Give us a lift?
QI would love to have a car lift to do maintenance on my cars. My moderns are too low to drive up my ramps without putting planks of wood in front of them. I think a twopost lift looks ideal. My garage has a concrete floor, but I don’t know how thick it is or the quality of the concrete. How can I tell if it is OK? And should I pay a little or a lot for one?
Nick Morgan,
Scottish Borders
Matt says: A
Lots of secondhand lifts turn up on ebay and the like. Often, they’re presented as a pile of bits. Avoid them. If you’re buying a secondhand one, at the very least see it working and if possible oversee its dismantling. You don’t want parts going AWOL. Make sure it runs off single phase electricity. Most don’t, though it may be possible to change the motor.
Buying new, there’s a large choice of budget models, but finding spare parts can be an issue, so paying extra for a known name has its benefits.
The lift is installed by bolting it into concrete at least 100mm thick. Check the thickness of existing concrete by drilling test holes, but even then you’ve no idea of the quality of it. It should be reinforced with steel mesh. The lift’s manual will detail the exact requirements including the tensile strength of the concrete. While a fourpost lift exerts mainly a vertical load on its floor plates, a two-post lift has to resist falling over, which means it’s often pulling up on one side of its mountings when loaded. It is therefore worth having a lift professionally installed, to remove unqualified guesswork from the equation.
The installer can recommend what makes of lift are good or bad, and might know of one that’s looking for a home. Ask a local garage who services its lifts, and get in touch. Alternatively, consider a portable, single-post lift. It’s self-supporting, can be moved around and needs no installation. At about £3k, it’s probably cheaper than a new garage floor and an installed twoposter.