Cheap, space-saving vehicle lifts?

Hello hive mind, just a quick question regarding vehicle lifts. I'd quite like one (wouldn't we all) but am unwilling to get a second-hand hydraulic lift and can't afford a new one. My garage also doesn't have a lot of height clearance or enough space so a 2 or 4 post lift wouldn't work too well.

Does anyone know of any alternatives, e.g. the kwiklift drive-on ramp that gets a car far off the ground enough to easily get under it? Not so much an issue with the landy of course but I do have other cars that need work from time to time.

Kwiklift is on

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if you've not seen them before. No UK pricing or availability details.

Thanks for any pointers.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings
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Nice idea.

Steve

Reply to
steve

Indeed, although I'd prefer a short scissor lift, there are several on ebay that you drive the car over so the platforms are between the wheels, put rubber blocks under the jacking points then lift the car up. You can then leave them there all the time and drive over them when parking. I would however always be nervous about working under them. A brand new one that lifts the car 3 feet costs about £2,000 which is way out of my budget.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Also quite interesting if a tad expensive;

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Reply to
Ian Rawlings

I like the look of it sadly my garage roof is far too low plus they look ok with normal motors but 2 1/2 ton would make me a little wary I fancy a workpit (which is way down the list of things to do ) Derek

Reply to
Derek

I'd end up falling in the pit and breaking my neck, what with having at least three left feet so that idea's out for me..

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

On or around Sun, 5 Mar 2006 11:42:58 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

[lifts]

and on the same subject - anyone had first-hand experience of largeish vehicle son 2-post lifts? It looks "wrong" to me - and I imagine your ground anchors need to be very good. But then again, you see 2-post lifts rated up to 4 tons.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

I'd much prefer a 4 poster rather than some of the alternatives whose main problem seems to be that you can't raise and lower them at will and most are going to be pretty hard to get dead vehicles onto, if that's an issue. I recall seeing in a LR mag somebody showing off a contraption that looked a little strange - looked like 4 high lift jacks and the rails of a 4 poster if you see what I mean. I how you were expected to lift it evenly - anyone else seen one of these in operation? If it did work (picture showed it with a 110 up in the air outside) then it might suit your needs - cheap, not enough lift to punch your roof out etc. But I can't recall any names, although it looked vaguely like it may be a Scottish manufacturer judging from the background.

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
willie

On Mon, 06 Mar 2006 09:33:09 +0000, Austin Shackles scribbled the following nonsense:

was discussed on the 101 yahoo groups a while back, chap couldn't make his 101 (ambi or rad bod cant remember) look anywhere close to to safe on a 2 post lift rated at 4 tonnes.

Reply to
Simon Isaacs

I've a vision of wandering in the garage bleary eyed, early morning... getting in the car...thhwwop. Damn!

101 one would be interesting, but how would I tell if it was on it? ;-)

Lee

Reply to
Lee_D

Reversing off it would be fun if you neglect to drop the end..

Getting a dead car onto it is the main reason I'd not go for something like that, and given that most of the times I've needed to get my car up in the air have been times when it's been dead, it would be a real PITA. Also much of my engine is only accessible from the top and the engine plus gearbox have to come out the top too.

Light aircraft in the canvas?

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

...and Austin Shackles spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

Had the Disco on a 2-post lift when I had the new tyres at ATS. He took a LONG time getting the balance right before he lifted it more than 6" off the deck. Seemed stable enough once it was up there. Pity the experience shagged the EAS settings, leaving me with a tail-down Disco for a day or two.

Reply to
Richard Brookman

On or around Mon, 6 Mar 2006 19:18:46 -0000, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

hmmm. bearing in mind that one of the things I'm likely to want to lift is the minibus, I'm inclined to go with my instinct and go for a 4-poster. There seem to be quite a steady supply going cheap second hand - might be due to rules about testing in a work environment - it may be prohibitive to re-test once it's been moved, or cost enough that it's not worth not fitting a new one, or something. I've seen 3-ton 4-posters going for 300 notes or even less, alleged to be complete and working.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

If I had a two-poster I'd make damned sure that I made up some rigs for the ends that fitted whatever vehicle I wanted to lift, e.g. some cups that went round the landy chassis to stop it sliding off sideways. Getting front-to-rear balance right might be hard though.

As it is I'm going to look at a three-post platform lift soon, one of those things that you lift a short platform up to within a few inches of the chassis or jacking points and then put blocks on to contact the lifting points, if it's got enough safety features and looks reasonably well looked after I reckon I'll go for it. At the price he's asking it would have to be cronically bad for me to turn it down.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

I've spent 15 years or so using 2 post lifts and provided they are set yp with the correct arms they will lift anything within their rated capacity quite safely. The first time you lift a (previously unknown to you) vehicle you may have to have a couple of attempts so as to get the balance correct. However if you do so then the hold down bolts do absolutely nothing (tried it for fun with a 4WD Hilux on an unbolted lift to see what happened).

Reply to
EMB

If you go for a 4 poster either get one with the 'wheels-free' option or get a jacking beam, otherwise you've lost at least half the functionality. The *only* reasons I can see for having a 4 poster are wheel alignments, and quick turnaround work that doesn't involve removal of the wheels (eg an exhaust shop, but that comes unstuck when you need to extend the suspesion to fit a tailpipe).

Reply to
EMB

I've just managed to buy a Bradbury three post platform lift, rated to

3 tonnes, for £75 ;-) It's in good condition despite the price, an ex Renault dealer in Portsmouth has just shut up shop due to Renault switching franchises to desperate and cheap ex-Rover dealers. There were something like 7-8 vehicle lifts in the place, the four three-posters he was selling for noddy money (all sold now), the rest for more but still cheap.

There's a two-post finger lift in good condition left, he wants £350 for it, which is a steal. The catch is that you have to remove it yourself, during working hours, in the next two weeks as they have to vacate the building.

I think there might be another four-post too but not sure. I think he mentioned £500 for one of the four-posters.

If anyone wants the contact details, send me an email from a proper email address but bear in mind the requirement to take it away yourself within working hours. All three-phase stuff.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Given that the current requirements of a lift are generally very modest it's easy and relatively inexpensive to run a 3 phase one from a single phase supply via a 3 phase inverter.

Reply to
EMB

Indeed, but that adds about £260 or so to the cost for a static inverter, unless I can find one second-hand. I'll be looking into the options once I get the lift back and an inverter is one of them if I can't find a cheap motor or the electronics look fiddly (which they don't).

I might even dig out my electronic notes from college from a long time ago, ISTR that we went through the means to convert from one to the other, but I've not touched electronics for over 10 years so I'll probably not bother.

All I need is the means to turn the pump, so it can't be that hard. It doesn't even have to reverse, this lift is lowered by a solenoid opening a valve on the hydraulics and it comes down under gravity. The ratchet is disengaged for lowering by a solenoid under electronic control but removing the solenoid-end of the control cable and tugging on it by hand will do just as well. Alternatively a few relays would allow me to retain the solenoid control, but to be honest I doubt that the electronics other than the motor will need any effort to convert to single phase as they're most likely already only using one.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

On or around Tue, 7 Mar 2006 19:41:00 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

or buy a single-phase motor for it and flog the 3-phase one on eBay...

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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