2 post lifts

[MrFluffy]

Can anyone here educate me a bit on 2 post car lifts? Ive only ever really seen them being used, don't know a great deal about them.
Why I need to know, is I have firmly ran out of (floor) space in the bike parking shed. Ive just nicked a bit of the floorspace for a new machine, and Ive got 6 motorbikes. I don't want to get rid of any of them (3 are handbuilt by me, the other three are either rare or of great sentimental value).
I want to seperate the two sides of a two post lift, and fix each side to the walls in the parking shed (theyre concrete block) and anchor the bases into poured plinths. Then fabricate up some hoops to capture the wheels reliably and solidly and keep the bike upright without extra straps or clamps. Then I can put the two less used ones up elevated, and park two more in use underneath. Then there is ample room for two more between. I could make my own stuff out of sliding tubes and stuff, but a car ramp split apart probably is cheaper by the time you factor in lost wages taking a holiday off work to make it and would seem to fit the bill.
For this to work, both sides of the ramp have to be independantly powered so they can be split and operated seperated. Is this the case?
Also can they be locked in elevated position to release the tension on the lifting mechanism, stop it suffering the load for long periods of time.
The load will only be 250kg max + weight of wheel support forks...

 

[Wozzaaah]

Yes they'll have to be independantly powered or you'd have to run a drive chain across from one half to the other so not a particularly easy thing to do unless you can get two of them and scrap the unpowered halves. You'll also probably find that they would be 3 phase so not much use if you only have single phase. A lot of them are powered by screws and so once they're at the desired height they won't drop anyway. It wouldn't be that difficult to make something up like you said with chain blocks as the lifting devices. You can get 1/2 ton and 1 ton chain blocks for next to nothing and they'd be perfectly adequate. By the time you've messed about splitting the lift(s), modifying another power supply etc. you wouldn't be far off building one from scratch anyway and you could make it a whole lot smaller too so less floorspace used.

 

[Woody.v8]

Also fluffy i think that even if you had 2 powered halves synchronizing the pair would be a nightmare (THINK ALTON TOWERS RIDE)

 

[Wozzaaah]

He's not talking about synchronising them Woody, he wants to power each half independantly so each half can lift one bike.

 

[Dangle_kt]

You could fabricate some of these to hold the bikes firmly in place.

http://www.discountramps.com/removable-motorcycle-wheel-chock.htm

When you roll over them the rear half gets forced up by the weight of the bike, clamping the wheel very effectively.

Would love to see pics when your finished.

And while you at it, stick some pictures up of your bikes, they sound interesting.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I had a wander around the workshop while my car was being MOT'd a couple of weeks back and had a good look at their two-post lift...half considering that maybe I could use one so looking for ideas.

That particular model had one motor with wires linking across the top to the other leg.

Note the 'wires'...it was probably a cheapo model with suspension cables rather than chains or screws. You can get suspension cable that'll hold several tons...

but to take the strain off it and make it cheaper/easier, how about having some sort of winch motor between the two pillars set against your walls so you can attach the cable to either one as required? Once the lift is up to the storage height you could fit pins (big bolts!) to hold it up and release the winch cable.

Regards
Peter

 

[Woody.v8]

He's not talking about synchronising them Woody, he wants to power each half independantly so each half can lift one bike.

Oh i see ,i should read before posting
An idea would be to go to a truck breakers and raid some tail lift mechanisms with the T rail track, with a bit of tinkering with the rope ratio you can get a massive amount of upward travel.
I have used this system a few times for different jobs with great success, with the added bonus that when not in use you can fold the load bed against the wall.

 

[MrFluffy]

The 3 phase isnt a issue, since I have that available.
What is slightly a pain is the unpowered/powered half business that I didnt know about, cheers woz. I was under the impression they had two motors but wondered how they sync'd them, since Id never seen a chain linking the two halves when Ive been nosying. I could fit a motor onto the unpowered one giving me two lifts again. It all depends on what I can get a lift for vs the cost of the raw material to make my own solution.

Dangle, thats exactly what I had in mind for the wheel keepers in place of the pads that would lift the car.

Woody, ive never seen a truck breakers where I live (the middle of nowhere in france), but Ill ask around. I do know where theres a lift up for sale that I can afford which is what is feeding the idea.
Its down to if enough steel to make what I want from scratch is cheaper than buying a old lift and cutting it about and adding a extra motor...

Probably be cheaper to build another building to house the overspill, but we're out of space near the house unless my mrs sacrafices part of the kids play area (and hell may freeze over first).

Hmm more thinking required. Keep it coming...

 

[Wozzaaah]

The one we used to have in my mechanic days had a drive chain covered over at the base if I remember correctly. I can certainly remember having to bump over it when driving into position. The motor drove the screw on the right side and the chain drove the screw on the left so no problems with synching. Not sure if they're all like that mind . Just done a google image search and it sems there are some newer ones that don't appear to have any way of synching the two sides so I assume it must be electronically controlled.

 

[astro_al]

This might be a dumb idea, but how about just hanging a chain hoist or cheap electric winch from the ceiling for each bike. You could have a little frame to support each bike on the end of the 'hook'. Might be more flexible, possibly cheaper and probably take up less space?

Cheers, Al.

 

[SC_BK]

I know it's the wimp's way out, but what about getting a lift made up

Quasar make some http://www.on-bike.com/index.htm
Though to get enough height to park another bike underneath it'd have to be a special order

 

[MarkMG]

Or how about some farm jacks and a some pallets, I'm sure you could lash something together ;-)

 

[Rusty]

Be safe and find a secure lockup for the bikes !

 

[fingers99]

As above. Use a platform to clamp the bikes to, a hook at each conner, and load leveller to keep the bike on an even keel front to back.

Not a pretty solution, but should be plenty cheap.

 

[MrFluffy]

How about, a I beam clamped to the wall with good fixings (and maybe a upper seperator bar, and the lower ends sank into the floor so its not putting a force into the wall its not designed to resist), and a modified hoist truck (so it can deal with the force in a different direction) pulled up and down by a cheap hoist.
Hole in the I beam to push a lock pin through when at height ( I could make this automatic with a pin farm jack style...) , and a pig feeder trough switch hanging down underneath to cut power to the hoist in case of objects left underneath.
The only real question mark with that lot for me is the longevity of two cheap cable winches. Plus if they broke during the lift, the precious cargo would be thrown to floor height. Maybe I could rig up some sort of taper brake that the winch action pulls the taper out, but in freefall a spring could pull it back into actuation. Maybe it could be the lock pin mechanism reused. More thinking...

 

[MrFluffy]

Also thought about lifting with two acme screws rotated by motors, and nuts in the trolley, but I cant cut a acme thread long enough for the lift I need.
Ill have a look and see if anyone does them commercially...
Car ramps have them I bet

 

[Wozzaaah]

That's one of the methods I was thinking, should work fine and if you use chain blocks instead of a cable there should be no problem with wear.

 

[rusty69bus]

hey fuffly, how about using a hydraullic jack from say a engine crane with simular pivot popint system

 

[MrFluffy]

Ummmm, I started to plan, got hold of a i beam and ordered up a cheap beam trolley to mod and then bought this :-

Space may not be a issue for a while...
Might reuse the trolley as a winch trolley mind
Should have bought that lift now, have to keep my eye out for a monster 4 post...

 

[Robotstar5]

Is that some sort of grain elevator at the back?, if so bolt some plates to it and then load bike, index lift, load next bike, index etc

On a serious note, looks nice and dry, is it far from present location?