> So I'm curious what experience others might have had in
> this area,
> brands/features/whatever. What fits and what doesn't, and
> whether some cars
> won't fit (I'm primarily interested in our three cars and
> my nephew's 1989
> Trans-Am, but I betcha others will want to borrow it).
And
> how they hold up. <snip>
I just built a new garage, and had the first floor height
set at twelve feet so that I could put in a lift. Same
reasons as you - mostly to fit in another car, while also
getting underneath. What sparked my interest were the ads
in Hemmings for lifts as cheap as about two grand.
I wasn't happy after the garage was started to find out
that the cheapest was now about three grand (the Hemmings
copy I had was about a year old - I just hit their web site
now).
But when a local sales guy called from one of the
manufacturers, he told me about a used one he knew of for
sale from a muffler shop that went out of business. A four
post Western Hoist lift http://www.westernhoist.com/.
Seventeen hundred bucks and it came with about a thousand
muffler clamps, a transmission jack, etc., etc.
Anyway, I bought it, and paid some folks who do this for a
living about 300 bucks to drag it up the mountain from
Roanoke and install it. Not a trivial task - the top beam
with the hydraulic cylinder weighs about a thousand pounds
and we had to use the tractor to lift it up through the
window of the garage. I think if we had four people we
could have done it without mechanical aid. Took about all
day. The feller who helped install said Western was top of
the line. He may well have just been strokin'.
In order to make my significant other more content about me
having spent every night and weekend of the summer working
on building the garage, her Suzuki was the first on the
lift. Got a whole new exhaust system in without one swear
word or busted knuckle, all in about an hour. Bonus!
But the next thing she needed was brakes all around, and
that's where the four post is worthless. Off the rack, and
back to the floor jack.
The Tiger now lives up in the air, with another car below
it. The ultimate (and most expensive) solution to that
mice problem......
In any event, I think that the lift was the best tool
purchase I've ever made. And if you poke around some, you
surely ought to be able to find one in the DC area....
Chris Thompson
Executive Vice President
Recognition Research, Inc.
1750 Kraft Dr. Suite 2000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
540.961.6500
540.961.3568/fax
cthompson@rrinc.com
www.rrinc.com
B382000331
On Wednesday, October 11, 2000 9:18 AM, Wright, Larry
[SMTP:larry.wright@usop.com] wrote:
> Well, this AM, I'm finally back down to three cars,
> having sold the
> Toyota pickup. I'm having mixed feelings about it; it's
> nice to have the
> $$$, and one less vehicle to maintain/insure, but it was
> good to have
> around.
>
> However, three cars is one too many for a two-car
garage.
> Surely the
> Tiger gets to stay inside, and my wife won't give up
_her_
> bay that she
> keeps the Nissan SE-R in, so that leaves the new Miata
> outside. Oh! That
> won't do...
>
> Well, I'm looking into a homestyle garage lift, and my
> wife isn't
> balking at the expense! :) Wow. This gets all three
> indoors, with the Miata
> _under_ the Tiger; those two cars are low enough that the
> "stack" should fit
> in my 9-1/2' high garage. And of course, the bonus is
> having a lift for
> doing repairs/service/restoration under a car more
> comfortably, and safer (I
> _hate_ getting under a car on jackstands).
>
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