Well, this AM, I'm finally back down to three cars, having sold the
Toyota pickup. I'm having mixed feelings about it; it's nice to have the
$$$, and one less vehicle to maintain/insure, but it was good to have
around.
However, three cars is one too many for a two-car garage. Surely the
Tiger gets to stay inside, and my wife won't give up _her_ bay that she
keeps the Nissan SE-R in, so that leaves the new Miata outside. Oh! That
won't do...
Well, I'm looking into a homestyle garage lift, and my wife isn't
balking at the expense! :) Wow. This gets all three indoors, with the Miata
_under_ the Tiger; those two cars are low enough that the "stack" should fit
in my 9-1/2' high garage. And of course, the bonus is having a lift for
doing repairs/service/restoration under a car more comfortably, and safer (I
_hate_ getting under a car on jackstands).
So I'm curious what experience others might have had in this area,
brands/features/whatever. What fits and what doesn't, and whether some cars
won't fit (I'm primarily interested in our three cars and my nephew's 1989
Trans-Am, but I betcha others will want to borrow it). And how they hold up.
A co-worker just came back from the big Hershey, PA, show and
brought me -- in addition to the cool official poster -- a brochure from
Backyard Buddy, a brand I've seen advertised before. Their "base model" is
$3100 and change, where other advertisers start in the $2795 range. Is the
difference worth it? I dunno; this one is rated at 7,000lbs, which is more
than I'll ever lift but a "cushion" is nice.
There are two options in the brochure that I want. One is a set of
galvanized "drip pans" to fill the space between the fore-and-aft rails, to
catch anything that might drip from the upper car onto the lower one (the
Tiger is not leaking anything right now, but you never know). The other is
rolling cross beams to use jacks, stands, whatever, to raise the wheels off
the lift for service work on brakes, suspension, whatever. This cures my
concerns on whether to get a roll-on lift or one of those with "fingers" to
allow dangling wheels (which I wouldn't store anther car under).
I'm thinking that, considering the infrequency of lowering the lift
to get the Tiger out, maybe once/twice a week, that a 110v "base" motor
would suffice, instead of upgrading to 220v and the rewiring that would mean
(our breaker box & service, upgraded in 1983, is about maxxed out).
Thoughts?
I really look forward to hopping into my car in the morning, stored
overnight with the top already down, and zipping off. And rarely/never
needing an ice scraper. And all of the cars should last longer stored
indoors, which should offset the expense of doing all this.
Lawrence R. Wright, Purchasing Analyst
"Nose gone, grindstone still here"
U S Office Products, Mid-Atlantic District
Formerly Andrews Office Products
larry.wright@usop.com
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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