Personal auto/truck lift at home?
 

How many of you have a lift at home? Can you pull the motor out of a boat with one?

I have 14' clearance to the bottom of rafters in my building. I am considering buying a used lift for personal use, but I don't really know if I should or not.

For those of you "hobbyists", do you consider it indispensable? If you are doing a quick oil change, do you throw it up on the rack, or do you just change it on the ground like the rest of us? I'm not a big guy, so I'm fortunate that I can even change the oil in the MB without lifting it via ramps/jacks.

I paid someone to replace the transmission in one of my cars a few weeks ago, and the labor would have paid for about 1/2 of a used auto lift. This has me wondering if I would use the lift or would it just be wasted money and space. I'd probably go with a two post lift. I don't need to debate brands at this time. I just need to know how much y'all like and use them if you have one. I've found a used 10K lbs. auto and truck lift for $1500 which would lift anything I'd ever need it to, including the dually. I've seen used auto only lifts for around $700-800.

I have access to lifts when I really need them. One is about 8 miles from home, and the other is about 30. I can use them only after business hours and/or weekends, and not for long term projects.

Thanks for your insight.

Dam you Brian......I've considered one several times and with my most recent enw toy (as of tomorrow) I'll need one even more. I was looking for the exact same requirements and found pulling boat engines would be unlikely since they are designed to get the wheels about 6-7 feet off the ground......the lifting arms simply don't go high enough to pull a motor out (none of the $2,500 ones anyway)

Russ, there is a reason I have not gone to see you guys race. I don't want to get hooked. I am already eyeballing drag cars.

I like this kind because its gets the car up in the air quickly.
http://richmond.craigslist.org/tls/3245595391.html

But I really don't know if I want one or not.

fixx
 

if you had a gantre style posts that goes over the arms then yes you can lift a engine out of a boat..im lucky to have a over head beam that i put a trolly on and a chain hoist and i also have a toyota 3500lb forklift with a 8' beam that works just fine..i have the lift also and its nice to lift the boat off the trailer once in a whyle to clean and wax the bottom..

fixx
 

thats a aleighment rack,,if you get it make sure the vehicle is in park..

that not really a good rack to work with,that rack is really only for cars and the drive on part is about 1800 lbs so in reality the lifting capacity is around 7000 lbs..that rack is about 20 yrs old..the drive on part also rust out from the road salt that the cars drop on it in the winter time,thats if you use salt in your area..
A really good 2 post is mohawk,ALM,Forward and chalenger..the rotery is a good name but over the years they have gotten cheaper and as the lift goes highr the the post seperates..if you look at the top of the rotery you will see their fix is they weld a metal strap across the beam to keep it from seperating..

This one has my attention: http://fredericksburg.craigslist.org...252660483.html

I saw that, and thank you. I over engineer anything and everything, so I'd probably have rubber chocks in place before lifting anyhow. That particular one does have the hydraulics though so you can lift the vehicle up by the frame when you are under the car directly eyeballing your placement.

One of my first jobs was working at a car dealer. I was using a floor jack to lift the front of an S-10 pickup and the jack slipped off the center suspension frame pad. The jack tore up the fan shroud and the fan, and probably ate up one of my nine lives at that job.
(Admittedly two other lives were for getting caught doing burnouts. :daz: One was a 1986 Mustang GT, and the other was the boss' GNX. :eek: )

I've got two in a 105' X 30' building behind my house. A single post inground and an above ground two post asymmetrical. Both are older Rotaries. The inground lift I use for aircooled 911 Porsches. For that application it is perfect, but the cradle is in the way to work on stuff in the middle of conventional cars. I only mention it because when you spend time on the single post, then move to the above ground, the posts being in the way of the car's doors and having to drag air hose, electrical cords, etc around the posts is an annoyance. But anything is better than working on the floor.

That being said... a two post above ground is easy to buy, easy to install, easy to sell or move to another location, lifts most anything you will ever need to lift, and you can park two cars in the same spot on the floor. My Rotary clears a 14' foot ceiling by several inches.

As far as boat engine removal... The beam that spans the posts on mine I don't think I would trust with much weight. It is there to set the distance of the posts, provide a place for hydraulic lines to run, and hold the height safety switch. A small outboard, maybe, but not a BBC. Width will also be a problem. My 10K lb lift is too narrow to accomodate my Ski Nautique trailer, let alone something bigger/wider. Height will also be a problem. My 271 Formula's stern deck is 7' high on the trailer, the motor is 3' top to bottom, my chain fall is 3' hooked to an I-beam clamp fully retracted. There would need to be an eyebolt on the flame arrestor for 14' to work with my combination.

In summary, if you have the room and do enough car work to justify a lift, you won't ever regret it.

I'd kill for a two post in my garage.

Check the floor specs before you make the purchase. The concrete has to be a certain thickness to hold the lift, I bet a lot of residential floors are too thin.