Special Equipment: The Right Lift
August 1, 2006
For the car collector who likes to maintain a hands-on relationship with his machines, the four-post drive-on lift has become the standard solution for storing, detailing, and servicing your automobiles at home. Besides providing easy access for routine maintenance, the four-post lifts let you stack two cars in a single parking space.
Aboveground lifts come in a variety of sizes and capacities, to store anything from an Abarth to a stretched Rolls-Royce Phantom.
While most lift manufacturers recommend a 9-foot garage ceiling for adequate clearance, it is possible to use a garage with a lower ceiling height, based on the total height of both cars to be stored, plus another 10 inches to accommodate the lift structure. Removable lightweight drip pans ensure that the classic car above does not soil the daily driver below. Most lifts also have a jack bridge option to raise the car above the lift ramps for advanced service requirements, such as suspension or brake work.
If your garage ceiling is low, the PhantomPark subterranean parking system by American Custom Lifts offers a unique solution: It utilizes a basement area below the garage, or a pit constructed in the garage floor. You drive the car onto the PhantomPark lift, which is then lowered into the subterranean space, and then you drive the second car into the aboveground (or garage-floor-level) parking space.
Although this system does not allow you to service or display the underground stored vehicle, it does solve the problem of limited aboveground parking while offering secure, concealed storage.
American Custom Lifts
888.711.5438
aclift.com
advertisement
