Sully1882

For those of you lucky souls that have a four post lift how high are your ceilings? I am looking to make a move soon and am keeping my eyes out on the garages of the perspective homes. I will have the 72 coupe up on the top most of the time and the 2000 coupe underneath. Thanks in advance for the help with the info!

Sully

lakebumm

MINE IS 10'4".

I CAN STACK TWO VETTES, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE AWARE OF THE LOCATION OF THE LIGHTS IF THEY'RE SURFACE MOUNTED. THEY'LL TAKE UP AROUND 5".

THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER IS ALSO SOMETHING TO PAY ATTENTION TO.

WHEN I STACK TWO CARS, I HAVE TO BACK THE TOP ONE ON TO GET MORE CLEARANCE. IT'S NOT REALLY A PROBLEM ONCE YOU GET IT FIGURED OUT.


BILL SR

69427

I've got a 12 foot ceiling presently, but at my old house the garage ceiling was 9 foot. I could fit both Corvettes, but not a Corvette and a "regular" car. With the 9 foot ceiling, I had to park the top car backwards also to allow the garage door to slide up over the hood. Tight, but it worked.
On my present garage, I took off the door opener motor and tracks to give me more headroom to lift taller vehicles (like my truck) for maintenace. I still have to remember to lower the vehicles down a touch before I lift the door up, or it will hit the front or rear bodywork.

0Willcox Corvette

Sully,

In one part of the back building I have a four post lift. The ceiling is 12' tall and everything works great except. . . . you have to watch lifting the car to the full extent if the hood is open.

In the new building the roof is 22' tall so I have no problems with anything in there. I love the 4 post lift for general use due to how quick I can have a car in the air. So the 4 post will stay in the back since this building has central air.

Steve COSD

I think your question is what is the minimum height that you need. A Corvette is about 48 inches high. Times two that is 96 inches. Than the lift itself is 4 inches in height. Than you will need at least 6 inches between the top car and the ceiling. That comes to 106 inches to be about the minimum. Than there's the issue with the garage door. I have two corvettes stacked and the picture is on the backyard buddy ads.
Good Luck

CCrane65

Sully, mine is 12 ft. I also have a garage door opener mounted up tight to the ceiling and an 8 ft florescent light above the opener track. I had a garage door company add two sections to the door and move the rails up as high as possible for clearance.

Like Willcox said, as long as the hood is closed you can raise it all the way to the top. Just be careful if you need the hood open while lifting.

We moved to this house in August 07. Before we found this house, my wife and daughter were ready to have me killed because I rejected a lot of houses due to low ceilings.

We already had a 12 ft ceiling in the old house and told them I wasn't going to move for anything less.

cc

Gale Banks 80'

I built my Garage with the intent of using a Lift. I used a Roll Up Door as it dosn't use any Ceiling Rails. But be aware they don't make a Home Roll up only a Industrial one at an Industrial price. When looking for a lift pay more atension to what your going to Park under it rather than what your going to park on it. I got an extra Wide and Tall one and I still have to pull in the Mirrors of my Silverado to drive between the Posts. Be sure to get the Jack Plate and Drip Pans. When Price compareing be sure to figure in shipping as some will ship it for free. They are Big and heavy so Shipping costs a lot.Some lifts are better than others but not by much. Only some make extra wide or tall so that helped me make up wich one to get in a hurry. If your not in a rush You can even get custom Colors.

redrdstr72

I park my '72 conv. on a 4 post lift in a garage that has 11'4" ceiling. When all the way up, I have about 1 foot clearance to the ceiling. Beware though, some of that space needs to be used when lifting, as the lift needs to go past the stops for engagement. Of course I need to remove the antenna, and to ensure I don't ever forget, I keep a 9/16" combination wrench hanging near the lift's switch as a reminder/fool proof measure.

As for the overhead door and door opener, I had the rail raised and a larger radius section installed in the rail, which allows the door to almost hug the ceiling when raised. Since my lift is in the 2 car bay of my 3 car garage, I had the door opener moved off center, so that it was centered over the second/other half of the door (make sense as typed?). This frees the car from any ceiling, door and/or opener conflicts. Works great. Car can go on the lift and raised all the way in either forward or backward position. Best tool I ever bought!

Snowman

I did this with a 9'6 inch ceiling. Was okay for storing cars but not as great for working on them. I made sure to place the lift just INSIDE the rail for the door so I had max clearance. Backing top car on felt safer but it would have worked either way.



My new garage, I have 18foot ceiling and just had to monkey with the door rails to make the most of the extra height. Added a panel to my garage door as well.



Wow it hasn't been this clean in there for a year and a half!

Doug

mikey

my math says i can do it with my 9'6" ceiling. my lift is going in a single car side of the garage which does not have an automatic opener. i am considering this product: http://www.wayne-dalton.com/DirectDrive.asp to keep ceiling clearance and possibly extend the track a little higher.

MadMarx

I know I know... it's not pretty but here's mine:


Oh yeah, it's 9' to that beam and about 9'8.5" to the joists.

morganjd

Mine is 10feet, I can get the vette on top and a new taurus under it. Do not forget that once the car is on top that you do have to raise the car to lower it down. I think I have about 2 inches left at the highest point. My hoist still has one more notch to go up, but i can walk and stand under it no problem, I am 6'1"

Sully1882

total sweetness guys... that's the info I needed... and I must say, some of you all... i.e. snowman: I am super jealous!!!

Thanks so much,

Sully

JDRez42

Those Idrive door openers are junk. Ours worked for a couple months. We are about to have it replaced with a standard opener. The problem is that it lifts the door just by spinning that bar and springs lifting the door by the wires. The door goes down stricktly on its own weight, nothing pushing it down like a standard opener, so if the door is hung up or isn't coming down as fast as the cable is unwinding then the cable gets messed up on the drum and the door can potentially fall all the way down without the springs slowing it down. I can't wait till its gone.

mikey

thanks JD. I read some bad press a few years ago but had hoped they had improved the product. Guess not.

RippoDippo

Dose anyone make a 2 post thats same height as the 4 posters?
My garage celing is only 8ft!

timemender

I two Backyard Buddy Extended Height lifts. One at home and one at the shop.

I recommend the extended height lift even if you don’t have the ceiling height because the runways are longer to accept a longer wheel based vehicle.

My ceiling height at home is 10ft, 5-inches. I can park a Corvette on top and a sedan under, or visa-versa. I can’t use the highest position of the extended height lift at home, but with a Corvette on top I have plenty of working room underneath – no stooping over while working.

Also at home I installed tracks that take the garage door up to the ceiling. (About 5-inches from the ceiling)

At the shop with a 12-foot ceiling, I can park two full size pickup trucks above and below at the same time.

JOEY CARTEE

Hey Morgan, can we see a pic and what kind are u using.. my ceiling at home is 10ft. and im right at 6'1... so i need pics!!!

JOEY CARTEE

I can help you out snowman with that pretty little 67 roadster.... Gotta nice little spot to keep it warm and nice and dry and OH YEAH.. cool in tha summer from a long hard trip!!!!