Car Lifts

I don't know either, but I'm in the market for one. There are so many choices. If you figure it out, please let me know what you decide works best.

The state trooper down the street from me has three lifts in his garage. I will check with him and see which one he likes the best.

I currently own 5 car lifts. The most common available today is a two post off-set lift. While they work great for modern cars in todays garages, I would not lift up a Full Classic up on one even if it was the heavy duty truck style. Todays cars are not nearly as nose heavy as the classics, so the two post lift would tend to want to tip forward to a much larger degree with a classic on it. I would reccomend a four post ramp lift so the car can be driven on it. It requires no special skills to use as a two post lift would . They also tend to be rated for much more weight than the two poster. It also seems to work out best to put my classics up in the air as there much less head room for the car going underneath the car that has been lifted. As for safety, ALLWAYS DROP THE WEIGHT OFF THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM, rest the lift on the locks. I also put 4x4 posts under the four corners just to be sure the big classic won't come dowm. This has worked great for me over the last 10 years, and have had no problems. The last four post lift I purchased was used and delivered and installed for 2500.00 . A local collector purchased a new PORTIBLE 4 post lift last year for around 4500.00 . It seems rather light duty for me, but he uses it very seldom and his classics are more of the sporting light weight type and seem to be ok on it. I would not put my 33 Pierce twelve on it. Most modern garages are getting away from 4 post lifts as they take up too much shop room, therefore they usually can be found used for reasonable money. It sure a lot better bargin than building a larger garage and paying higher taxes. And for the married members, the lift will be much more relationship friendly than a addition to the garage :-) Ed Minnie