Lift (to lift a vehicle off the ground)

[Dirsuper]

I really appreciate all of the great info. Believe it or not, you can get a decent quality 4 post with the casters (can move it around), drip trays, two sliding jacks, and a few more bells and whistles in the $4-4.5K range. Decent two posts I'm looking at come in around $3k. A grand is not peanuts, but for a 'rest of my life' kinda purchase (and what I've spent on this shop already), it is pretty much insignificant. Long way of saying, in this case, money is not a consideration.

On the way home from work yesterday I stopped at a local shop owned by a local/solid dude. I was able to look at cars on both 4 posts and 2 posts, and there is no doubt the access on a 2 post is amazing. Also, I was looking for pictures of K5s on lifts and came across one of a guy who had the entire front suspension torn apart.......looked like it would be about impossible to do on a 4 post.

Today I searched through one of the lift manufacturer's list of approved installers (just for peace of mind I'll pay $500 for a professional who installs lifts for a living to do this job) and made a few calls. One of the guys I spoke to has installed and repaired lifts for over 20 years, and he sounded like the kinda guy I want to do business with. We talked 2 vs. 4 post and he leaned very heavily towards 2 post, even though he could make more off me by selling me a 4 post (he also sells them).......that says a lot. He also agreed to install the non-motor post first so that I can wire a plug to the motor in preparation to use it immediately after he finished the install (I want to take advantage of his experience to have him show me all the tricks/safety tips/etc while I'm paying him to be there). He agreed I could do that (I have 220 plugs all over the shop) and he would walk me through lifting one of my K5s a few times......not to sound like a p_____...wimp, but I didn't make it through 24 years of doing what I did in the military to die in my friggin shop.....under one of my K5s!

My contractor about had a heart attack when I mentioned scheduling a lift install, so I have to wait until the shop is actually complete/signed off by SD County. Makes sense, I'm ok with that.

Once again, I really appreciate all of the great inputs. As soon as I figure out how the hell to upload pictures, I put up some of the shop.....hell, all of my buddies used to laugh that all I took pictures of was my Blazer and my Harley, now it's the shop! I've got pictures from dirt all the way through.....should be done soon, the RAIN (in drought stricken SoCal) caused some delays with the stucco, which then delays trenches for power/water/sewer (don't want to have to move scaffolding and then put it back), which then delays concrete work, etc, etc, etc......rain - 3 weeks in a row.......in 'drought stricken' SoCal......only when my shop is getting built!

 

[sweetk30]

first rule of thumb ..

set lift .

pick up till just touch frame / suspension hanger points .

once happy pickup so tires are 3-6" off the ground and stop .

grab frt bumper and wiggle up/down real hard .

if its going to fall its only going to go 3-6" down . NOT 6ft down with you under it .

I remember when I started using them years ago it was scarry at first . now its just second nature . use your brain and KISS method .

 

[6.2Blazer]

At my previous job they had a big shop with 8 lifts. 7 of them were 2 posts and only one was a 4 post for the primary purpose of doing wheel alignments. We had access to the shop after work in the evening and weekends so I used it a lot. The only time I would choose the 4 post, besides doing an alignment, was maybe to do an oil change. You just don't have very good access under a 4 post.

On the 2 post lifts they had several different size/ratings from maybe 8-9k up to 15k (they regularly worked on fully loaded 1-ton dually trucks). Most of them were Nusbaum which I believe are fairly high dollar, but one or two were a different brand.

I was there 13 years and the place ran 24/7 with dozens of cars and trucks going in and out of the lifts each day and we never had any issues with lifting a vehicle. I raised my K5 up on different hoists hundreds of times over the years, and used the exact same technique mentioned by sweetk30 below. Set the arms, raise the lift up until the pads are right at the frame, tweak the placement of the pads, raise the vehicle just off the ground, rock it by the bumpers to make sure it is stable, then raise rest of the way up. Not a bad ideal to put a tall jackstand under the front and/or rear bumper just for added insurance but didn't always do it, unless really wrenching on something hard.