SMALL GARAGE? Problem Solved with Portable Car Lift! 

I've worked with anchors in concrete for over 55 years. The wedge anchors included by the equipment manufacturer are only as good as the concrete their being set into. Most residential garage floors are at best is 3,000 psi concrete, most likely less and 4" thick, maybe and just maybe they added re-enforcing wire. The concrete is the weak link in the whole system. Anchors should be spread out no closer than 6" a part, which the manufacturer did. I'm sure in the instructions they had a disclaimer regarding the concrete integrity to cover themselves. Before you buy this product check the depth of your floor and how hard it is to drill. The safest thing to do is cut a 4ft by 4ft opening under each post and place 4ft deep steel re-enforced deadman dowelled into the existing concrete. Remember, concrete is very strong in compression but very weak in tension "pull". This lift system puts the concrete in tension.

Good to see people wearing their safety flip flops when installing this heavy equipment. Better safe than sorry.

I've had this jack for 5 years now, purchased because of low ceiling. No problems what so ever, mounted pump and tank on the lift post with metal tabs I fabricated and attached , looks cleaner, highly recommend!

ive had this lift for almost 2.5 years now and it is single-handedly one of the best things i've ever bought for my garage. Also side note for everyone with this lift, get a heavy duty grease or a paste type white lithium (not the spray type) and apply it in each of the lift posts on the inside channels. The instructions are honestly super unclear and after a while, the lift becomes very shakey and rough without lubing those inner points up. It is not like a traditional lift and I would recommend doing it at least once a year where you wipe down as much of the old grease and apply new grease. Also, make sure to always put on the locks and check the hydraulics every now and then to make sure they aren't leaking.

Bought my MaxJax almost 4 years ago. Love it. Don't worry about not raising up perfectly level. Mine never has. I did set the anchors in two positions. Highly recommend anchoring adhesive. I am surprised that you didn't hit any rebar. I used 1/2" rebar 16" on center when building. Made sense before having to drill for the anchors. 🤯

Safety wise I would never have put the controls in such a tight spot. If this lift where to fail or the vehicle becomes unbalanced one could be pinned between the vehicle and the wall. This would likely prove to be fatal. Since you were running longer hose to one side anyway, I would have put the pump and controls on the rear wall where you could more easily escape if a car starts to fall. This would also give you more equal hose lengths. I have two four post lifts and the controls are at a corner where one can easily escape in case of failure. It is much more rare for a car to fall of a four post lift, but I have seen dozens of videos of cars falling off of two post lifts. If you watch those videos you would not ever think of being so trapped when lifting a vehicle.

I have the old Danmar MaxJax. Except for keeping the lifting equal it’s been great. I lift my 2012 Silverado crew cab. Another option for not unbolting the driver side post, take the arms off and hang on the wall. The arms get in the way more than the post.

Good idea to wear safety glasses when pulling nails or cutting steel binding bands. A man at work cut a steel band. It sprung back and took his eye out. Also wear them when using power tools.

Brian you do such nice work . I worked in a shop that had symmetrical lifts we got in the habit of pulling up to the lift and rolling the windows down and putting the car in neutral and pushing it between the posts .

I think calling this thing portable is a bit of a stretch😂😂😂

You could’ve just bought a couple of car ramps the type the dealers use in front of their dealerships and get the same height for a fraction of the cost and aggravation of the installation plus they’re fully portable easily movable by one person. And they never fail and there’s no maintenance or oil leak to deal with.

Been having mine since 2020 the best investment I’ve made for my home garage! No problems at all so far! 🤞

Its great when your boys all pitch in to make the dream work! Awesome job!

How thick should the concrete be on the garage floor? Did you know how thick yours was before you installed the lift?

For your garage size and intended use ie bodywork, a scissor lift would have been a better choice

I purchased the 7K and had to put in another 2k to make it work and be safe. Did 24 inch square base plates 5/8 . Then replaced the movable parts of the arms to extend them to actually work.

I killed a couple of cheap hammer drills before I broke down and rented and real rotary hammer and did it in minutes. As you know, the right drill made it a lot easier. The garage looks fantastic. Having a lift at home for doing body work is something I wish I'd done ages ago. Saves the knees and back a lot of pain. On single garage doors like that you can move the opener over to the side and the door will still function normal. Congrats on the new lift

If you're thinking of building a shed it's best to know the total height of car+lift as this will determine which shed kit you need.

Custom work on an out of the box hydraulic Jack system is a nomination for a Darwin Award.

