Imperial Car Club Forum

I'm strongly considering buying a lift for my garage. I hate jacking the cars up then dealing with jack stands, only to have very minimal space to crawl around. I'm like 99% sure I'm going to get one, but I'm not sure which one to get and what to expect.

My garage is a three bay garage (2x1) and it is not all that spacious. When I park the 66 Imperial in there, it has to be right up against the wall in order for the garage door to close. Same with my 57, barely enough space to close the garage door. The ceiling is about 10'8" high, and the garage doors hang low.

So first step is to raise the garage doors. I have no experience with garage doors, so I think I'm going to have someone come in and raise them for me. Have two people coming this week to give estimates.

Then the big decision... what style post to get??? Single post, two post, or four post lift. Here's my personal thoughts on them, but would love to hear if anyone else has installed a lift in a normal residential garage and can share some tips.

Single Post Pros/Cons:
Pro - Appears to take up the least amount of space.
Pro - Very mobile
Con - Seems dangerous as it leans the car a bit
Con - Most expensive option
Con - Main post is so heavy, I doubt I could install it myself
Con - Cannot use to stack cars long term

Two Post Pros/Cons:
Pro - Cheapest option
Pro - Allows the best access to the underside of the car
Pro - Seems stable/safe
Pro - Light enough that I could likely install it
Con - Requires drilling bolts into my floor
Con - Not mobile at all - would need to remove bolts to get post out of the way
Con - Seem to take up the most space (width wise)
Con - Cannot use to stack cars long term

Four Post Pros/Cons:
Pro - Very mobile - no bolting to floor and it has castors
Pro - Most stable option
Pro - Allows decent access to underside of car
Pro - Designed for stacking cars long term
Con - Blocks some access under car, but supports car by the wheels, so it's harder to work on wheels
Con - More expensive than a two post

What do you guys think? I'm currently leaning toward the four post option, but was told I likely wouldn't be stacking two large vehicles with it... one would need to be a smaller one as my garage is only 10'8".

Wow quite ambitious whichever way you go. I've got an extremely small single car garage so I can't offer any personal experience

I have an Eagle Two post lift (10,000 Lbs.) for my Imps. Had it since 2000 and it was made in USA. Now Eagle is made in China.

gary h wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:56 pm I have an Eagle Two post lift (10,000 Lbs.) for my Imps. Had it since 2000 and it was made in USA. Now Eagle is made in China.

I think almost all of them are made in china now. Even the ones that claim made in USA are simply pieced together in the USA, but the steel beams are coming from China.

What made you pick the 2 post lift over a 4 post or single post?

It was for a home garage shop with limited ceiling height. The 2 post lift was more useable with the arms easy to center under the full frames.

Well I did it. Ordered a lift and it will be delivered on Monday. It's a mid-rise lift, so it's not going to raise the car up extra high or anything, but I should be able to get it up about 45 inches without risk of hitting anything and without a need to rebuild my entire garage door and opener.

I think 45 inches of clearance will be good enough for most of the things I'll be doing. Will get some low riding stools and can just roll around under the car all day long.

In case anyone is curious, I went with the Stratus MS8000E. It has a capacity of 8000 lbs, which is around 2000 more than most other scissor lifts, and it has two locking mechanisms vs the single on others. In addition, it's over 70 inches wide at the base vs 39 inches or less for most other scissor lifts. Those skinny ones give you another 5 to 10 inches of height, but they look so unstable to me. And the locking mechanism on most others just doesn't seem as sturdy.

Anyway, I don't have any lift experience, so I could be making a terrible choice here, but haven't invested too much money with this one, and it will do what I need I believe. I know it's not a nice two/four post lift, but my garage is just not going to work out with one of those, it's just way too tight.

I also decided to go with the 110v instead of the 220v motor. I have a 220v hookup, but figured the 110v would make it much easier to use anywhere instead of having to stay close to the 220 hookup in the corner of the garage.

Sounds like a good choice!

It's unpacked and working. Now just need to get the car turned around so I can slide it underneath and see how it does lifting the Imp.

Looking good!

That really folds down tight too

I'd love to know how much on the underside is accessible with the car on this lift. The pads seem pretty wide but I bet it is very stable.