Anyone own a 4 post garage lift for their Z?

[TRtom]

I just installed a Greg Smith four post lift. Have my 240Z on top and my daily driver 280ZX on bottom. Really nice lift for the price. Takes about 8 hours to install especially since the directions stink. I have 10 foot ceilings so no problem for me, if you have lower ceilings, might be tough.

Let me know if you have specific questions, or if you get one, specific install questions. I don't check the forum too often so can also email me. tvtanner@aol.com

[mgmoreau]

I just installed a Greg Smith four post lift. Have my 240Z on top and my daily driver 280ZX on bottom. Really nice lift for the price. Takes about 8 hours to install especially since the directions stink. I have 10 foot ceilings so no problem for me, if you have lower ceilings, might be tough.

Let me know if you have specific questions, or if you get one, specific install questions. I don't check the forum too often so can also email me. tvtanner@aol.com

Hey Tom,

I did purchase a four post lift from Greg Smith also. I got the Pro Park S. Did you check out the directions they have online? They are 31 pages and seem very detailed to me. The lift arrived at a local business Thursday. I am waiting to have it delivered to my house hopefully Monday by a boom truck.

Did you get the S or the Plus model?

Did you have someone help you?

Did your lift come with the ALI sticker?

Can you post some pictures on this site of your Z on the lift with your ZX under it? My ceiling is 10' 6" so I am hoping it fits OK. My garage is only 20 feet wide by 24 feet deep. I wish the garage was wider. I am concerned my wife is going to hit the post in the middle of the garage. How big is your garage and how does the lift fit in the garage?

Thanks,

Marc

Edited October 12, 2008 by mgmoreau

[Carl Beck]

The lift I got includes 3 drip trays, a jack "tray/stand" and they threw in an oil changing funnel/drum when I asked for it. The lift also includes 4 wheels that you can attach to the posts to move it around the garage or wherever you want to put it (you can see them leaning on the back garage wall behind the air compressor next to the lift in the photo I have attached). No clearance problems, it has a great safety system to ensure the lift doesn't fall.

Hi Doug:

I think the wheels go under the ramps.. so when you put the ramps all the way down, they lift the four corner posts up off the floor.

IMHO - if you have a 4 Post lift, that is not securely bolted to a 6" to 8" thick concrete floor - you need to have either a Safety Beam connecting at least one side, front to rear for the corner posts, or Safety Cables affixed to them.

The Safety Beam is bolted to the top of the corner posts - where both the bean and posts have properly welded mating plates, that can be bolted together.

Regardless of the built in safety features - these lifts are man made, and price is a major consideration of their design. Put a 2,000 or 3,000 lb load on the ramps, and look at the ramps as 18' long levers, with the corner posts as fulcrums and its easy to see the huge amount of force that can be generated "if" something goes wrong. From personal experience I can tell you that things that are not supposed to be possible - are.

The ramps that go up/down are in no way fixed to the corner posts, so they really offer no structural rigidity/strength. These lifts are designed with the idea in mind, that the load will be carried directly downward via the four upright posts. When that happens everything is fine and dandy. Shift the center of gravity of the load, when one end or one corner of the ramps dips 6" to 8" below the others and you have a completely different situation on your hands (or head as the case might be).

I had two Ben Person (now BendPac I believe but not sure) 16,000 lb. 4 post commercial lifts in the muffler shop I owned/ran for a time. When a "safety" lock hung up on one post.. the other three corners went on down.. the load shifted, the ramps shifted and everything started to slid toward the low side/corner,.... and two of the four Posts twisted like a pretzel The only thing that saved me was the fact that the commercial lift had a Safety Brace between the tops of two uprights on one side of the lift that prevented the whole thing from collapsing - - plus I had them properly bolted to an 8" commercial concrete floor but I seriously doubt that would have stopped it from just bending the uprights over.

Some of you may recall years ago that a "Park" lift failed in a man's home garage, and destroyed two of his Corvettes. He raised hell on the Internet for a few years. sued them.. etc. I have no idea how that turned out - but from the pictures he posted it was easy to see why his lift collapsed.. and mine didn't. No top safety brace on his.

Personally - I wouldn't have a roll around 4 post lift without the Safety Brace tieing at least two of the side Uprights together. Likewise I'd want that Safety brace with any lift bolted to the standard 4.5" to 5" concrete garage floor in a residential home.

Just my experience.... BTW - at the time Ben Person stood behind their product, had service tech's in my shop within 48 hours. Changed their design on the safety latches, and replaced two of the uprights that had been twisted (although they looked OK after I ran the lift back up). I don't know if BenPac is still the same or not...

FWIW,

Carl B.

[mgmoreau]

Carl,

Thanks for pointing these safety issues out. The thumbnails were very helpful. I will look to incorporate one or both of your safety braces when I build the lift. I don't want to bolt the lift to the floor as I want to be able to move it to the center of the garage some times.

I will post pictures of the lift once I have it built.

Thanks again,

Marc