I've been slowly working on getting my garage ready for working on my car. I did take the car to a garage in Plainville, Ct to have their resident expert take a look at my car. I had them go through my list of items and inspect the car for anything else that caught their attention. I had planned to do most work myself, but with summer coming to a close I really wanted to use the car for the rest of this year before winter and didn't feel comfortable tearing into an unfamiliar car and having it down while the weather is good and my garage still needed some preparation, work bench, lights, heat etc. My speedometer stopped working the weekend before I brought it to the garage, and I jacked up the car, used jackstands and some safety blocks I had built. By the time I was at the transmission, it was about 3" from my nose. Not comfortable with that at all. I was thinking about getting one of these-

https://www.garageappeal.com/MR6K-38...SABEgKrmvD_BwE

It appears to be dimensionally correct for this car. Those of you who have some sort of lift in our garage, what do you have and do you like it? By the way, I was content with the work done on my car. Very reasonable prices and the owner /mechanic who works on the older cars has 11 XJ-S's of his own. He does race some as well, and seemed very knowledgeable about the XJ-S's.

 

I saw an ad this weekend for this:

https://www.maxjax.com/

Looked like a good solution, but I wonder what the specs of the concrete floors would have to be.

 

I have a 4 post hoist and it is good for most things, except suspension work. When I need to do wheels off work, I have a bridge jack that fits on the hoist rails and slides to wherever I need it. It's air powered and can raise the body nicely.

I'm not familiar with USA prices for lifts, but intuitively that seems expensive to me. I did consider something similar, but if I recall it limited access to the centre of the car quite a bit. I was able to pick up a lightly used 4 post hoist for about half that, and I liked the stability and security of the 4 post. I have had a car come off jackstands once and off a jack once and I swore I was never lifting a car with a jack ever again. With a 4 post I drive onto the ramps, push the button and up it goes.

In my dream garage I'd have both a 4 post and 2 post hoist for maximum versatility, with 12' ceilings. Regarding floors, the usual rule is you need a slab about 4" thick of well cured concrete to support a hoist. I'd want to wait at least a year from pouring before mounting a hoist, but if your floor is older then you should be fine.

 

I'll echo everything, but add a few. The two-post is the most versatile for car repair but there are some benefits to the drive-on convenience of ramps. I have used my 4-post for storage on a few occasions. I bought two of the bridge jacks with my 4-post, not just one. That way I can lift all four wheels off the ramps easily and its almost.....almost, but not quite as versatile as a two-post. Most four-posts will come with a "jack tray". Jack tray is unfortunately too narrow for bottle jacks to line up with the jacking points on any car body and pretty much useless for anything but a solid axle. That's why I went with the two bridge jacks. If I had front wheel drive cars or rear engine cars, I would have to more seriously consider a two-post. The one thing you absolutely can't do with a 4-post is you can't drop a motor/subframe assembly out the bottom. But with front-engine, rear drive layouts, a 4-post with two bridge jacks can accommodate most every repair you'd ever do.

I don't have tall ceiling either. Just to be safe, I rigged up a limit switch that cuts power to the lift if a car comes within two inches of contact with the trusses. I can get most sports cars up high enough to walk under them, but I'm only 5' 7". Sedans I have to stoop over a bit, but its still several orders of magnitude better than jack stands and a creeper. Trucks I can use a short stool or if I'm trying to torque a bolt, rubber kneepads. The only downside is sometimes banging my head. I cut my bald scalp a few times and found the solution was to cut the bill off a baseball cap and wear that when I'm working under a car. Still bang my head once in a while but it doesn't cut a gash anymore. If you still have your hair, then you're probably ok. However, I find that most of my work is on the brakes or suspension anyway. In those situations, the 4-post with bridge jacks is ideal because I raise the wheels to a comfortable working height and its like I'd put the whole car on top of my workbench. I also frequently use it that way to clean my wheels and to polish and wax the sides of the car (again the drive-on convenience).

I know people who have 4-posts in an ordinary 2-car attached suburban garage but I think the main limitation of either "post" style is the footprint. They're considerably wider than your car and the posts are obstacles to work around in a tight garage, in some cases encroaching on the neighboring garage bay. But no matter which type you choose or what your garage layout is, I can almost guarantee that once you have it, you'll wonder why you didn't get one much sooner. Its going to be like your cellphone. You will never want to be without one ever again. Hey maybe I should be a lift salesman? Wonder how much I could make?

 

Totally agree with that! Even for things like oil changes it makes it so much easier.

It is possible to drop an engine with a 4 post though. I dropped a 3.8 XK engine out the bottom. It didn't have manifolds, and a straight 6 is quite narrow. Wasn't easy though, and getting the front suspension off was a pain.

