Garages with Hoists...

[Rookie]

One of those sissor lifts would be good if you had an existing garage or a low car, I have neither. I do like the idea of the lights in the floor though, great suggestion.

 

What are peoples experiences with doors? Obviously it can't be a tilting one, but can you get away with having a roller door that isn't too close?

[Esprit]

You'll need at least a 100mm reinforced pad, and to be honest, even then you'll want to probably bolt on some load-spreader bars to the hoist along the sides to spread the load.

 

Here's mine, it's a 3-phase 2-post Istobal. Early '90s vintage but built like a brick shitter.

 

 

Ceiling heght is just under 3.2m level, and on a normal car you can get it quite high, although with something modernish or large You have to work on it with a slight stoop, I find it pretty comfortable though and I'mabout 5'11". Ideally you'd need about a 3.5-4m stud to be able to work on most carsabove head-height.

 

 

 

Recessing it into the floor for low cars is a good idea, although you'll still need temporary ramps to drive over and allow room within the "pit" for the arms to swing into.

 

I can't get the Lotus onto my hoist yet, but because it's my hoist and I'll do what I want with it I'm going to make up some custom-arms to suit the car (you need massive reach to get to its jacking points anyway).

 

The under-lighting is a good idea, although bear in mind that everything underneath a hoist gets covered in shit, oil, coolant etc so spec wisely. It'll also get scratched, so some kind of replacable covers would be good so you can replace them when they get scratched up. Flouro tubes preferable to LEDs because they cast less shadows.

 

To be honest I've never found lighting an issue in my garage, although you can see it's well lit and having the ceiling and whalls painted white REEEEEEEALLY helps as it reflects the light around. I'm going to be painting the floor an off-white, which will help things even further in time, but I find I only need a lead-lamp when working way up in the bowels of a car where floor-lights wouldn't help anyway.

 

I've got tilt-sectional doors on mine, but as you can see, they don't intrude into the hoist space. For a single-depth garage they'd still work (tilt sectionals are the best) but you might want some interlock on them so that the hoist won't raise when they're up and when the hoist is up the door is locked-out.

 

But yeah, anything over 3m stud will be fine (unless you're semi rural you won't get that anyway, see the battles Ed had with his shed) and unless you're working 40 hour weeks under a hoist, having to stoop a little isn't uncomfortable at all. Snoozin' will attest that the working height of mine is not bad at all.And yeah, throw as much lighting at it as you can, although pay attention to the type of lighting and know that ambient light is best!

 

Happy hoisting.

[Esprit]

Oh, and the only thing I want to add to mine, is an optical beam sensor to detect when the top of the vehicle is about to contact the ceiling. Currently you have to guess it and if you get lazy there's a risk of contact. Cheap solution is a mirror mounted ona 45 degree angle on the roof above the control box so you can see across, but since I'm an automation engineer, I'll get some basic sensing up in here.

[NaN]

NaN

[xsspeed]

Re lighting, you can screw some fluro tubes (with cover) to some ply - can make the ply either flat (for vertical light) or make a triangle backing (so the light casts at 45deg) Light throw will still be sweet. Then just run the fluro's off a socket outlet. Benefits - cheap, easy (no fucking around with lights in slab) and you will only need one or two below the car/at low level to throw enough light, plus you can move them around.

 

Clear panel is a really good idea - even in the roof (assuming you dont have loft space), doesnt take much to have the place fully lit up sufficiently then just boost your task lighting.

[MRWEST]

The lighting is a good idea.

Iv painted floor white colour so should help with lighting. 

 

I was gong to go for a 3.2m knee height originally till i found my kitset for 2/5th fuk all hence the height.

But can put mezanine in later if i want 

[anglia4]

Be careful how close you have it to a roller door.

 

With my dads one, its all good if we have the door shut, but if we roll the door up then the wing on the race car hits it at max height so we always have to remember to have the boot open on it.

 

Thank fuck I wasn't the first one to hit it!

[Ned]

I have nothing too useful to say about hoists as i have no idea, but if you want a hand with LED lighting or something, flick me a message. Can help out with controllers and the likes if you wanna go for adjustable brightness or even if you want some where you can change from warm white to cool white if you think that may make a difference in viewing pleasure.

I'm really just posting in this thread so it appears in my show new content page thing

[NaN]

NaN

[MRWEST]

I love how this community just falls over itself to offer advice, and help, and contacts, it might be conflict at times but thats awesome, different points of view and ideas coming from different places. 

 

This forum doesnt have jackshit conflict compared to other forums iv been on haha!

[NaN]

NaN

[Spencer]

I think you would be better off on the floor or on a chassis table for that kind of shit? 4 posts are annoying for normal day to day stuff. 

 

Actually I am trying to picture what kind of major chassis mods you would try and do on a 4 post? 

[Esprit]

4 posters are good for doing exhausts and oil changes and that's about it

[evil_si]

I called a few hoist suppliers and asked about the slab requirements, they were all useless and just said 100mm,

So I gave advanced hoist a call, told him I was building a garage and intended to fit a hoist later, and asked what would be best, his reply was most manufacturers recommend 120mm, but the NZ rule of thumb was 100, so I had a 4mx1.5 section of the floor poured at 150mm with extra reinforcing, it didn't cost any extra,

I intend to grab a clear floor 2 post single phase, the cost of running 3 phase from down the street to my property is prohibitive for me,

That's a great idea about the underground lights and wiring, I wish I had read this a month ago!

I guess some careful cuts and some epoxy it could still be done

[Nominal]

4-post can be useful for project work. Being able to just drop the chassis on the rails and lift it up/down for brake line routing etc was handy. Also dropped the engine + box in while it was like this - you couldn't do this on a two post without risking dropping it through imbalance.

 

Suspension work is more of a hassle - need to jack up the car off the lift deck and then block it up (I use a plank between each side for this). Space to work on suspension/sills a bit of a hassle though.

 

[Truenotch]

Re: lighting

[Sambo]

Re lighting, you can screw some fluro tubes (with cover) to some ply - can make the ply either flat (for vertical light) or make a triangle backing (so the light casts at 45deg) Light throw will still be sweet. Then just run the fluro's off a socket outlet. Benefits - cheap, easy (no fucking around with lights in slab) and you will only need one or two below the car/at low level to throw enough light, plus you can move them around.

 

 

These are great, have a half dozen at work (building site) and they get used allll the time. So handy being able to attach them to a saw horse/the wall/sit on the floor etc etc etc.

[Bling]

My footpaths are 100mm... but I do tend to over do things. 100mm reinforced slab would surely be pushing it's limits with a hoist on it? I'd put some thickening around the hoist area so that no above ground load spreaders are required. Keeps it all tidy with less trip hazards.

 

Two post would be ideal, but four post with two centre jacks would be a close second. Either option would be dream spec!

[Esprit]

100mm is fine, if the slab is good and there are spreader bars on the bottom of the hoist. If the hoist has a small bolting footprint then it might be marginal, or if you're planning on hoisting Landcruisers all day err'day. For a home hoist or semi commercial use 100mm should be fine.

[Rookie]

This is the plan at the moment.