Winter Raised Car Garage Storage

[joeliu2003]

Apologize in advance if this has been discussed (attempted search to no avail).

I'm searching for a raised storage solution for the garage. Seems like there are quite a few options in the $4-5K range, but I wanted to get some good first hand experience feedback. I really have no way to know about the gotcha's or what would work best.

This is another accommodation I'm making so my wife can still store all her outdoor patio furniture under the car in the winters. The things we do

One example - https://www.amazon.com/Mayflower-Blacksmith-Four-Storage-Service/dp/B07GGNN942/

Joe

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[Karacticus]

Some experience here.

Primary things to keep in mind are how much height you have to work with and how to deal with the delivery of a 3000 lb package.

Secondary issues are the condition/slope of your concrete floor and power availablity— if you can swing 220 V power, I’d go for it.

Mine is an Atlas lift, purchased through Greg Smith Equipment, who now does business as Tooltopia.com. There should be a lot of good information on their web site.

It‘s more money, but i also purchased bridge jacks so it’s easy to do wheel/tire and brake work on the lift. (Covered) car is on those bridge jacks in the picture.

 

[Karacticus]

Also, a BMW i8 can be a bit problematic to park under the lift depending on the height of the ceiling in your garage

i found color matched pool noodles to cushion the ramps though!

 

[joeliu2003]

Some experience here.

Primary things to keep in mind are how much height you have to work with and how to deal with the delivery of a 3000 lb package.

Secondary issues are the condition/slope of your concrete floor and power availablity— if you can swing 220 V power, I’d go for it.

Mine is an Atlas lift, purchased through Greg Smith Equipment, who now does business as Tooltopia.com. There should be a lot of good information on their web site.

It‘s more money, but i also purchased bridge jacks so it’s easy to do wheel/tire and brake work on the lift. (Covered) car is on those bridge jacks in the picture.

Appreciate the picture and will definitely check out tooltopia.

The tip on running 220 is also great.

I’m curious about the practical experience the rest of the year. Do you park on it with the lift lowered? Or do you still have it raised and park under?

Did you pay for install or did you handle? Seems possible as a DIY, but may be challenging to get all the alignment correct.

Thanks!

 

[Karacticus]

I'd only park on the lift itself if I was raising the car for storage or for work. There's some small risk of driving off the ramps if you're packing on it everyday-- not necessarily a big deal on a truck, but bad on something with minimal ground clearance. Also, you grease the lift cables, so brushing up against them turns into a mess, and they are out of the way with the platform raised. Also, if hair gets close to those cables, they will snare it and yank it right out!

So I'd recommend parking underneath a raised lift for normal use, which can drive another selection criteria-- can it be raised high enough you don't bang your head on it when lifted? These things always win in a contest with your head!

A few additional points--
a wall mounted garage opener that drives the counterbalance and a high lift track installation will get you more overhead room. I'm working with a 10.5 foot ceiling here. You can see how much higher the tracks are for the lift bay compared to the next on in this picture.

Also, it seems like there's nothing that will create a need to get a car up on a lift for maintenance than having another car up on the lift, disassembled and immobilized.

Next post on assembly.

 

[Karacticus]

Assembly is definitely DIYable. As I stated before, the real challenge is figuring out how to deal with the delivery of a 3000+ lb package. I lucked out and have a neighbor in the steel fabrication business, and had it delivered to his loading dock, which had a gantry crane. He then brought it home on his trailer and we unloaded it with a skid steer with bale forks on it, using it like a forklift, just like its recommended you never do

The heaviest component is the ramp that has the hydraulic lift cylinder in it, at roughly 600 lbs. If you have enough strong friends to help, you won't need any extra equipment. With just two folks, a borrowed/rented engine hoist might be really useful, though I had access to a rolling gantry hoist I borrowed from a neighbor. that made things pretty easy.

 

[puzzled]

I think the minimum ceiling height you'd want is 12ft.. otherwise you'll want to get your ceiling vaulted before going through with the mod.

I went through this phase too... but decided to get a house with a 900+sq ft garage instead. I was thinking I will still vault the ceiling if I wanted to store more cars inside during winter and get a storage lift, but there were a few things that stopped me..

1.. I hate dirty floors, especially tires that track in salt on my pretty epoxied floor..so decided to park my daily drivers outside.

2.. I thought I'd have more time driving different cars.. I have to run Stabil360 all the time in order to preserve the gas in the tanks of my cars.. with only 3 hobby cars, I already can't drive them enough. I owned 6 cars at one time and it just became a hassle.

3.. Appearance.. my garage is a fun play room.. Not sure I want to see an ugly lift crammed with cars.

So I decided to just keep my garage the way it is at least until I get a fun electric car.. then I won't have to worry about spoiled gas. I currently own 5 cars and for me that is the max I can handle by myself.

 

[Karacticus]

And one more point regarding height—
Like the doors on the i8, the hatch on the Supra comes up to a fair height when opened. Even with the lift a maximum height, it only clears because the spoiler extends into the open area between the ramps.

 

[joeliu2003]

Super helpful - thanks for all the thoughts. My ceiling is 11’ so I may rethink this some or at least closely consider all the heights.

 

[Nikko]

I went with a Wildfire lift and love it. Do some research and I think you’ll find they are great bang for the buck. Minimum lift holds 9000 lbs and you don’t need 220. Put it together with 4 friends in about 4 hours. Cables come pre-run so it’s pretty straight forward.

 

[puzzled]

Great color scheme @Nikko !

 

[zrk]

Great color scheme @Nikko !

Disagree - the cars are Packers' colors, and we hate the Packers.

 

[FuzzyRev]

Disagree - the cars are Packers' colors, and we hate the Packers.

Hate us cause you ain't us

 

[zrk]

Hate us cause you ain't us

Look at you, pretending like the Bears don't win.

 

[FuzzyRev]

Look at you, pretending like the Bears don't win.

I don't specialize in ancient history

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