Garage Lifts? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Garage Lifts?

crankcall

crankcall

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anybody have one? know a reasonable source?
I'm moving to a new to me house, leaving a quite large double car garage for a single ( yes I know I'm an idiot) but its where I want to live right now. So I'm looking for a car hoist/lift.
It will not ever lift a car, well never say never, however I plan on putting a floor deck on it and it will become a huge deck to store sailboat sails on. Deck itself will wiegh 600lbs, sails about 1000lbs total.
An offsite storage space is $175 a month, so this thing will pay for itself in 2 yrs?
Putting them inside the house itself is an option however I've already constripted what was a finished basement as a workshop, gas fireplace and frenchdoors to the backyard out of my shop. I'm pushing my luck with storage.
Thoughts anybody?
 
Why a lift? Ever consider a loft? A single car garage is a small span that can be bridged with ready rack -- used racking is a cheap as a bag of carrots, setup is as easy as building a peanut butter sandwich.

The racking verticals takes very little room as they sit flush to the wall, you can shelve the deep end of your garage, leaving just enough height nose you car under.
 
FWIW my single car garage can hold the family cage, the Goldwing, a canoe, ladders, a tool roll about, welder, M/C gear, car and bike necessities and more. There is no loft as the bedroom is above. Most garages fail to use the upper half for storage. Looking up and making fancy custom brackets can help.
 
8 foot long landscape timbers are 5 bucks each, 6" lag bolts plus some 3/8" threaded rod is also cheap and makes for a great way to bolt landscape timbers into the shape of something useful. That makes for the cheapest and by far the most sturdy garage shelf support I have ever found.
I made a pair of rolling storage carts for my Sea-Doo's and they turned out excellent for very little cost and with very little construction time involved. Use mortise and tenon or lap joints on the corners to keep everything square. If it never needs to move then bolt it to a wall and your vertical support timbers will carry all the weight.
 
Quickjack is on sale at costco, under a grand.
Also on sale at cdn tire at $1300.
 
Why such a heavy floor? How heavy are your individual sails (eg is it practical to slide them up into a loft or you need the lift to come down to facilitate loading)?

Who on GTAM has the cobra rep? They have a nice looking 4 post lift that will take the weight easily.

I built a loft over the garage doors for storage. That takes most objects you can carry up a ladder (ladders built at each end for access). I put in a homemade 4 post with things like winter tires on it (lift was $100 IIRC). It used to have two harleys on it so it would be strong enough for your project. Not all that helpful for you though as it was a one off.

At the inlaws cottage I built a sail loft for windsurfing sails hanging from floor joists. It was just built with scrap wood at they are obviously much lighter than your project.

What are the approximate dimensions of the new garage (including height)? Whats above it (eg truss or floor joists)? Do you plan on putting a car under the lift or is underneath general garage crap?

What municipality? What are the shed bylaws? My current municipality allows a 4.5 m tall shed as long that that isn't taller than your house. You could pretty easily build something to keep the sails (assuming you can make a 4.5 m tall shed not look ridiculous).
 
Rodent proof outdoor garden tool or garbage shed up against an outside wall of the building somewhere.
 
So more info on design parameters, the garage space is totally dry walled and finished out. I can’t add an outbuilding as I’m storing sails , they don’t like to dip below freezing ( yeah I know) , it a fabric thing. I could easily fabricate a loft but wish to mitigate digging for sail bags and hauling big bags up a ladder, a car will park under the hoist , small bmw coupe. The deck of the “floor” for the hoist could be lighter, I could make torsion boxes as beans from 12 ft long plywood and deck over them with balsa ply that weighs about 30lbs for a 4x8 sheet.

The sails are accessed weekly for a race program , weather dependant, so getting to the right bags is the thing, and then storing a LOT of bags over the winter months . I have 10ft ceiling max.


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above-garage-storage-all-things-garage-garage-storage-solutions-diy-garage-storage-cabinets-lowes.jpg


... no idea how you get them up there.
 
crankcall said:
So more info on design parameters, the garage space is totally dry walled and finished out. I can’t add an outbuilding as I’m storing sails , they don’t like to dip below freezing ( yeah I know) , it a fabric thing. I could easily fabricate a loft but wish to mitigate digging for sail bags and hauling big bags up a ladder, a car will park under the hoist , small bmw coupe. The deck of the “floor” for the hoist could be lighter, I could make torsion boxes as beans from 12 ft long plywood and deck over them with balsa ply that weighs about 30lbs for a 4x8 sheet.

The sails are accessed weekly for a race program , weather dependant, so getting to the right bags is the thing, and then storing a LOT of bags over the winter months . I have 10ft ceiling max.


