Technical Can I cut or shorten columns on two-post car lift?

Here’s the rub , anything can be modified, if done properly, and work fine. If you modify your ceiling , you shouldn’t have a problem. If you modify your lift, do it properly, you will have no problems with the lift, itself. But you will have a liability problem, just like if you do not maintain your lift or abuse your lift, or install it wrong. Since it’s in your house or shop, you are a little better off than a commercial shop.
A car lift is just a hydraulic tool, it has to adhere to the rules of physics, just like any other machine. Folks get a little excited because they have to walk under it! That’s a good reason.
When I lifted my 60,000 lbs trucks on mine, I always took time to put jack stands under the truck! Just my experiences.

But, remember you have liability, granted, a lesser degree of liability, modifying the ceiling, too!




Bones

 

I saw that too.

 

You really need six feet or two feet. Standing six feet, lying on a creeper, two feet. .........I guess you could sit on a stool at four feet!??








Bones

 

Agree with bones (above)
Buddy of mine didn't have enough ceiling space for his lift.
He simply raises it high enough to get under the car and sits on a roll-around stool!!
Not many things prevent that from working fine.
Personally I would raise-the-roof! More piece-of-mind and can't be THAT MUCH more expensive than modifying the posts.
6sally6

 

Raise the ceiling. You'll be glad that you did.

 

I used to buy transmission parts at an AMMCO shop. They had some huge trucks on their 2-post lifts, at the rear and front of the truck. I did not feel comfy walking under them.

 

When my son puts his quadcab diesel on his "noname" lift, he has 4 of those tall 3 leg jackstands that harbor freight sells and he puts them under the truck..............just to be safe. Two are adjustable with a threaded top support. The other two are only adjustable by the pin/holes. We drilled a couple additional holes so that when the truck is at height and locked on a catch, the non-adjustable ones are near the rear frame......maybe 1/4 inch. Put the front ones in place and adjust the screw till the rear frame touches the two rear stands. That way the lift gets a little help and if it fails, the truck is already tight on the stands. Anyone out there with a really heavy vehicle ought to think about getting some of those stands.
When I lift my vehicles, the heaviest thing I have is a standard cab pickup, so I don't use stands since its rated for 10K.

 

My two post uses chains to do the lifting, the cables are just to make the columns go up even. I don't thing shortening the columns would be a problem if done correctly.

 

Not one response from the OP
Type of hoist and height of ceiling?

I have seen a few hoist installed in garages with the top posts and connecting beam through the rafters
Some cannot go full height so a line is painted on the posts so ya know when to stop.

anyways, two pages of responses without any answers from the op.

anything can be modified, and modified correctly . But there’s always a cost involved.

guess he was hoping we would tell him just cut the tops off with a torch and use bit of oldrebar to hold it into the dirt floor !
I dunno some people’s children.

 

I am the sevice manager for a shop equipment company. Do not cut your lift down. They are not designed to do that. I would sell that bend-pak lift and buy a base plate lift. There is no overhead. The cables go over the floor and a plate goes on top of them. The only lift I know of that you could shorten was an ALM. But they went out of business about 20 years ago because of the cheap lifts, like bend-pak, coming out of china.

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I don’t like those lifts that have the floor plate to cover the cables . I’ve tripped over them several times. Be looking up at some thing and concentrating on the car and tuck a toe and almost fall! Clear floors for the work area for me!

When the powers that be asked me how I wanted my new shop, I told them flat level floors! Well, they thought they knew better than me and put a drain from one end to the other in both fifty foot bays, slanted to the center with cast metal grate covering the drain! When they showed me my new shop, and asked me what I thought, the first thing I told them was I was going to call a cement truck and fill in those drains! Horrified, they asked why? I told them over half the work done on firetrucks , is done from underneath! Creepers won’t work on those floors! So they went into “ saving their asses mode” and I was presented with a set of Rotary 60,000 lbs lifts. Wonderful!! ....... but everytime I tried to roll something, such as an oil drain tank, any thing with wheels, it was a problem!
Flat, level, smooth floors for me!




Bones

 

Hello HemiDeuce....Any chance you have more pictures of the ceiling mods you did? I'm considering doing the same. @HemiDeuce

Thanks!