36 GMT forkliftfred said:

I've been considering one for a while too. The trouble i'm finding is they mostly seem to be 3 phase. I only have a 240v supply. I'm guessing it could be costly to convert?

Just buy a single phase 240v lift... the Automotec lift I posted above is available in either single or 3 phase. If you buy a single phase lift you need a 30a supply running from your main consumer unit in your house / garage /workshop.

[Flynn]

I bought a 4 poster Findhorn lift from Strongman tools (sm-t.co.uk/product/findhorn-4-post-lift/). I went with that one because although I suspect the ramp itself is built in the far east, strongman tools are based not far from me and seem to have been around for a while, they can offer spares and advice when required. They are also kitted up for supporting domestic customers like me who don't have a forklift to unload the thing when it arrives! It is quite a bit smaller than a commercial 4 poster but just big enough for anything I am ever going to put on it.

I've had mine since March last year and it has been the single best car related tool I have ever bought by a long, long way. My knees, back, shoulders and neck have all been thanking me ever since and I have been able to tackle some truly awful jobs on it that I simply wouldn't have been able to consider if I didn't have it.

It has given me an extra, under cover parking space when I'm not using it for work on the cars. I think the only time for me that a 2 poster would have been better has been getting engines out, the cross beam gets in the way of the engine crane I have to use and it makes it all a bit of a faff, still doable though!