4 Post Lift Advice Needed

[Rruuff Day]

Hey guys. I'm considering installing a 4 post lift in my mancave. PA has a Torin 9000 lb on sale at the moment. Would appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks.

 

[Cariboocreek]

Ok mister just outside of Calgary

Was going to post a long answer but it was not saved to ipad,
Yup 1 year to study and then buy will get the make tonight
then my mother in laws car could fit in our 60 by 60 garage as she aged
we sold her car after she passed and I still have the lift

Had a camaro 50th anniversary grey under the corvette one winter, a 2014 mustang convertible 2 winter a mustang BULLITT one winter and a truck up to the rear window one winter

so this spring took the wife’s convertible out from below and lowered the lift to about 2 feet off the ground to check tender and left it there

a week later went to get the pickup out of that side of the garage and low and behold the front of the lift was on the ground and the back end was 2 feet high
corvette looked like a funnny car. or a. FUNNY CAR. depending on,your sense of humour or not

rats was I mad, what to do, get a picker truck in there, use 2 jack all’s, use 2 hydraulic jacks and then 8 by 8’s to keep it level then a picker truck

after sitting for 47 minutes I said.
‘just try to lift it again if it breaks the car will be level on the floor and then drive it off once putting the 4 inch ramps on

slowwwwwwwwwwly I pushed the bottom and the front lifted up past level
then pushed the bottom to lower the hydraulic fluid out of the mechanism and it was safely on the ground

did I perhaps push the front posts to far apart after moving the lift 10 times to get it perfect where I wanted it

not sure but man that was as scary as losing control when doing a burnout

same sinking feeling

so will have to,check out what was done if any damage, will measure the distance on the 2 sets of posts, front and back and see


I am so bloody careful when putting it up, I go past the slamming of the side pieces into the holes and then up a]halfway to the next hole

then stop for a few seconds

then push the button to let the lift down and watch it catch on all 2 holes level before even honking what vehicle to place under the corvette

‘scary yes

oh buy the larger heavier rated one and yes got the company to install and put together the lift and still this happened


tired of typing now must go to bed and hope to not relive the memories

Was the lift installed improperly? Was it a crappy lift? Was it operator error? Was it a lunar eclipse?

 

[Rruuff Day]

Ok mister just outside of Calgary

Was going to post a long answer but it was not saved to ipad,
Yup 1 year to study and then buy will get the make tonight
then my mother in laws car could fit in our 60 by 60 garage as she aged
we sold her car after she passed and I still have the lift

Had a camaro 50th anniversary grey under the corvette one winter, a 2014 mustang convertible 2 winter a mustang BULLITT one winter and a truck up to the rear window one winter

so this spring took the wife’s convertible out from below and lowered the lift to about 2 feet off the ground to check tender and left it there

a week later went to get the pickup out of that side of the garage and low and behold the front of the lift was on the ground and the back end was 2 feet high
corvette looked like a funnny car. or a. FUNNY CAR. depending on,your sense of humour or not

rats was I mad, what to do, get a picker truck in there, use 2 jack all’s, use 2 hydraulic jacks and then 8 by 8’s to keep it level then a picker truck

after sitting for 47 minutes I said.
‘just try to lift it again if it breaks the car will be level on the floor and then drive it off once putting the 4 inch ramps on

slowwwwwwwwwwly I pushed the bottom and the front lifted up past level
then pushed the bottom to lower the hydraulic fluid out of the mechanism and it was safely on the ground

did I perhaps push the front posts to far apart after moving the lift 10 times to get it perfect where I wanted it

not sure but man that was as scary as losing control when doing a burnout

same sinking feeling

so will have to,check out what was done if any damage, will measure the distance on the 2 sets of posts, front and back and see


I am so bloody careful when putting it up, I go past the slamming of the side pieces into the holes and then up a]halfway to the next hole

then stop for a few seconds

then push the button to let the lift down and watch it catch on all 2 holes level before even honking what vehicle to place under the corvette

‘scary yes

oh buy the larger heavier rated one and yes got the company to install and put together the lift and still this happened


tired of typing now must go to bed and hope to not relive the memories

Lucky Corvette.... Would not nearly had been a funny car look if you had left it up much higher... Would have had to change it's name from Grand Sport to Grand Slam.

 

[gone]

This is on my wish list for the summer and I am concerned about what is required for the garage door. I have 11 foot ceiling. Is it just having a garage door guy come in and raise the bend point so the door opens near the ceiling? Is there any restriction on using the electric opener. Would appreciate advice from those who have done this.

I've also got an 11' ceiling and the traditional overhead garage door openers (installed on the ceiling) wouldn't work for my vehicles: the height required depends on what's parked on and below the lift. Yours may allow the traditional ceiling mounted motors, if parking 2 vehicles that are both very low to the ground, using less height. But because of the combined height of my particular 2 vehicles for the lift, I went with the Liftmaster 8500 side mounted motors and so far they've worked AOK.

I did have one issue with the Liftmaster 8500's since I installed one for each overhead door and when the 2 wall controls (which allowed me to open/close each overhead door) were placed side-by-each, the overhead ceiling lights which were activated by motion detectors in the controls, wouldn't turn on those ceiling lights. So I'd walk into the garage from the house and in front of the 2 wall controls and no garage lights would turn on. Following at least 6 return visits to my garage and trying different things, they finally determined the signal from each wall control, was cancelling the other signal out. After programming only one wall switch to work, that solved the light activation problem. Good luck to you Vanguard2001 (and of course Rruuff Day as well).

 

[Vanguard2001]

Thanks guys for your feedback and advice. Thanks to Ruff for giving me an opportunity to pile-on to his thread.

 

[umpy]

I went with the Atlas Equipment lift ( Calgary ) they a have a few locations across Canada. Mine came out of the Vaughan warehouse in Toronto.
You'll need to look at a jack shaft door opener. Or just go manual.
If you have a high enough garage. You could also consider at high lift door option.....but that adds to your overall cost.
My garage height was about 10' -5" at the front and sloping down to about 10'-7" or so at the door entrance. The Atlas lift also has safety locks about every 6-8" or so in every column. It's a 4 cable lift as well.
If you have a Grand Sport or Z06. The width is tight. So keep an eye on that.