I just heard a radio ad for this place on the way to work -

The Veterinary Cancer Center

They are " the largest stand-alone veterinary comparative oncology center in the United States." I can't imagine the costs, but even if only 10% of human cancer-treatment costs, it would be way more than I could imagine spending on a pet.

My wife has been trying to convince me that we should move to chicago, because she could easily make 50% more living in Chicago.

From what I understand, that 50% more is simply the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment), and it's a crappy COLA at that.

My entire mortgage is less than some of your minimum down payments in NYC/LA/CHI/SD, AND I have a garage and driveway to park vehicles in, and a basement to store shit.

I also live on the complete opposite end of the city as my job. My commute is 20-45 minutes depending on weather/time of day.

FWIW, I do plan on making a 6-figure down payment on a home sometime in the near future, but that home will have 3-figure acreage, and still be within an hour of work...on the other side of the city.

I live in the Chicago burbs, and as much as I love it, fuck that.

To get even 5 acres (for less than NBA money) you will need to move at least two hours from the city. If your wife's job is in far west suburbs it wouldn't be so bad but you will still be eating away any salary increases with cost of living. I don't see a net positive other than having Chicago nearby to visit.

Just pulled the trigger on a 3.5 ton two post lift.

Sent a down payment, will be installed in 10 days.
It will be powder coated to our specs, red with gunmetal gray accents.

^ Nice.


I've never understood the appeal of 4-posters, especially for home use. I'm sure that they're awesome for oil-changes and exhaust work, but so much of what we (home users) use lifts for involves wheels / brakes / suspension, and so on.

Yeah, I know you can put cross-jacks inside a 4-post lift, but this just seems silly to me when you can do the same job more easily and for less cost and floorspace with a 2-post unit.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449764107

4 posts take up 1 garage pace 2 posts take up more. Or at least that's what I am and I talked about (he just got a 4 post).

I had the same mentality you do until he said that.

We have a 700ish sq ft shop. Takes three cars easily.
That's with a full size bench, a "kitchen" and misc. equipment in the shop.

Shop's almost finished. Will post pics soon.

I have designed an "interesting" mid rise lift also.

That lift will have its own thread.

That's impressive. My 750sq/ft shop only fits 2 cars with everything I've added.

The trick is utilizing the ceiling.
The place has a lot of high shelves, ans a large tire rack suspended from the ceiling/beams.

Also, we decided to not get an air compressor. We have electric impact tools, and there is a tire shop close by. That saves us a ton of space and money.

My air compressor is outside. I think it's just the shape though. Mine is a square and 3 sides of it have workbenches, shelves, couches etc. My lifted truck fits in one bay, but takes up a lot of space. You could fit 4 miatas before I filled it with junk.

I get the practical constraints involved, I just can't see myself spending the money to buy a 4-post lift only to be frustrated by it.

If space constraints ruled out a two-post lift, I'd tend to lean towards a scissor lift like a Kernel HR6K-70 or a Bendpak SP-7X.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449766579


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449766579



If you want to get fancy, scissor-lifts can even be recessed so they fit flush into the floor:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449766579


That's gotta be better than driving onto a ramp every single day when you get home.


http://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments/...ee-jpg.139182/

We could have easily gone for 4 cars, too. But a proper bathroom and a kitchenette took up some space.
The thing is, we are driving those cars. We do not have to fit them all in there at the same time.
It's just a cool and convenient place to work on them when we need to.

@codrus explained it better.
I agree, I couldn't get a 4 post either.

I wanted that, too. But I couldn't use it full height because the garage is old and has low cross beams. I "settled" on a Ranger Quickjack, which gets it up high enough (~21") for most jobs. It's the perfect height to use a creeper.

2 posts are great if you're in the auto repair business because they provide tons of access to everything. There's a reason why every repair shop out there is overwhelmingly 2-post lifts.

When it comes time to put a lift in a home garage, though, there are a few other considerations. 2 posts lifts are wide, you can't put one in a standard 2 car garage (figure 22 feet wide) and still have room to park two cars side by side. They also have significant concrete mounting requirements, your typical garage floor is neither thick enough nor made of a sufficiently high grade of concrete to support one.

Home garage lift buyers are also often interested in additional parking, and for that 4 posts are better than 2 posts, because they're a ton more stable (especially for those of us who live in earthquake country). They also don't leave the suspension dangling, which I'm told is better for long-term parking.

If I were building a garage from scratch, I'd design it for a 2-post and put one of those in. I'm not, I'm retrofitting an existing garage, and a 2-post is fundamentally incompatible with that.

Scissor lifts don't offer any additional parking options.

Roller jacks on a 4-post lift are a compromise, but to me they're the one that offers the best combination of features.

I have a quickjack, it's great, but it's not a lift. I think of it as being equivalent to automatic jackstands.

--Ian

Can I have your quickjack :)

What if my shop were big enough in every way for a two post, are the $1800 china ones cool?

NEW AUTO LIFTS! INSTALLED THIS WEEK! CALL NOW!

I could lift four miata at once, lol