Hey everyone. I am in the process of moving to a new home. Close in 2 weeks. There is a 42x24 heated shop that comes with the house. I am toying with buying a lift. Co-worker has a 2 post, talked to an outfit at the street machine nationals last weekend that sells 4 post. Thoughts on what would be preferred for restoration work? Big pluses on the 4 post I was looking at is it can be moved around the shop, only needs 110v outlet and no requirements on slab thickness. Is about 1 or 2k more expensive though. I have plenty of room overhead. 12ft high door and ceiling is probably 18 foot in the front of the shop. For some reason drops to about 12 or 16 feet in the back half.
2 post for working on a car, four post for storing one in the air.
If you don’t know how the floor was done you will need to cut out sections and poor heaver footings for 2 post lifts. But having a 4 post I can tell you a 2 post is nice for doing work on your car.
12 foot is high enough. I would get a two post. You can do more with it. Plus you can always add storage lifts later.
I have two 4-post lifts which I use to store 4 Cougars in 2 garage bays. They are re great for that, but a 2 post lift is really what you would want to work on cars.
Thanks for the advice. The last lift I worked under was a center post lift in high school shop. I will figure out how thick the slab is and go from there.
Some two post lifts have an extended base and don’t require the additional thickness of the slab. Consider the size of the contact patch of the tires on the pavement and the contact patch of the lift.
I have a 4-post Bend-Pak and love it, but I have no doubt that a 2-post would be better for working on a car. Although it was an option, I wasn’t comfortable putting mine on casters to roll around. First, because I currently have a garage that has a slight pitch to it. Second, because without the base anchored, it seemed like it would be far less stable.
both
For what its worth, I have a 2 post in my shop and I love it! I considered the 4 post, but it looked tough for actually working on cars. The 230v circuit wasn’t bad at all. I ran 10/2 to it, easy peasy…