Appreciate the detail to this video, not sure I would put one in my garage after seeing this but I'm glad to see their is a solution out there.

A lot of trust in those bolts screwed into the floor with that amount of leverage.

You have some diamond balls. You show how to release the locks then proceed to roll under the car with the ergo chair. You can see them still unlocked in the video. And I feel nervous getting under my Mustang with 6 jack stands!

Once you go lift you never go back. Have had mine 4 years now and cant go without it. You see things with a lift you never knew existed. I'm into vintage Caddy's and Lincoln's. So I got a 10,000 lb one

In the case of a garage installation in a "home" where the concrete is generally less than 4" thick, I'd worry. I measured 2.5 inches in some spots when I cut the floor and elsewhere it was always less than 4" thick. If you are pouring a new floor, make sure it is at least 6" thick or better still, 8". The MaxJax Manual calls for 4" and 4.25" minimum (which is it MaxJax?) and tells you to drill 5.5" deep into concrete. The Wej-It anchor manual calls for a 5 inch deep hole for the PD-58 anchor. I skipped all of that and did my own installation that is now going on over 10 years...and I am still here. LOL

Hopefully you invest in Pinchweld Adapters for this lift. Once that Pinchweld' is damaged, no going back.

Very smart working with heavy steel wearing sandals 😂

Love the floor! What product is that? It looks like a hard anti-slip rubber surface with nice easy clean texture.

i think the quick jacks are better and you don't have to bolt them to the floor

Love the way you assembled heavy metal wearing slippers. It would be nice to see something heavy fall onto his toes!!! Safety first!!!

Very slick! Great video man. I'm envious of both the two-car garage AND the lift. Couple observations: You can't do this as it appears your garage doors are butted right against the side walls, but for those with the extra width, wall-mounted door openers are a great option to get more overhead lifting space. Also, ideally it's good to know where your car's center of gravity is to adjust the front and rear lifters so that your weight distribution is 50/50. Might also be a good idea to get height extended jack stands for each end, just to be extra safe.

Yes have had my MaxJax for about 10 years love it

Great video! I would love to get one of those installed in my DIY garage and appreciate the way you explained all aspects. Your shop is immaculate, I can easily follow a man’s suggestions when his shop and business are that clean and orderly 😎! I just need 2 things to get one of these 1. Money 2. Time 😂 Thanks again for informative video

Man I would have lifted that last car to its max capability! I have full trust in bendpak! Been using them for years! Best in the business

so many body men in shops work and mud and sand bent over or on there knees all day long ,this will make life a lot better.

Great demo. Only tip is make sure that the lock has not been released before going under any vehicle. When you demo’ed the creeper, I noticed the locks were unlocked. Just a safety FYI for you.

Nice man!! I have the same set-up at my Home Garage🤗 I love this lift

not a fan of using a concrete anchor that is removable. Hope they don't get weak!!

I put a jack shaft garage door opener with center torsion spring on my garage door gave me about 16 in more height.

If i had a garage this would work great.

Are you planning on getting a wall mount garage door lift for more clearance. About four fifty to five hundred hundred bucks at menards for a Chamberlain eliminates that damn track and unit hanging down in the way

Thanks for sharing the install. Might want to buy a garage door low headroom conversion kit to give you some more height, along with convert the door to manual lift to get rid of the automatic door lift.

Love your channel! Great install! Looks neat. I would have mounted pump and controls 2-3 feet to the left away from the car just so not to be in harms way of being crushed against the wall in the odd event of car falling off the lift...just my two cents.

Brian I’ve noticed on some of the building channels they keep a few wood blocks handy to put on to the lift pads (when they are lifting cars with low sill body styles)

They are great , had mine for 10 years now

Wearing sandals while moving 300lb pillars?

Nice flip flops let's get some work done

Very cool, sir. It was nice of your embroidery club to come and help you set it all up, and you didn't even give them props.

Why didn’t you get scissor lift? 2post lifts block some panels, making it impossible for bodywork. Scissor lift lifts from bottom and does not block any side panels. Just curious

This is looking awesome Brian and friends. Great install, and practical 👍 😊

Nice addition to the garage. Garage looks amazing. Just so you know, you can relocate the garage opener to the side or even raise it up higher to gain more height.

