PNWTim
09-18-2025, 12:35 PM
Decision Making
I thought I would share my experience installing a 2 post lift in my garage. This was something I had always planned to do and 2.5 builds later, I finally pulled the trigger. I built my shop in 2008/2009 and when I was designing it I opted for 9 foot walls and scissored trusses with a peak internal height of 150”. My slab is 4.5” (give or take a bit) with rebar on 24” centers and fiberglass strands. If I remember correctly, both the stem walls and slab were 3500 psi.
Fast forward to 2025. I had been shopping for a lift on and off for the past couple of years. I have looked at more used lifts than I care to guess at and have bounced between 2-post, 4-post, and mobile for the same period of time. For many reasons, I opted to go with what I would call a “budget” 2 post lift. I made this decision based on my current and potential future needs as well as a few other factors. It lacks some features of more expensive lifts and is not ALI certified. Picture here:
219041
Pickup, Transport and Unloading
With that said, I thought it might be helpful to others considering an installation to provide a brief (well, sort of brief) rundown of the steps I took to get from an online order to a fully functioning lift. As noted, I ordered online and received a call within 24 hours to confirm I have a forklift or tractor to offload at my residence. I confirmed I did not have either and was informed I would need to pick it up at a freight terminal. This mainly was confusion on my part and how the information was presented on the website. But either way, I borrowed a small flat bed trailer from my neighbor, bought a couple of large ratchet straps and headed down to the ABF freight terminal about 5 days later. They loaded it onto the trailer, I strapped it down and nervously drove the 20 miles home, envisioning a two-post yard sale on the freeway. For reference, the package was 10’ long and weighed 1400 lbs.
Thankfully, I arrived home safely and began the head-scratching process of how to offload this beast. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures but the cherry picker worked great and we basically offloaded each post onto a couple of HF furniture dollies and rolled them into place in the garage. I already knew where they were going to be placed, so we set them in that general location, knowing we would need space to bolt on the risers and then lift them into place. I used the cherry picker again to lift one end onto a sawhorse, enabling me to bolt the risers on. Once both were bolted up, I secured two unsuspecting neighbors and we walked them into an upright position. This was actually easier than anticipated, given that each post weighs about 650 lbs.
Safely home in the driveway:
219042
This picture shows the posts up for the first time:
219043
Post Layout and Installation
Now came the fun part. To establish a base layout line, I snapped a chock line across the shop, measuring off the stem wall at the rear. Once I had this line, I walked the posts into their final location, measured about 20 times and marked the floor with a Sharpie. I then drilled all twenty anchor holes. This is where the real fun started. I was using my Milwaukee Rotary Hammer and on the second hole, I hit what I thought was rebar. I had a pretty good Bosch concrete and rebar bit with carbide, which this hole promptly destroyed. I ordered two more bits from that online place and borrowed my neighbor's larger Bosch Rotary Hammer. I believe that second hole had a diamond in it. It wasn’t actually rebar but a tough rock at the bottom of the hole. Anyhow, got through it, drilled all the holes, cleaned them out with the vacuum and the blow gun and set the anchors. A note of caution – I used a 2 lb sledge to drive them into the holes, and on one, I hit a glancing blow off center and mashed the bolt end and nut a bit. I was able to clean it up but you can ruin them if you’re not careful.
I spent a significant amount of time leveling my posts. I thought my floor was nice and flat, but even the most minor imperfections will throw a 12-foot-tall tower out of plumb. I finally realized the best approach was to set the anchors, shim the post, snug the nuts and plumb with level. About 10 times. Although you wouldn’t think it, just a half turn on the nut will drag the post this way or that. I ditched the steel shims provided with the lift as they were all one thickness and ordered a packet of recommended plastic shims which had three different sizes. After almost a full day, I was able to get the posts aligned with each other and plumbed to my satisfaction.
219046219044219045
Electrical
I was fortunate to have an unused 30 amp, 240v circuit with a receptacle box in the ceiling. I had to do some work in my panel to activate it, changed the 30 amp breaker to a 20 amp, and moved some circuits around, but that was pretty straightforward. For what it’s worth, my first inclination was to hard plumb from this box to the motor but decided I was overthinking it. I purchased about 25’ of 12 gauge SJOOW wire and a 20 amp twist lock and simply ran this from the receptacle to the motor where I hard wired the termination. I can easily trip the breaker to isolate the lift if need be.
Final Steps
We installed the upper cross bar, lower arms (with grease on the pins) and filled it up with 3 gallons of AW32. After cycling up and down a few times (and doing the victory dance with my son) we lifted the arms half way up and pointed the longer, straighter arms at each other. I ran a 8’ level across them and was pleased to see there was only 1/8” of difference between the two. I figure this is about as close as I was going to get.
219047219048
Conclusion
This was quite a process and actually more work than I anticipated, but I am really looking forward to the flexibility this will give me. I am pleased with how it turned out and a big thank you to my son for his help. This is definitely a 2 man project.
