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RE: inquiry 101100b (long)

To: "'Wright, Larry'" <larry.wright@usop.com>,
Subject: RE: inquiry 101100b (long)
From: Chris Thompson <cthompson@rrinc.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 10:02:06 -0400
>       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. <snip>

I just built a new garage, and had the first floor height 
set at twelve feet so that I could put in a lift.  Same 
reasons as you - mostly to fit in another car, while also 
getting underneath.  What sparked my interest were the ads 
in Hemmings for lifts as cheap as about two grand.

I wasn't happy after the garage was started to find out 
that the cheapest was now about three grand (the Hemmings 
copy I had was about a year old - I just hit their web site 
now).

But when a local sales guy called from one of the 
manufacturers, he told me about a used one he knew of for 
sale from a muffler shop that went out of business.  A four 
post Western Hoist lift http://www.westernhoist.com/. 
 Seventeen hundred bucks and it came with about a thousand 
muffler clamps, a transmission jack, etc., etc.

Anyway, I bought it, and paid some folks who do this for a 
living about 300 bucks to drag it up the mountain from 
Roanoke and install it.  Not a trivial task - the top beam 
with the hydraulic cylinder weighs about a thousand pounds 
and we had to use the tractor to lift it up through the 
window of the garage.  I think if we had four people we 
could have done it without mechanical aid.  Took about all 
day.  The feller who helped install said Western was top of 
the line.  He may well have just been strokin'.

In order to make my significant other more content about me 
having spent every night and weekend of the summer working 
on building the garage, her Suzuki was the first on the 
lift.  Got a whole new exhaust system in without one swear 
word or busted knuckle, all in about an hour.  Bonus!

But the next thing she needed was brakes all around, and 
that's where the four post is worthless.  Off the rack, and 
back to the floor jack.

The Tiger now lives up in the air, with another car below 
it.  The ultimate (and most expensive) solution to that 
mice problem......

In any event, I think that the lift was the best tool 
purchase I've ever made.  And if you poke around some, you 
surely ought to be able to find one in the DC area....

Chris Thompson
Executive Vice President
Recognition Research, Inc.
1750 Kraft Dr. Suite 2000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
540.961.6500
540.961.3568/fax
cthompson@rrinc.com
www.rrinc.com
B382000331

On Wednesday, October 11, 2000 9:18 AM, Wright, Larry 
[SMTP:larry.wright@usop.com] wrote:
>       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).
>



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