New Lift has Arrived!!

[Kid_Again]

...nah toms94, no offense taken....just 'splaining what i got and why i did it


...i shoulda' bought chinese, i shoulda' bought chinese

 

[Jerry Coia]

Your Lift

I work in Norwich, CT. Do you think you have the time to show me the lift you bought and how difficult it was to put together?

Thanks,

Jerry
(B) 860-425-0144

 

[Subfixer]

Sure, I'm off today Monday, 18 Feb. Usually home on the weekends also.

I'll PM you my phone.

 

[Toms007]

I would like to hear a report on the complete assembled/installed project. I am getting close to ordering a lift, but I still need to find a local supplier for my door parts, I've been too busy chasing the grandkids around to ball games and making ends meet to locate one yet.

 

[Toms007]

I finally found someone to come over and look at my garage door. I've got the OK from the wife to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that and ordering the lift.

 

[RAO-3]

I hope you don't mind if I ask a question as well. I've been researching these lifts for a while, and note that they have to be mounted level. How does one deal with a floor that is sloped for drainage?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

Ray

 

[Toms007]

Well, I would guess it depends on how much slope there is. Mine only slopes 1 1/2" over the 22' length. I doubt that I am going to experience any trouble with that amount.

 

[Subfixer]

I've got the typical slope for drainage. No problems with the lift. I did shim it a bit more for peace of mind than operational necessity. Just didn't like the way it looked being a little off plumb.

 

[John Mcgraw]

I hope you don't mind if I ask a question as well. I've been researching these lifts for a while, and note that they have to be mounted level. How does one deal with a floor that is sloped for drainage?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

Ray

You really do not have to set the legs on a peffectly level surface. You can adjust the cables so that the deck is level while lifting, but the floor can slope for drainage.

Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

I finally found someone to come over and look at my garage door. I've got the OK from the wife to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that and ordering the lift.

Tom,

I did my own doors. If you decide you want to do your own, drop me a Email and I will send you all the info. You can plan on about $200 for the parts to convert a door to high-lift. You will need to change the springs, lift drums, lift cables, and add extension tracks. Plan on putting in a liftmaster 3800 opener as well whie you are at it, if you have an opener on the door. A traditional opener will not operate a high-lift door, since the opener wants to go back as soon as the door moves, but a high-lift door goes verticle for a foot or two before it turns to the rear. The liftmaster opener turns the torsion tube to raise the door, and it is dead silent! Don't let anyone talk you into the Wayne Dalton I-Drive opener. It is such a piece of junk that my local Wayne Dalton dealer will not even sell them! The failure rate on them is astronomical!

Here is a pic of one of three doors that I did at my place. The door now runs within 6" of the ceiling, and there is plenty of clearance with the cars all the way up! I can't tell you how many times one of my friends ran the door into one of my cars when they were all the way up.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/339303/FTQWI-P0001848.jpg

Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Tom,

BTW, the liftmaster 3800 Jackshaft opener is less than $300 if you shop around a little, and it is so slick an operating unit that I would buy one even if I didn't have high-lift doors! You just can't imagine how silent the door will operate with one. since the opener is not tugging or pushing on the door, all the rattles just seem to go away. The motor is a DC motor, so it starts up very slowly, and slows down at the very end. It knows when it is within a couple of inches of the open or closed position, and slows down to a creep for the last couple of inches.

Regards, john McGraw

 

[Toms007]

Tom,

I did my own doors. If you decide you want to do your own, drop me a Email and I will send you all the info. You can plan on about $200 for the parts to convert a door to high-lift. You will need to change the springs, lift drums, lift cables, and add extension tracks. Plan on putting in a liftmaster 3800 opener as well whie you are at it, if you have an opener on the door. A traditional opener will not operate a high-lift door, since the opener wants to go back as soon as the door moves, but a high-lift door goes verticle for a foot or two before it turns to the rear. The liftmaster opener turns the torsion tube to raise the door, and it is dead silent! Don't let anyone talk you into the Wayne Dalton I-Drive opener. It is such a piece of junk that my local Wayne Dalton dealer will not even sell them! The failure rate on them is astronomical!