I thought I would share my experience installing a 2 post lift in my garage. This was something I had always planned to do and 2.5 builds later, I finally pulled the trigger. I built my shop in 2008/2009 and when I was designing it I opted for 9 foot walls and scissored trusses with a peak internal height of 150”. My slab is 4.5” (give or take a bit) with rebar on 24” centers and fiberglass strands. If I remember correctly, both the stem walls and slab were 3500 psi.
Fast forward to 2025. I had been shopping for a lift on and off for the past couple of years. I have looked at more used lifts than I care to guess at and have bounced between 2-post, 4-post, and mobile for the same period of time. For many reasons, I opted to go with what I would call a “budget” 2 post lift. I made this decision based on my current and potential future needs as well as a few other factors. It lacks some features of more expensive lifts and is not ALI certified. Picture here:
219041
Pickup, Transport and Unloading
With that said, I thought it might be helpful to others considering an installation to provide a brief (well, sort of brief) rundown of the steps I took to get from an online order to a fully functioning lift. As noted, I ordered online and received a call within 24 hours to confirm I have a forklift or tractor to offload at my residence. I confirmed I did not have either and was informed I would need to pick it up at a freight terminal. This mainly was confusion on my part and how the information was presented on the website. But either way, I borrowed a small flat bed trailer from my neighbor, bought a couple of large ratchet straps and headed down to the ABF freight terminal about 5 days later. They loaded it onto the trailer, I strapped it down and nervously drove the 20 miles home, envisioning a two-post yard sale on the freeway. For reference, the package was 10’ long and weighed 1400 lbs.
Thankfully, I arrived home safely and began the head-scratching process of how to offload this beast. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures but the cherry picker worked great and we basically offloaded each post onto a couple of HF furniture dollies and rolled them into place in the garage. I already knew where they were going to be placed, so we set them in that general location, knowing we would need space to bolt on the risers and then lift them into place. I used the cherry picker again to lift one end onto a sawhorse, enabling me to bolt the risers on. Once both were bolted up, I secured two unsuspecting neighbors and we walked them into an upright position. This was actually easier than anticipated, given that each post weighs about 650 lbs.
Safely home in the driveway:
219042
This picture shows the posts up for the first time:
219043
Post Layout and Installation
Now came the fun part. To establish a base layout line, I snapped a chock line across the shop, measuring off the stem wall at the rear. Once I had this line, I walked the posts into their final location, measured about 20 times and marked the floor with a Sharpie. I then drilled all twenty anchor holes. This is where the real fun started. I was using my Milwaukee Rotary Hammer and on the second hole, I hit what I thought was rebar. I had a pretty good Bosch concrete and rebar bit with carbide, which this hole promptly destroyed. I ordered two more bits from that online place and borrowed my neighbor's larger Bosch Rotary Hammer. I believe that second hole had a diamond in it. It wasn’t actually rebar but a tough rock at the bottom of the hole. Anyhow, got through it, drilled all the holes, cleaned them out with the vacuum and the blow gun and set the anchors. A note of caution – I used a 2 lb sledge to drive them into the holes, and on one, I hit a glancing blow off center and mashed the bolt end and nut a bit. I was able to clean it up but you can ruin them if you’re not careful.
I spent a significant amount of time leveling my posts. I thought my floor was nice and flat, but even the most minor imperfections will throw a 12-foot-tall tower out of plumb. I finally realized the best approach was to set the anchors, shim the post, snug the nuts and plumb with level. About 10 times. Although you wouldn’t think it, just a half turn on the nut will drag the post this way or that. I ditched the steel shims provided with the lift as they were all one thickness and ordered a packet of recommended plastic shims which had three different sizes. After almost a full day, I was able to get the posts aligned with each other and plumbed to my satisfaction.
219046219044219045
Electrical
I was fortunate to have an unused 30 amp, 240v circuit with a receptacle box in the ceiling. I had to do some work in my panel to activate it, changed the 30 amp breaker to a 20 amp, and moved some circuits around, but that was pretty straightforward. For what it’s worth, my first inclination was to hard plumb from this box to the motor but decided I was overthinking it. I purchased about 25’ of 12 gauge SJOOW wire and a 20 amp twist lock and simply ran this from the receptacle to the motor where I hard wired the termination. I can easily trip the breaker to isolate the lift if need be.
Final Steps
We installed the upper cross bar, lower arms (with grease on the pins) and filled it up with 3 gallons of AW32. After cycling up and down a few times (and doing the victory dance with my son) we lifted the arms half way up and pointed the longer, straighter arms at each other. I ran a 8’ level across them and was pleased to see there was only 1/8” of difference between the two. I figure this is about as close as I was going to get.
219047219048
Conclusion
This was quite a process and actually more work than I anticipated, but I am really looking forward to the flexibility this will give me. I am pleased with how it turned out and a big thank you to my son for his help. This is definitely a 2 man project.