New Shop and Lift Reccomendations
 

Building a 3 door/bay 60X40 shop and curious about different setups that members have and recommend. Also interested in those who built them and have any "If I had to do it again, I would...." recommendations.

Since there's benefits in 2 and 4 post lifts, I'm interested in getting both. I don't need anything fancy/crazy, I just tinker around with my own junk along with my families stuff (they all live close by). I think the biggest/tallest/ heaviest vehicle I'll be dealing with is my dads 1996 Dodge 2500 4X4 truck.....about 5000 pounds. It would be nice to have that go at least 6 feet in the air so I can work on it without ducking or knocking myself out.

Check these out. https://www.advantagelifts.com/produ...antage-dx-9000
I bought the 9000 HD lift back 5 years ago. Was around $4500 Canadian at the time. They are very well made and designed. You can put these together yourself with a little help. Very nice lift.

This spring I put an Advantage 7,000 pound 4 post lift in my 3 stall garage so I could keep both the GTO and the Camaro at home.

These lifts have gone up considerably in the last 5 years due to supply chain, inflation issues. I used to sell lifts like these for about $2500 delivered, but not installed. In May, I paid $5600 (including the $500.00 install).

Very happy with my Advantage lift.

I have a Bend Pak 10,000lb 2 post lift, use it a lot & in the 15 or so years I have had it had no issues. I use it to do maintenance on both my diesel pickups I use for transporting with no problem. However when I have the 4 door dually all the way up in the air, I put tall jack stands under the rear axle as the way the rear frame goes up towards the axle & the truck being so long, the rear arms of the lift don't get far enough back to make me feel comfortable being under it!

I LOVE my radiant heat tube propane fired heaters, but if you have not poured the pad yet, I would recommend the heat tubes in the concrete instead. Heat coming up from the floor is so comfortable on knees & feet the older you get!

Last recommendation....Once you decide on a size for the building, ADD a bunch more square footage because we can never have enough toys!!!:D

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

Get both style lifts. The 4 posts are easy storage, just drive up. The 2 posts are great if you need wheels hanging. My shop is 37x56 so very close to your 40x60. You'll love having the room and flexibility.

I also have the BendPak 10k 2 post, very nice lift, clear floor model so no plate on floor to get in way of trans jack.
I paid 5500 installed but prices have gone up a few g since I bought mine 3 years ago. But ya would be nice to have both styles.

I also agree on getting both styles. 4 posts are great for storage and can be moved around- I find myself doing all of the work on my two post.

I wish I would have gotten the taller versions. Sometimes I will leave the ramps hung on my 4 posts- but I have taken them to the forehead a few times by not paying attention.

Same with the two post- I wish it would go about a foot higher.

Don’t waste money on a bunch of air lines- go with Milwaukee M18 battery powered tools.

Advantage Lift/ Back Yard Buddy square tube steel leg 4 posts are the way to go for a quality manufactured 4 post Lift. Been aquainted with the strong square tube leg design Advantage Lift 4 post lifts for near 10 years. Very rigid, they can even be "parked" without anchoring to the slab, & then be moved in your shop space if needed. I've had serious car collector friends that have owned BackYard Buddy 4 posts going back into the early 90's. Likewise, these square tube leg 4 posts have been rolled outside on caster attachments onto a concrete drive apron, then back into the shop.

my own .02, is C channel leg design 4 posts are all right if you get a really good NLI rated one. Locally, have personally observed the damage from four cars falling from 3 different brands of C channel leg design 4 post lifts. One such incident was on a very expensive longtime national brand 4 post lift. Have also been in numerous home garages, as well as shops that the residents had picked up relatively cheap C channel leg 4 post lift. My first cousin & her husband own a bunch of relativly new commercial buildings. In an eviction mess, they picked up for cheap, a less than year old cheap import 4 post lift. At max it was a $1800 entry level lift 7-8 years ago (that's easy 3K today). in observing my cousin raising her Dads prev late 50's Ford retractable, the C channel legs flexed, & quite honestly the lift sure didn't appear safe. My suggestion was it might be better for her husband to keep his mid 80's Toyota MR2 project up on that lift & keep the restored heavy Ford retractable on the ground! All the above incidents, along with my area having had a swarm of earthquakes through the last 20 years convinced me of the value of the Advantage Lift 4 post lifts.

Two Post symetrical or asymetrical arm lifts... there are a bunch of good ones out there. Through regional auctions am always running across high quality national brand commercial used 2 posts, Challengers, Rotarys, occasionally a DannMar. I really dont want to spend $8500-10k on a new high end one but am keeping my eyes open for a deal on a nice used one. My brother acquired for near nothing a near 40 year old commercial Challenger 2 post lift in the mid 00's. It had been in a sealed up prev garage/now storage area of what was then a converted convenience store. That was since the lift was a little under 2 years old, not that many duty cycles, & didn't take that much to restore.

Last thought, in first examining & operating an Advantage 9000 4 post lift near 10 years ago, it clicked in my mind, that it sure looked like a clone of a Backyard Buddy. 2 years ago, Advantage Lifts took over operations of BackYard Buddy in Warren OH. I just clicked on the above link, & Advantage Lifts has a sale going right now on the Back Yard Buddy 2 & 4 post lifts. Have the Advantage lift of your choice shipped in, or if you have an open car trailer or 5th wheel & are anywhere near Wchita KS, Elk River, MN, or NE Ohio, go pick up what you need.

There are double wide 4 post lifts made now, USA made, I think they are 10k capacity

I like the double wide ones- on my next garage expansion that’s what I will be buying.

I agree that backyard buddy and bend pack seem to be the higher end hobby lifts. I have three ‘direct’ brand lifts and have had no issues over the past 11 years. My 4 post lifts are not anchored to the ground either.

Bendpack makes a nice product but for me it was a question of buying the best import lift I could find or not buying one.

www.directlift.com

Going with a Rotary 2 post life for my new Workshop.

SPOA10 | 10,000 lb Two Post Lift - Rotary Lift
https://rotarylift.com ›

American Made, Quality all the way thru. My previous employer had 8 of them in the Advanced Engineering garage.
Price is right for me. Do not need a lift for storage of vehicles, Lots of room in my Morton building for vehicle parking.

Tom V.

I have 20 year old Rotary mid-rise, a 10 year old BendPak 10k 2 post and an older Hunter drive on alignment rack that serves similar to a 4 post by being open in the center, but with dual air operated axle jacks. The go-to is almost always the BendPak 2 post.

Thanks for all of the reply's and pictures fellas, it's much appreciated. I have some research to do.

I'm thinking about buying a brand new 2 post lift but maybe be on the lookout for a nice used 4 post. I'd love to find a used drive on alignment rack with dual axle jacks. Used one of those in my community college automotive classes back in the 90's and it was very convenient. Those seem to go for big money, even in used condition. Wouldn't mind picking up an old laser alignment machine, too. I used a Hunter back in the day and it was slick compared to the 1960's Lite-A-Line I used in Highschool.

Watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhnO2rbrt8
https://www.wildfirelifts.com/

Make sure whatever lifts you buy are certified. A lot are not certified.

I have three Direct Lifts I bought from Derek Weaver. A two post and two four post. The two post gets used daily since 2006.

Don

I talked to a few shops and got the name of the folks that work on theirs and got brand recommendations and they installed them. I have a 4 post and a 2 post.