Here is a pic of one of three doors that I did at my place. The door now runs within 6" of the ceiling, and there is plenty of clearance with the cars all the way up! I can't tell you how many times one of my friends ran the door into one of my cars when they were all the way up.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/339303/FTQWI-P0001848.jpg

Regards, John McGraw

Tom,

BTW, the liftmaster 3800 Jackshaft opener is less than $300 if you shop around a little, and it is so slick an operating unit that I would buy one even if I didn't have high-lift doors! You just can't imagine how silent the door will operate with one. since the opener is not tugging or pushing on the door, all the rattles just seem to go away. The motor is a DC motor, so it starts up very slowly, and slows down at the very end. It knows when it is within a couple of inches of the open or closed position, and slows down to a creep for the last couple of inches.

Regards, john McGraw

John, thank you for the offer. The door guy is supposed to be here this afternoon (3/7) and is going to let me know about how to go about this. Right now I am leaning toward JohnZ's approach, and in talking with the door guy, he said that he thought that it would work. I can do the work myself, I just am not sure "when" I can get to it and I want to get my lift ordered and set up, so I might (if the estimate is reasonable) let him just do the job. That opener sounds like a real winner, I'll keep that in mind. I'll post again after I hear from him today.

 

[John Mcgraw]

Tom,

While John Z's setup will solve the issue of using the original door opener, there are other issues. First of all, you still need to buy the same items to high lift a door with or without the extra panel and the installation is exactly the same. The extra panel just allows a opener that pulls straight back to work. You will still need to buy new springs, drums, cables and extension tracks. The torsion tube will still need to be moved up near the ceiling, and the only difference is that you will neet to buy an extra door panel as well for this setup.

Also, this solution will only give you the height of a new panel, which in most cases ,is about 21". If you can not go verticle 21", or if you want to 28" then you are pretty much out of luck. With a standard high-lift setup, you can go up as much or as little as you need to without having to accept only the standard modular section as the height. The other consideration is that with a standard high-lift setup, the amount that you go up is subtracted from the amount that the door protrudes into the garage when the door is fully up, and this can be a real consideration when trying to get lift clearance. By running my door up almost 20" before making the turn, I was able to reduce by 20" the amount that the door goes over the car when it is up. I actually trimed 26" off the rails, and put a stop on the ends to stop the door. This really cleaned up the ceiling. Obviously, this is not the case when adding another section.


Regards, John McGraw

 

[Toms007]

My man from the door company came today. It looks like we are a go for later this week. He was very knowledgeable and had a couple of recommendations. After his measuring he figured that a 21" panel would keep the door at 10" from the ceiling, so he recommended that I put a 24" panel up there (from a commercial door (he has one in stock)) putting the door a mere 7" from the ceiling, and allowing enough room for the opener to fit above without issue. I will have pictures of the before and after, once they get the door done.

 

[Subfixer]

I used this door opener from Wayne-Dalton:

http://www.wayne-dalton.com/idrive_Torsion.asp

Didn't have to raise my doors, but my lift is in the back of the garage, so there was no interferance anyway.

 

[korvettekarl]

Congrats on the lift. Ypur life will be much easier from here on out. I am looking at adding a 3rd as we speak. Still trying to get my county commissioners to ok my new shop in m y back yard. Finally had to hire a lawyer. I didn't want to but the county has been dragging their feet for over a year on my zoning varaince.

 

[Toms007]

Got the lift in and put together, here's a pic. Still waiting on the garage door guy to came and do his thing.

 

[LittleRedFlatBack]

Lifts

Got the lift in and put together, here's a pic. Still waiting on the garage door guy to came and do his thing.

Hello Toms94,

I don't know much about 4 post lifts, but is it possible to set the upper limits on a lift to keep you from damaging the car in an 8' garage by lifting too high? Just curious.

 

[JohnZ]

Hello Toms94,

I don't know much about 4 post lifts, but is it possible to set the upper limits on a lift to keep you from damaging the car in an 8' garage by lifting too high? Just curious.

There are no built-in upper limits (other than full lift). I suppose you could add some mechanical stops or a limit switch and relay arrangement to cut the power at a given point.

 

[Toms007]

Got the garage door changed out today and now I am fixed up. See complete write up here.

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?p=883313#post883313