MikeW
First Gear
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Location: Summerfield, NC
Name: Mike
Car #1: 08 Lotus Elise California (Yellow)
Car #2: 08 MB 450GL
Posts: 60
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« on: July 29, 2009, 10:47:28 PM » |
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[img]Hey all, Sorry I have been way out of the loop the last month.. been out of the country for most of the month... Glad to be back for the next 3 weeks before another trip to wet and cold Scotland!
I am having a real itch (more like a rash) to upgrade my daily drive. But since I bought the Lotus my daily drive has lost its garage spot to the Lotus and I enjoy living inside the house so my wife's SUV (tank) takes one spot and my kids and jet ski take the third. I don't want to buy a new car and leave it outside.
The Lotus is in a single garage spot that is fairly good size (12Wx24LX11.5H) with the garage door lift reducing the height down to 8.5H.
I am still deciding what to get so I am not 100% sure what min height clearance I will want to have. My thought now is what is the max I can get and then seeing if it will let me get something bigger in.
Sorry for the long message thanks for the help.
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talon
Administrator
Fifth Gear
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Age: 37
Location: Charlotte
Name: Russ
Car #1: 2001 Lotus Esprit V8
Posts: 1696
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« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2009, 11:36:57 AM » |
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Have you been on garagejournal.com? They have quite a lively discussion surrounding lifts and participation from some of the vendors...
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I put the FUN in dysfunctional!
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Burple_X
Global Moderator
Fourth Gear
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Age: 55
Name: Gary
Car #1: 2008 Lotus Elise
Car #2: 2004 Corvette
Posts: 884
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« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2009, 01:03:02 PM » |
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Since the garage door lift is OVER the top of the garage door, you are actually limited by the position of the door itself. Standard garage doors are 7' tall, thus when fully opened and sitting on the horizonal rails, you might have 7'3" or so of actual clearance. About your only option to utilize the whole 11.5' would be to change doors and go with a roll up door.
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MikeW
First Gear
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Location: Summerfield, NC
Name: Mike
Car #1: 08 Lotus Elise California (Yellow)
Car #2: 08 MB 450GL
Posts: 60
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« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2009, 01:50:21 PM » |
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Thanks for the suggestions.. I will check out the site and see what they have....
I didn't take into account the door reducing the height (not a good engineer here!). I think that I have decided to get a sports sedan instead of a SUV so I may still have enough room. I can not change the door on the garage to be able to get any real benefit from the height.
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talon
Administrator
Fifth Gear
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Age: 37
Location: Charlotte
Name: Russ
Car #1: 2001 Lotus Esprit V8
Posts: 1696
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« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2009, 09:27:32 AM » |
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Another option is to go with a wall mounted opener and modify the current door to hang closer to the ceiling. I know of a couple guys that have done this with great success.
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I put the FUN in dysfunctional!
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MikeW
First Gear
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Location: Summerfield, NC
Name: Mike
Car #1: 08 Lotus Elise California (Yellow)
Car #2: 08 MB 450GL
Posts: 60
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« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2009, 05:06:46 PM » |
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Well it has taken me a while but i finally got around to putting in my lift. It has worked out. I did use a Liftmaster highlift to open the area in the garage and then installed a 8K lbs lift in the space. I had plenty of room. Now hopfully i will not drop one on the other!
See pic below.
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S4 Esprit
Third Gear
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Age: 31
Location: Winston-Salem
Name: Dave
Car #1: '95 S4 Esprit
Car #2: '03 CL-S
Posts: 385
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« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2009, 05:55:26 PM » |
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Absolutely awesome. Let's just hope you never get an oil leak. The car on the bottom is pretty sweet too!  Let's also hope that my wife never sees your lift. I'm sure it was expensive, but was likely a much cheaper parking solution than building a detached garage like I did. |
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Who doesn't enjoy a loud exhaust?
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MikeW
First Gear
Offline
Location: Summerfield, NC
Name: Mike
Car #1: 08 Lotus Elise California (Yellow)
Car #2: 08 MB 450GL
Posts: 60
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« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2009, 11:51:03 AM » |
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I looked at adding a garage and was going to have to take out a few trees that I really did not want to. The cost was really not too bad given it all. The new highlift opener was about 1K (if i would have gotten it initally it woudl have been only about 600 more) and the lift which I got from Eagle Equipment which happen to be here in Greensboro was 1.7K delivered. So about 3K in total is a lot cheaper than any other option really.
On the dripping oil front it has removable pans so you can get to the bottom easy or keep it covered to stop any leaks from getting on the car below.
It goes up in about 45 sec and down in about the same.
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Man of Steel
Second Gear
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Age: 53
Location: Lexington, SC
Name: Christopher
Car #1: Lotus Elise '06 Ardent Red: Micro Mirror, Visor delete, Green filter, snorkel delete, Stage II exhaust
Car #2: Acura TL S Type '07 Morrocan Pearl Red
Posts: 222
Turning 50 rocks!!
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« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2010, 08:22:40 PM » |
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Wow - oil changes will be a snap! |
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I used to sublimate my enthusiasm for cars in the interest of fiscal conservatism and practicality.
Well, FORGET THAT NOW!!!
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ranny
Newbie
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Name: ranny
Car #1: toyota
Posts: 7
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« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2010, 08:49:00 AM » |
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thanks for given the garage lift suggestions and it will be helpful to me thanks _______________ Rueckfahrkamera |
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