A comment or two.... the rear bolts in the floor are in tension not compression. There are no front bolts as the base plate is compressed against the floor underneath hence developing the moment resistance coupling to resist the moment for the load on the lift arms. Therefore the strength of the lift posts for rotating towards the car depends greatly on the tensile bolts strength but more so on the tensile strength of the concrete. Does not matter how big are the anchor bolts, the concrete tensile resistance governs the ultimate strength. The anchor in the concrete engages an imaginary cone in the concrete when subjected to pull forces and resist the pullout by shear friction in the concrete. The thicker the concrete the higher the shear resistance. The cone developed under the pull forces (tension) must not be interrupted by a crack in concrete nor by the concrete edge. Your anchors for the post against the wall may be too close to the edge and therefore may not develop the full pullout force resistance, from the video they appear to bee about 3" away or so. If your garage slab was poured after the walls were built, floating floor, you may have to check the edge distance. If the floor was poured over the foundation walls prior to the walls above being constructed you may be OK. MaxJax manual should have a minimum edge distance specified. (also check a video of a guy with a failed anchors) I have the same lift but older model with a safety bar that you push through the holes in the posts to act as a safety. I also installed levels (for leveling the fence posts) which I can check to see if the posts are plumb in both directions front to back and left to right when I lift the load, every time. There will be some movement on the posts (bubble in the level moves but stay within the plumb area) due to the load acting on the arms and creating the moment (torque) on the arms that are transferred to the posts. The posts must be installed vertically with no load. Due to the garage floor slope you may need to shim the posts bases to bring them to a vertical position. Good luck.

That garage is huge! Maybe 3x the size of mine. Small garage 🤣😂🤣😂

great solution, not everyone have such a big nice garage as you though.... great value for the price also....

Nice clean install Brian. I prefer a full size lift myself, but I have the space. This looks like a good deal for someone with a standard height garage or minimal space.

Nice u should try the wall mount garage door opener so you can get the most height out of your lift. They are very nice an they are not bad on the pocketbook. Hope u check one out.

The first thing that jumped out at me with this installation is the placement of the oil pump and control spot where you have to stand to operate the lift , the person is in between the wall and the vehicle , just to me it seems not the safest spot to be while lifting ?

There is nothing more stylish than wearing flip flops while installing heavy equipment……👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

that is a very cool hoist this would work perfect in my garage...i really like that it runs on 120 volts....

Flip-flops while working with heavy steel parts is pure genius.

It's always a good idea to wear flip flops and open toed shoes when installing heavy pieces of steel🤪

In my situation, since my wife also has a garage door remote, if you lower the g-door for more clearance, I would recommend pulling the door opener safety release to prevent sweet heart remote button pushin accidents. LOL .. Nice video :-)

another great video like always Brian your content never disappoints me 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Nice lift. Game changer for body work, detailing, brakes- the list goes on. Garage looking sweet man. Feel free to showcase your rides- Ive seen that old TL in a few videos...

For side mount direct drive garage openers, you can get a short chain link for those and mount it on the ceiling on the side. Liftmaster part #480lm.

Very nice! Curious on the slab? Post tension?

There is a joke in that intro... How many painters does it take to open a MaxJax crate? Too many! That thing is packed like it's a nuclear warhead. Good to see they take their shipping protection serious. Congrats on the lift. Once you start using it you will become a prima donna never wanting to lie on the garage floor again. It only took me 2 days to become one and now I complain if I have to get on the floor. It is not pretty. A couple of points based on my experience with my Bendpak. The round pads get damaged quickly with the pinch weld lift points. I made some pinch weld standoffs matching a spare tire jack. If you want any info let me know. They work well. For the down position arm free movement, you can double sided tape spacers under where the pins touch so they all release when fully down so you do not need to lift the release pin. It looks like you have some attic space to change the garage door tracks to angle up and reposition the opener to get more height. I know that is a lot of work cutting out a section of the ceiling for the door/tracks, but it will allow you to utilize the full lifting height capacity.

Great setup Brian, best of luck to you.

For the money, quick jacks would probably be a far better choice. I would never get underneath a car on that lift, they don’t pour concrete in residential garages to withstand the forces you can create with a car on that lift.

Great job! I would max it out with garage door up and mark the position somewhere on the arms and standups. I know my luck I would lift to max height with door down and would at some point raise the garage door and drag the door arm across the roof. You have done an outstanding job on you new work space. keep the videos coming.

Bunch of dads doing dad things on a Sunday with a nice cold one 🍻

I guess I have a different definition of "portable". If I'm willing to unbolt and disconnect wiring then wouldn't everything be portable?

If you leave the car in neutral when it is a few feet from center, you can open the doors all the way and easily get out. Then push the car into position.

Most homes were built with a minimal slab that alredy have cracking issues.

