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GLTHFJ60's Garage Chronicles

MaxJax is not my preferred route. They still take up space when not in use, only offers ~48" of lift height and are just as expensive as a two post lift.

For me it's either two post permanent lift or an in-ground scissor lift like SomeGuy did in his garage. I'd prefer the two-post lift option, and am mainly concerned with the right lift post to wall space issue. Is it a big deal that you wouldn't be able to walk around that column?

In-ground scissor lift from SomeGuy

 
That’s a big reason I haven’t looked at any lift for my shop beyond what I use now. I don’t lift vehicles off the ground nearly enough to justify going through that to install one and then having a fixed statue in my way the rest of the time. I use a big HD roll around A frame and I love it. I can move it out of the way when I need the room.
 
Landslide said:
That’s a big reason I haven’t looked at any lift for my shop beyond what I use now. I don’t lift vehicles off the ground nearly enough to justify going through that to install one and then having a fixed statue in my way the rest of the time. I use a big HD roll around A frame and I love it. I can move it out of the way when I need the room.
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I'm the opposite. I have multiple sets of wheels and tires for two out of our four vehicles that always seem to get swapped more often than I plan to. In addition to that, I find often procrastinate regular maintenance because I don't want to deal with jackstands or floor jacks, not to mention getting down and up off concrete a million times.
 
Any possibility of sticking a lift outside? I love mine, but it does take up a good chunk of real estate. For like 90% of what I do on it, it'd be just as useful sitting on a pad outside.
 
bgaidan said:
Any possibility of sticking a lift outside? I love mine, but it does take up a good chunk of real estate. For like 90% of what I do on it, it'd be just as useful sitting on a pad outside.
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Man I should do that....
 
Drawings look mighty fancy! How much working room would be available on the right side between a project on the lift and the wall? Curious if there is enough room to pull say a long side axle shaft while the vehicle in on the lift?

Walking around the beam, would be a slight inconvenience you'd get used to due to the convenience of having the lift in the first place.
 
bgaidan said:
Any possibility of sticking a lift outside? I love mine, but it does take up a good chunk of real estate. For like 90% of what I do on it, it'd be just as useful sitting on a pad outside.
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Not here at the house. I've taken enough liberties having my gantry crane in front of the house for the past 5-6 years.

Reality is I'm in a development, and I don't want to be the redneck house any more than I currently am, lol.

ridered3 said:
Drawings look mighty fancy! How much working room would be available on the right side between a project on the lift and the wall? Curious if there is enough room to pull say a long side axle shaft while the vehicle in on the lift?

Walking around the beam, would be a slight inconvenience you'd get used to due to the convenience of having the lift in the first place.
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Good question, I thought about that a little. The inside face of the right column arm attachment will be 36" or so off the wall. That should be an easy 48"+ of room for a long side axle shaft against that wall, probably more.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
Not here at the house. I've taken enough liberties having my gantry crane in front of the house for the past 5-6 years.

Reality is I'm in a development, and I don't want to be the redneck house any more than I currently am, lol.



Good question, I thought about that a little. The inside face of the right column arm attachment will be 36" or so off the wall. That should be an easy 48"+ of room for a long side axle shaft against that wall, probably more.
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Haha on not being anymore of the redneck that you currently are. Plus working outside in NC the winter months doesn't sound all that appealing.

Good deal on distances and the axle shaft scenario was the first thing I thought of with your drawing.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
I'm the opposite. I have multiple sets of wheels and tires for two out of our four vehicles that always seem to get swapped more often than I plan to. In addition to that, I find often procrastinate regular maintenance because I don't want to deal with jackstands or floor jacks, not to mention getting down and up off concrete a million times.
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I use a homemade low profile chair on caster wheels for any work on brakes etc. it would be nice to raise a vehicle up high enough to walk under it but I’d need a lot more ceiling height to accommodate that in my shop.

I hope it works out well for you.
 
Landslide said:
I use a homemade low profile chair on caster wheels for any work on brakes etc. it would be nice to raise a vehicle up high enough to walk under it but I’d need a lot more ceiling height to accommodate that in my shop.

I hope it works out well for you.
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When you said you had an a-frame, what did you mean exactly? Soinds like you have a low-rise or mid-rise lift, which was my second option.
 
I don’t think that inground lift would be very good. Does some guy like it? Seems like you would always be dropping shit in the bottom. Also, the plates would get in the way. The Max jack would always be there or always not be there because it would be too much PITA to bolt down for a quick job. Two post lift or nothing.

Ive always had this fantasy of two winches on my gantry crane. Put a beam across and hoist one end or the other of a car/truck. Might be a problem if your exhaust is the lowest thing on the car.
 
WaterH said:
I don’t think that inground lift would be very good. Does some guy like it? Seems like you would always be dropping shit in the bottom. Also, the plates would get in the way. The Max jack would always be there or always not be there because it would be too much PITA to bolt down for a quick job. Two post lift or nothing.

