Just a question for the people who have a 4 post lift: How do you get the car off the wheels to work on brakes/suspension? Do you have to go back to floor jack and jack stands?
I picked one of these up a couple of years ago. Mine is not quite as fancy but the price was around 200 bucks. I use this with a bridge across the lift and I can use it on the side deck of the lift also to lift one side of the car. Much easier than a floor jack up high. I also have a small bottle jack I seldom use. As for stands I use a couple of 6X6 blocks and on one side I have a 2X6 screwed to it for more lift. For the cobra I have a long 6X6 that goes from side to side on the lift and i just rest the round tubes on it. The car is very secure and you can really roust on the suspension without any fear of it falling.
If you do go with a four post lift, the ramps will pose no problem to your Cobra. Even your C6 should be fine. The runways are about 4 - 5 inches off the ground, but the standard ramps aren't so steep that it's an issue for most streetable cars - even my GT350, which is fairly low has no issues making it up the ramps onto the runways...... although I do back it onto the lift instead of going nose-first.
Chris,
That is good to know. I certainly don't want to mess with wood blocks each time I set the car on the lift. The front airfoil on my 2010 Grand Sport is under 5 " (a little lower than normal but needed to be done to accommodate the supercharger and all that went with it) so well see.
Nice pick of the Shelby.
Jay
Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8658. 04 of 20. 3.31 IRS.
Forte 427 Dart, TKO 600, Quick Fuel 780 carb. Delivered 9/2/2015, First start/Go Cart 2/18/2017.
Road Legal August 31, 2017
Just a question for the people who have a 4 post lift: How do you get the car off the wheels to work on brakes/suspension? Do you have to go back to floor jack and jack stands?
I also have a jack bridge - it's a heavy metal span that slides the full length of the opening between the runways - and I use a low profile scissor jack and jack stands to get the car off its wheels. To make it easy, I use my cordless impact to raise and lower the scissor jack.
Later,
Chris
"There are no more monsters to fear, and so, we have to build our own."
Mk3.1 #7074
Like others here, I fabricated a jack bridge and use bottle jacks. There are commercial bridge jacks out there that look like they would work well if you're not into fabricating your own. I wanted a lighter system that could easily be removed and stored when not in use so I built one.
Thing is I'm pretty sure they say on there site those drive-on plates leave the wheels hanging, and they're just to speed the time taken to get the car in the air.
Either way there a great option. They are more expensive, but they are built to last under commercial use. And it's American made.
After careful concideration, input from forum members and feedback from others, I chose to purchase a Direct Lift 4 post std height system. This unit meets all of my needs allowing me to easily service my cobra and store both the cobra and corvette when not needed. It will handle 8000 lbs and fits perfect in my workshop. I also purchased the sliding hydraulic jack for lifting the front or rear wheels for service.
It was a difficult decision but I made it.
Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8658. 04 of 20. 3.31 IRS.
Forte 427 Dart, TKO 600, Quick Fuel 780 carb. Delivered 9/2/2015, First start/Go Cart 2/18/2017.
Road Legal August 31, 2017
Like others here, I fabricated a jack bridge and use bottle jacks. There are commercial bridge jacks out there that look like they would work well if you're not into fabricating your own. I wanted a lighter system that could easily be removed and stored when not in use so I built one.
Hi NAZ and everybody elsel,
Since we just got a Nussbaum double scissor lift and will get a 4 post soon as well, I will need to fabricate some bridges to work with narrow frame rails of the cobra.
Can you post some pictures of your design for inspiration?
Here it is this morning as I'm getting ready to modify it into a jack stand for my latest project. I made this thing out of steel left over from other projects and it's designed to flip one way for low clearance and the other to gain some height. The backbone is made from 48" .250"x2"x4" tubing.
UPDATE: it's now a jack stand. Repurposed an old roll bar and made it slip into sockets for a new modular tool. Now I can blow apart the front end on my new toy and modify the front suspension while working at a comfortable height instead of rolling around the shop floor on a creeper. A few beers and a few hours of unsupervised shop time and I can now start a project I've been putting off cuz I didn't want to work laying on my back.
Once you have a lift, you never want to work on your back again.
Last edited by NAZ; 02-05-2021 at 01:42 PM.
Dart Little M 406" SBC 800 HP N/A & 1,100 HP on nitrous, 2-spd Powerglide with trans brake, 6,000 RPM stall converter, narrowed Moser 88 3.90:1 spool with 35-spline gun-drilled axles & Torino bearings, custom parallel four-link, custom tube chassis & roll cage NHRA certified for 8.5-sec (only two FFR Hot Rods have this cert).
Lots of good info here and both 2 post and 4 post have their place and advantages. For those of you here with Cobras and two post lifts are there any low profile lifts out there that,1. go under the car without lifting on blocks or 2by's , and 2. The main support arms don't hit the side pipes. My 45 year old Rotary lift does this pretty well but she is starting to leak in one of the cylinders. I bought seal kits but if that doesn't fix it I'll need to get a new one. These short wheel base cars are not easy to put on a two post without the arms hitting somewhere or having to move the car back and forth to get the arms under it. Any one whose lift accomplishes this please let me know.
On my Bendpak low profile arms, I still have to raise the car a bit in the front. For the rear, I can get the pad between the pipe and the rear tire without any raising of the car. As far as keeping off the pipes, the pads can be raised or lowered about 3-4 inches so that they contact the frame well before the arms touch the pipes.
Just a quick note regarding Bendpak 4 post list. They sell a scissor jack accessory for jacking up the car off the rails. It ties into the pneumatic air system and has a 4500 lifting capability:
They can roll to any position on the ramps and are super-sturdy...
FFR 5369 Pin Drive, IRS, Trigos, Torsen, Wilwoods, FMS BOSS 302 "B" cam , Mass-flo. CA SB100 (SPCN) Registered
Delivered 4/23/06. "Finished" 4/2012 (still not done!)
David, these bridge jacks are very handy. I thought about buying one with my first lift but they are a pain to remove and store. Most won't need to, but I move my ramps in and out to accommodate everything from my ATVs to my Class-5 truck. I even fabricated an pneumatic actuator system on my first lift to change the width for the different vehicles I service on it. But for those that never adjust the width, these jacks are to way to go.
Dart Little M 406" SBC 800 HP N/A & 1,100 HP on nitrous, 2-spd Powerglide with trans brake, 6,000 RPM stall converter, narrowed Moser 88 3.90:1 spool with 35-spline gun-drilled axles & Torino bearings, custom parallel four-link, custom tube chassis & roll cage NHRA certified for 8.5-sec (only two FFR Hot Rods have this cert).