My Garage 'A' - treated to a new four post lift
For those enthusiastic DIY Jaguar owners who enjoy spending more than just the occasional weekend getting up close and personal with their cars, a car lift can be a welcome addition to “the toolbox”.
Providing greater access to the underside of your car, a lift will open up a whole range of servicing and repair opportunities.
Owning a commercial-grade car lift for home use has over the last few years become more affordable. During my research for a lift, I was astonished to find that I could own one for circa £1,500 excluding VAT.
Pricing on auto equipment has fallen considerably over recent years. This is thanks to Chinese volume imports putting this type of equipment within reach of the DIYers pocket and along with the current eye-watering labour rates charged by some repair centres here in the UK has encouraged more owners/enthusiasts to invest.
The availability and low cost of import lifts has inspired auto repair equipment distributors to add these to their portfolio. Branded in their own livery they can ship these in and sell on whilst maintaining a sensible margin.
When searching car lift installation videos on YouTube, you will notice how remarkably similar they all are, but with different branding.
If you are at all worried about buying Chinese sourced car lifts – you needn’t be. These lifts are built to a remarkably high standard. I know of a large Ford dealership here in the Midlands who have recently installed some of these imported lifts. They can also be seen in use over in the USA on TV classic car restoration shows such as “Fantom Works” which airs on Quest TV.
My search for a suitable car lift began early in 2018 whilst living in Lincolnshire and during the initial stages of buying a bungalow in Staffordshire. The bungalow I purchased completed in the early Autumn and included a large brick-built outbuilding containing two good size double garages with an office attached at one end. Having the use of two double garages was the "icing on the cake" for my son and I as we each own two S Types between us and perform most of our own servicing and repair work. A car lift was now a "must-have".
Many factors come into play when choosing a car lift, including size, portability, compatibility, to name a few. Picking the right lift can be daunting.
There is quite a range of commercial grade lifts available. The two popular DIY types are: - The Four-Post (mobile, parking) Lift and the Scissor Lift of which there are many variants.
Both lift types need a solid concrete base, typically 100-150mm (4-6”) thick and will require adequate operating space i.e. floor area, headroom, and access. The four-post will require more than the scissor lift. Both types are mobile and whilst they can be, do not need permanently anchoring to the floor.
I finally opted for the AS-4T36 – 3600 Kg (3.4 ton) capacity four-post mobile parking lift supplied by Automotech as it offered me the best access and safety features for my needs and budget. As the description suggests it is mobile and can be moved using the detachable wheels. The “parking” feature is where additional parking space is made available when one car is raised on the lift and another parked underneath.
This lift has two parallel platforms on which the car is driven (ideal for those cars with low ground clearance) and has four hydraulically operated lifting cables – one on each of the four posts. It also boasts a triple lock safety system. A hydraulic ram lock in case of fluid loss, an automatic pawl locking system on each post in case of cable break, and a separate manual fail-safe locking pawl system which you rest the ramp down onto, so it’s locked at your chosen working height.
The lift is designed to operate from a standard UK 240v single-phase mains supply socket.
It offers excellent unrestricted access to the underside of your car apart from the four wheels which must be jacked individually to access brake and suspension areas. Other features include, width adjustable parallel platforms, two adjustable limit switches to pre-set maximum lift height, a sliding steel jacking tray which runs between the two parallel platforms and allows bottle jacks to be used to lift the car on its chassis rails. Plastic drip trays can also be fitted between the platforms. A set of four robust detachable castors enable the lift to be moved to another position. So, if you don’t have enough height in your garage, you can wheel it outside onto a flat concrete surface.
The Net weight of the lift is 720 Kg and if I add the weight of my 3.0 SE S Type which is 1710 Kg gives a total floor loading of 2,430 Kg (2.4 tons). This equates to a loading on each post footplate of 607 Kg (1,340 lbs). Each 300mm x 250mm (12” x 10”) footplate has a load area of 774cm2 (120 in2).
Before installing the lift, it was important to review the available space and general condition of my garage.
The interior was of bare brick with exposed roof rafters and joists. The roofing felt and concrete tiles were in good order and weather tight. Natural light was provided by two large wood framed windows (with rotting frames) fitted to one side wall. Lighting and power along with a full-width electric roller door had been installed by the previous owner.
The floor was laid to 100mm (4”) steel reinforced concrete having an area of 38.5m2 and although structurally sound was not smooth or level.
As a result of the assessment and because I wanted a clean, warm bright and safe working environment I undertook the following improvements before installing the lift.
1) Replaced Both windows with white DG/UPVC type.
2) Cleaned and sprayed internal walls with white emulsion.
3) Concrete floor levelled with Sika Level - 30 Latex Ultra, painted with grey floor paint, and overlaid with 30m2 of black DURATILE solid PVC interlocking floor tiles.
4) New consumer unit installed to accommodate additional ring circuit for eight twin outlets and a separate circuit with 16-amp connector for the car lift.
5) The ceiling was clad with white hollow 300mm soffit panels and 100mm thick insulation.
6) Installed six 5’ twin LED batten light fittings.
7) Installed two 2.5Kw fan assisted convector heaters.
The lift has a footprint of 14m2 with dimensions of (W)2.63m x (L)5.25m including the removable ramps and 4.46m with ramps removed. The four corner posts are 2.2m (7.2’) in height. These dimensions allowed the lift to fit comfortably in the space I had available.
The height between floor and roof joists was 2.6m (8.5’). Operating a four-post lift to full height would require a ceiling height of around 3.65m (12’). This presented me with a bit of a conundrum. Do I re-structure the roof trusses to allow for full lifting height or leave as is and restrict the lift raise height? I estimated that the cost of employing the services of a structural engineer plus having the work done would likely cost more than the lift itself. Based on time and cost constraints I decided to leave the roof structure alone – at least for now.
I was however able to calculate how much height I could achieve if I left the ceiling at 2.6m (8’6”) and if so, how much useful access I would have to the underside of our cars.
The result was that I should be able to raise the lift just 1 metre of the maximum 1.9m (6’3”) of lift height available. However, this does leave 1.27m (4’2”) headroom under the car which when using a mechanics stool is more than adequate head clearance to access all areas. I am also able to get a full size 18-gallon pneumatic oil drainer underneath.
The 1.27m (4’2”) resultant headroom is based on lifting a Jaguar S type model allowing a couple of inches clearance between the ceiling and the top of the car. So, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to leave the ceiling height alone for now and if it became an issue later, I could always remove the white cladding and re-structure the trusses. It was nice to be able to keep my options open on this one.
I took delivery of my shiny new lift during November 2019 and opted to pay the extra for its delivery and installation. Now this is a heavy (720kg) piece of equipment and arrives as a kit of parts in one package bolted together at each end with steel angle frames. I was told the installation, and commissioning process would take a two-man team around four to five hours to complete. It did!
The lift can optionally be collected and self-installed and the supplier assures that this will not affect terms of Warranty.
I am really impressed with the quality and functionality of this lift and would highly recommend it to anyone considering such an installation.
So far, the reduced lift height has not presented any problems and thankfully gone are the days laying on my back, juggling with spanners!
The AS-4T36 car lift was purchased from Automotech Services, Rugeley Staffordshire and was delivered and installed by the company’s third-party installers.
The price of the lift including VAT was £1,824.00
Delivery, installation, and commissioning was £420.
If you require just delivery it is circa £150.
Prices applied November 2019