Ive always had this fantasy of two winches on my gantry crane. Put a beam across and hoist one end or the other of a car/truck. Might be a problem if your exhaust is the lowest thing on the car.
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SomeGuy care to weigh in on your experiences with your in-ground scissor lift?

A gantry style lift would be neat, but my mobile gantry isn't big enough for that, lol.
 
WaterH said:
I don’t think that inground lift would be very good. Does some guy like it? Seems like you would always be dropping shit in the bottom. Also, the plates would get in the way. The Max jack would always be there or always not be there because it would be too much PITA to bolt down for a quick job. Two post lift or nothing.

Ive always had this fantasy of two winches on my gantry crane. Put a beam across and hoist one end or the other of a car/truck. Might be a problem if your exhaust is the lowest thing on the car.
Click to expand...

GLTHFJ60 said:
SomeGuy care to weigh in on your experiences with your in-ground scissor lift?

A gantry style lift would be neat, but my mobile gantry isn't big enough for that, lol.
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Best lift arrangement ever, they're literally never in the way...just use the garage like normal, vehicles in and out, work on whatever, no big deal. I leave rubber mats over them when not in use, so you don't drop shit (or water) doesn't get in there. Working on them the platforms are almost never in the way, except if you're accessing the rocker area...but I've done exhaust, suspension, transmission/clutches, pulled engines, everything on this lift without it getting in the way. The lift platforms when up also give you a great place to set tools down when working in the wheels wells.

I'd say the only real downsides are 1) mine is only a mid-rise, so no walking underneath (but a low profile roller stool I built works)...but that was a limitation of my ceiling height, they make full rise scissors. and 2) putting a vehicle on and hitting lift points isn't as easy as a 2 post, you have to drive on just perfectly and there's only so much space for hitting lift points - longer vehicles I made some extensions for, but hitting full size truck frames is probably not in the cards...unibody only.

Given the vehicles I work on and the space I have, this is literally the best arrangement possible...I wouldn't buy the Bendpak again, probably the Rotary or Atlas or some other brand, but the style of lift is great.
 
SomeGuy said:
Best lift arrangement ever, they're literally never in the way...just use the garage like normal, vehicles in and out, work on whatever, no big deal. I leave rubber mats over them when not in use, so you don't drop shit (or water) doesn't get in there. Working on them the platforms are almost never in the way, except if you're accessing the rocker area...but I've done exhaust, suspension, transmission/clutches, pulled engines, everything on this lift without it getting in the way. The lift platforms when up also give you a great place to set tools down when working in the wheels wells.

I'd say the only real downsides are 1) mine is only a mid-rise, so no walking underneath (but a low profile roller stool I built works)...but that was a limitation of my ceiling height, they make full rise scissors. and 2) putting a vehicle on and hitting lift points isn't as easy as a 2 post, you have to drive on just perfectly and there's only so much space for hitting lift points - longer vehicles I made some extensions for, but hitting full size truck frames is probably not in the cards...unibody only.

Given the vehicles I work on and the space I have, this is literally the best arrangement possible...I wouldn't buy the Bendpak again, probably the Rotary or Atlas or some other brand, but the style of lift is great.
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I’m assuming you would put a jack stand on the lift plate to raise a truck. Is that not the case?
 
WaterH said:
I’m assuming you would put a jack stand on the lift plate to raise a truck. Is that not the case?
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It comes with rubber blocks that you use...the problem is the platform width between the two is fixed, and they're only 16ish inches wide, if you set the width to hit unibody pinch welds on most vehicles, they won't necessarily hit a truck frame lift points. I guess my extensions I could turn 90 degrees to span the two lift platforms to hit narrower lift points, haven't tried it though.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
Had a "build" thread to document this stuff on GJ, but GJ seems to be full of geriatric people who pay people to do work these days, not so much people building things themselves.
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Little late to the party here, but got a laugh out of this. Plenty of old men who yell at clouds (get off my lawn)! There are a few extremely talented fabricators. But not much in terms of custom structures, mostly rectangle pole buildings.
 
A friend had a low or mid rise scissor lift (not in ground, just sat on the concrete, big rectangle) and did not like it, said it was a waste of space and blocked access to the center of the car.

Aaron Z
 
Raising garage door headers. I removed the door to do the framing, then put it back in after the framing was done. One step at a time.

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Got the tension spring and additional panel put in today. The panel I bought doesn't exactly match the existing ones, but I have body hammers, so it was made to fit. Insulation will be added later.

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Track works which is such a relief. I've never set up a garage door before. It was frustrating, but the payoff is good. It was essentially free to modify all the track to fit the new profile I wanted which is bad ass.

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Speaking of frustrating, I didn't get the spring tension right the first time, which meant raising the door to full height caused a bit of a rats nest, lol. Easily fixed, but always learning.

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Where'd you find the individual door panels? I've managed to mangle the bottom panel (or two) on on of my shop doors with the forklift. :homer: I need to find a replacement and stick it up in the rafters so I can swap it before I sell.....but not before, because I know I'll fucking do it again.
 
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