 

Hello, I have four post and a QuickJack 5000 which is a mid rise lift. I went with a four post because I do not have a good concrete floor in the barn, and I was afraid some of my cars were too rusty for a two post lift. Overall I’ve been very satisfied, but I could not use the lift with the JD6 Jaguar front spr8ng compressor tool.its just too long and the ramps get in the way. I bought the mid rise lift thinking it would leave enough space for spring tool, but it simply does not go high enough. I have found it very useful and intend to use it in the paint booth I don’t own yet. If I had good concrete I’d get a two post in a heartbeat.

 

I have a maxjax in my garage works well.

 

I really thought I'd love a Bendpak Midrise Jack like the one you referenced. With all the work I did behind the front kmember, it would have been awful. Most of my creeper rolling was between the wheels on the side. I really like the idea of max Jack.

 

If you get the bridge jacks, I guess depending on the make and model, you may can add extensions to get a little more height over the ramps. Mine I can lift in stages and get a little more height with extensions. What I do is lift the tires off, place a thick block of wood under the tires and let it back down. That gives me the space under a low slung car to install the longer truck/4x4 extensions on the bridge jacks. But even that is only gets it up so high. I did once run into a situation where the only way to remove a sway bar without dismantling half the car was to swing it downward to thread it through a hole in one side of the chassis. I needed about four feet clear and that just wasn't going to happen. But I still love this lift for what it CAN do.

 

What I have done in a similar situation was put the bridge jack right at the end of the hoist and picked the car up behind the engine, so the front wheels were off the hoist. I chained down the rear of the car to make sure it wouldn't tip forward, but then I was able to have the front of the car with nothing underneath it. Sort of a bodge to make it like a 2 post.

 

For the layout in my garage, the maxjack isn't going to work. There isn't enough room on the side for posts, 2 or 4. I also will be limited a bit height wise as well, so a mid rise lift can be used without alterations to the garage door opener. The garage serves a multitude of functions, including housing my wife's car, and I think posts would just be a constant obstacle to work around. The lift I posted at the beginning of this thread would stay put and not interfere with any other uses of the space.
I'm friends with a couple who were house shopping. They went to look at a house that had a detached 3 car garage with a full lift in the center bay. They bought that house just because of the shop!

 

Just something to bear in mind, Maxjax is designed to be used then unbolted and packed away. It has wheels. I have had one for years and have three locations (inserts in the floor) that I can use it. 5 bolts each side that is all. Lifts about 4 ft. I personally don't like the one you are looking at.

Here is mine being used.

 

what is the maximum width in that setup?

 

I did notice that it can be moved. What is it you don't like about the MR6K-38? The only thing I don't like is that maybe the bars between the 2 ramps may be a pain to work around at times, but I also like the fact that they are tied together, unlike some of the others that are not.

I also noticed the wheels on the maxjax. I'm sure it works well, but I am leary of that much weight on either side of the center post, depending on 5 bolts to support the post vertically. I also don't know if my garage floor is built well enough to use that type of lift. I haven't seen any lifts in person other than the types in service stations.

 

Well, as long as we're sharing..... Body lift can also be done with a 4-post if you buy one tall enough. I liked this because I was able to support the body not only in the middle, but I also have a strap on the radiator core support in the nose of this Corvette.


Sure beats the "six of your drinking buddies" method.

 

Maximum width of what exactly?

There is way too much hardware in the way. I scoot around underneath on a little wheeled stool and I don't like hitting my head ! But often I am working on something at the back and scoot to the front to get parts, tools etc. Those bars would be a nightmare. Or if you are removing a driveshaft or exhaust system they would be a real pain also If you are welding the floor how could you use it? Lots of issues.

The MaxJax is from a reputable company and has been designed properly. Much of the load on the bolts is a bending moment, it is not trying to pull them out of the concrete vertically.

 

[QUOTE=kansanbrit;2290878]Maximum width of what exactly?
/QUOTE]

the maximum width from the outside of one post to the other post, when the lift is being used.

 

If you have a ceiling height of 8 ft. or so, you can’t beat a 4-post lift. Advantages are more stability and, when not using lift, you can raise the platform up and park underneath it without having to run up on the tracks every time you go in or out. If your ceiling height is 10-11 ft., you can raise one car up and park another underneath.

 

[QUOTE=Xjeffs;2290934]
It's up to you when you decide on the bolt pattern. I have some narrow cars (MGTD) which have inboard chassis rails so probably went narrower than max but don't know if the manufacturer has a maximum recommendation. Check out the spec.

 

Agreed. But they also have a very large footprint and I certainly could not accommodate one. Plus I wanted to be able to park my RV in the same location during the winter months. That was the plan anyway.