Very nice. I’d worry about the amount of leverage on those bolts. I’d prefer a wider foot print and/or the pillar extending to the ceiling to be secured into ceiling beams. Both of those of course effect portability but safety first. Ignoring that, if you want more lift height, look at 1) high lift conversion on that end door and 2) jack shaft door opener. You can get another foot or more of overhead range. As long as you don’t open the door, you don’t need the high lift door but your torsion bar at present likely doesn’t have the space for a jackshaft opener on either side. You’ll probably be ok for opener space after doing a high lift conversion.

That would be a dream for me. Perfect for your new shop. Great video. Thank you.

Nice! I'm jealous of that garage. I would like to get something like that but the major thing stopping me is that I have post-tensioned slab and drilling into the slab is risky of hitting a steel tendon in the concrete....Ka-BOOM!!

How thick does your concrete have to be. Or what does the manufacturer recommend.

Now if you change out your garage door opener to a shaft drive you can gain a lot more lift height.

THE FLIP FLOP CLUB AROUND HEAVY EQUIPMENT, NICE LIFT BUT FOR THOSE OF US WITH BACK ISSUES WE NEED A HIGHER CEILING AND FOR MORE PRACTICAL USES HAVE A MORE OPEN AREA AROUND THE LIFT !!! ENJOY ALL THE VIDEOS YOU POST VERY ,VERY INFORMATIVE !!!! THANK - U BRIAN !!!!

That roller creeper chair seems like a PITA. The slightest force turning a bolt will send it rolling away.

Sweet little garage! I have the same floor and setup minus the lift

😂😂😂😂 It awesome to see all the guys cracking the boxes ope like in a Christmas day! Very gun video to watch! 🥳🎉

Nice to have, although I typically manage just fine with my jack stands.

If using one where you don't trust the concrete remember steel beam harvested by demolition companies is easy to find. I welded a (large) H from heavy beam to support m full size two post lift outdoors on earth. That way the posts cannot tip inwards because the supporting H base ties them together. You can pour concrete around the frame or dig a H-shaped trench with a trenching shovel (trenching shovels are wonderful) to set it into the ground. On soft ground consider railroad gravel as a base that doesn't crush below the H-frame. If you don't weld remember heavy bolting is used by ironworkers every day for heavier loads.

Dang, what a pain in the rear! I would not want to worry about dinging the doors with those things. Limited height too? What's the use?

That would be perfect for small frame off classic jobs

Man I thought I just saw you slide under that with the locks off, crazy trust. I want one.👍

only issue is whether the garage concrete is appropriate for the lift. Considering most people don't know.. doubt this is a good solution but it's cool tho. Maybe cutting holes and putting in concrete that can actually support these would be best but then your costs go way up

The concrete base probably is not the best. Thought you needed it to have a nice footer base.

I have a bend pack mid rise scissor lift in my home garage and in my opinion it works better for doing body work on there is no posts to deal with and it's completely movable if you wanted but honestly it's not in the way so it stays where it is for the most part and there is no bolting and unbolting to move it way better lift for body work and lifts it just as high if not higher then the max jack

lovin the safety flip flops

I get calls several times a month from people with these and the lift is STUCK up and will not come down. i would never suggest getting one of these. You can get a better lift for less money. Also NEVER install a lift that close to a wall.

You mentioned the capacity of this lift system twice but failed to mention the thickness of the concrete and the strength of the concrete necessary for the installation!!! What is the minimum concrete thickness and the minimum PSI strength of the concrete??!!!

Good video however won't work in most homes in the Las Vegas area. Concrete slabs are "post tension". Cannot drill holes into the slab.

Wayne Dalton iDrive would work for the opener.

i have a 2 poster, but for home i would go with a scissor lift, they lay nearly flat, and the posts of a 2 post get in the way. if you do alot of work under the middle of the car then i would go 2 post, but again, for normal servicing i would go scissor.

Like the floor covering.

you have a different definition of portable then I do lol ...

What You’ll Need to Check to Install Your MaxJax: Concrete Slab Thickness (4.25” or more) Concrete-MaxJax Indoor Installation Only Concrete-No More Than 3-degree Slope Concrete-Compressive Strength 3,000 psi or Greater MaxJax Lift Location Overhead Clearance, Approach Clearance, and Obstructions Concrete Condition (no significant cracks or defects, especially under lift pillars) Traditional Slab or Post-Tension Cable Slab type verified Note-MaxJax hold-down bolts/anchors require 90 ft-lb tightening torque

Nice garage. The garage door opener significantly reduces the lift height. I probably would not install a lift in a garage with ceilings that low and made lower with the opener blocking the height.