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
Click to expand...
I would be inclined to build a fixed platform ~6.5' off the ground. Basically a deck on 4 posts (ledger boards would be even better if that works). Nice and simple, easy to access. Put a ladder up one side if you want to get up to crawl around. I pinned the lift at a height where I can walk under it and not bang my head. 2x6 @ 12" OC should span, hold the weight required and give you 6' of headroom under. In the ~3.5' above, I might be inclined to further divide the space to you don't end up with a pile of sails (cantilevered shelves off the posts @ 12" spacing up each side, aisle/most frequently used up the centre?).

Actually, what about just shelves? Starting ~6' above the ground, wall mounted.
 
I worked at a kid camp when I was a teen, we hung sails in bags off the overhead using lines, small strop blocks and cleats. If the bags are heavy, rig with another block.
 
@Trials, thats an interesting idea in space, my only concern would be putting much up there besides C'mas decorations. Looks like storage for stuff you should just get rid of.
@GreyGhost your idea for a platform just hung off the walls has merit, about $2000 cheaper than my thought.
@madmike, these bags are 14/16 ft long, not crazy about extra folds in the sails, a few of them are carbon fiber and cuben, they like rolling not folding. Not off a camp dingy. Bigger ones are only 60-80lbs each but awkward.

The lift was a slide them on/ lift up/ lift down slide them into the truck idea. Wife is ok with them going into the unused office, but them I'm dragging bags through the house.

It also has to look nice. My farmer fix (grew up on farm) days are over
 
crankcall said:
@Trials, thats an interesting idea in space, my only concern would be putting much up there besides C'mas decorations. Looks like storage for stuff you should just get rid of.
@GreyGhost your idea for a platform just hung off the walls has merit, about $2000 cheaper than my thought.
@madmike, these bags are 14/16 ft long, not crazy about extra folds in the sails, a few of them are carbon fiber and cuben, they like rolling not folding. Not off a camp dingy. Bigger ones are only 60-80lbs each but awkward.

The lift was a slide them on/ lift up/ lift down slide them into the truck idea. Wife is ok with them going into the unused office, but them I'm dragging bags through the house.

It also has to look nice. My farmer fix (grew up on farm) days are over
Click to expand...
You could rig long bags off the overhead, your ringging would need 4 points.

Another option might be sono tubes. We used to stack them to store masts and booms at camp. They are smooth and tough inside and available in lots of diameters and lengths. You could stack along side of the garage, or rig them to the overhead with blocks to raise and lower..
 
This ^^^

You can label each tube so you know exactly whats in it (some of us forget things after a few months). Many many ways to figure out how to hang or whatever.
 
hdsomeday said:
This ^^^

You can label each tube so you know exactly whats in it (some of us forget things after a few months). Many many ways to figure out how to hang or whatever.
Click to expand...
I really like the sonotube idea assuming the sails are very dry when they go in (which I hope they would be?). As purchased, they don't tolerate water over time very well. You could probably seal them with leftover paint/varnish/poly that you have in your current garage to kill two birds with one stone.

I would probably put three or four beams across and PL the tubes together so they didn't keep sliding when pulling out sails.
 
The sonotube is not a bad idea, sails are mostly dry when they go into storage. It would work for headsails and mains. Spinnakers are in a square box bag about the same size as an industrial garbage bag , about 28x28x48" , there are a fair number of those. Big boats get bigger sails, its an exponential problem.
 
crankcall said:
The sonotube is not a bad idea, sails are mostly dry when they go into storage. It would work for headsails and mains. Spinnakers are in a square box bag about the same size as an industrial garbage bag , about 28x28x48" , there are a fair number of those. Big boats get bigger sails, its an exponential problem.
Click to expand...

Hammock those up? Just throwing ideas out there.
 
I would suggest to put a platform over the garage door spanning from one side to the other. (2X6 lumber). with a half inch ply on top.

To gain more headroom on the platform you could covert your garage door to a "High lift". More of the garage door is lifted in a vertical position instead of bending at the height of the door opening.

I would also suggest putting in a side mounted door opener. (sometimes called a jack or shaft mount) If you have the room on the side. They are on the expensive side, approx $500 but well worth it.

I did this in my garage expect for the high lift conversion. Along with the epoxy floor coating on the garage floor, its the best $1000 I spent. (I have 2 separate doors)

Here is a picture for reference.
high-lift-garage-door-jackshaft.jpeg
 
@Scuba Steve, thats the ticket! I build my platform to fit the lift bracket and its done. was suggested I put wheels on the platform then roll it into the driveway and use the lift to change snow tires. Then put it back for storage. Winner!
 
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