Bendpak Scissor Lift with low ceilings?

[kyngfish]

Looking at getting a MD 6XP. Eventually I’ll dig a pit for it but for now it needs to sit on my garage floor. My garage ceilings are fairly low and I know the lift has to lift one inch to get past the locks to release and come back down. Just wondering if anyone knows what the height of their 911 plus bendpak at full lift is so I can measure?

[Danimal16]

In my last house I had a MD 6. Sold it and got a max jack. The Max Jack was better.

[quattrorunner]

I have one. My garage is too low for my 911 to top out. Plenty high for every job tho

[Gonbad]

My garage is 9’ 6 3/8” high. At full up my 911 is 13”-14” below the ceiling. This will depend on ride height and error of the measurement by the old guy trying to do this.

I didn’t do the Max-Jack for two reasons. 1. My garage is not wide enough 2. I didn’t want drill holes in my garage floor. I will say BendPak’s customer service is spectacular.

I did have to build a platform to drive the 911 onto as it was just barely too low.

[Gonbad]

[kyngfish]

What are the heights that the scissor lift stops at? I think the highest is going to be too high for my garage. The maxjack is an option but I have posts in the middle of my garage that make this challenging. Ceiling is really low because the garage is essentially under the house.

My guess is it’s 8 foot ceilings with the garage door hanging a little lower than that when it’s open - and it’s gonna need to be open most of the time.

[Gonbad]

Originally Posted by kyngfish

What are the heights that the scissor lift stops at? I think the highest is going to be too high for my garage. The maxjack is an option but I have posts in the middle of my garage that make this challenging. Ceiling is really low because the garage is essentially under the house.

My guess is it’s 8 foot ceilings with the garage door hanging a little lower than that when it’s open - and it’s gonna need to be open most of the time.

8’ ceiling with garage door - yes the highest position will be too high. With my car and all the way up I am like 2-3 inches below my garage door opener.

[ryans65]

I have one of these at home for my aircooled stuff, if your ceiling prohibits even raising a scissor lift to full height I'd just go with something like this. Plenty of height to slide under and work plus it's pretty low profile and can be parked on when not in use. I prefer this to a two post for air cooled work. Just my input here.

https://www.dannmar.com/car-lifts/specialty-lifts/dlr-6/

[Gonbad]

BendPak makes a low-rise lift as well. Just depends on what you want to be able to do.

For me I will be pulling the motor, transmission and all of the suspension including steering rack. My back is significantly screwed up so lifting it as high as I could get it was the priority. I am using this space because my detached garage is unfinished walls and actually has a lower ceiling. This space is finished and insulated. I am installing a mini-split ductless a/c & heat.

Because of the narrow space I wanted a single post lift like the one Greasy Fingers uses on YouTube. It would fit with my ceiling height but it was twice the cost of the mid-rise and it made my wife nervous when she looked at it and thought her son would be under it. She didn’t care if I died under it as I’m worth more dead than alive to her.

[kevbo]

I have a normal height ceiling and this lift works great. Saved my back for sure:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/315286508210?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=kz30iuogthc&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Build these little ramps to make it a normal parking spot for the 911.

[GH85Carrera]

When I first got mine and used the wooden ramps to get the car high enough to go over the lift. That is a real pain in the butt, and the pump is always in the way.

I had the rails for the garage door raised up to just clear the florescent tubes for the lights. With my 911, and the lift in the pit, I can max out the lift, and have lots of room.




My wife's Macan can't go up much, but enough to easily do an oil change. My 1986 El Camino can't max out the lift without hitting the garage door light.



When I put in the pit, or more accurately paid a crew to put it in, I had them cut a trench to the wall and put in conduit to run 110 volts and the lines for the pump through.




The lift, and pit are some of the best things I ever did to my garage.

My El Camino is about 54 inches tall.



This was before the pit, and the raised garage door rails getting raised. You can see the pump behind the car, and it seems to be in the way all the time. That motivated me to get the pit installed.