You need to just go ahead and put in a lift or if you do not have enough ceiling height go with a pit in the floor with a cover when not in use. I use my 2 post lift when I am just wiping the car down saves my acing neck and back.
I looked at the stands I have and not HF but also cheap ones. I did notice I have never bent the tabs over on the side that they say to bend.
Not everybody lives in the boonies and has a giant building for their garage with enough space for their toys and to become the next Booster King - nor, I'm sure, would everybody want to (Me, for one - the Carolinas are pretty and nice to visit... but they're all yours). Some (most) of us have 1-, 2- or 3-car garages attached to our homes with 9-foot average ceilings. Sure, I suppose I could raise the ceiling, but doing that with enough clearance for a vehicle on a lift under a pitched roof turns my 2-car garage into a 1-slot shop (I suppose I could stuff 2 cars in if I stack 'em, but why would I want to?). Being 6'5", raising the ceiling a couple feet just won't cut it - that lift needs to run up to full height sometimes... and with a 6-tall Jeep or Ram pick-up on top of it, there's 12 feet right there. I'd wager the peak on the roof over my garage isn't even 16 feet - not enough room for a lift to run up to full height, defeating the purpose. Digging a pit in a 22x24 two-car garage space in a residential area is also one of the single most 'not smart' ideas I've heard in a LONG time.
Besides, I have the Auto Hobby Shop on the base pretty much whenever I need it - which makes me more fortunate than most because I actually DO have a lift at my disposal.
Geez - I just mentioned needing a new set of jack stands (just like most others on this thread), and now the 'sage advice' is saying I need a lift or a pit in my residential 2-car garage.
Wow. Talk about 'out of touch.'
There is a natural progression. I changed rear end in middle of road with two bumper jacks as a teenager. Then got me a set of ramps, then jack stands. Then Dad felt sorry for me because I broke so many transmissions he dug the pit in the garage. Could change a transmission in under an hour by myself and no jacks or stands. Buil a pole barn and gather a few cars.
Then you get married , engineering job and kids and no need for a garage except to change the oil no way you going to build a car. No time and no money.
Then wife and kids gone and you can do what you want when you want. So why not have a lift when you cannot bend over anymore, lol.
I use the jack stands to just get the tires off the floor now days. Not going to fall on me no matter what. Heck I used more concrete blocks for jack stands than I have jack stands.
Oh by the way I do not live in the Boonies. I live in what is usually in the top ten paces to retire in the U.S.A. You can buy the land across the road from me for $35,000 an acre if you buy 30 acres. I have over 3,500 cars a day pass my home according to DOT last survey. Wish I did live in the Boonies every time I use to shoot guns sheriff would show up but I had a range and they could not say anything. He would just say we had a shots fired call and have to come look. He would tell me I was good and want to look at the rifles.
I probably have less in all my cars than you guys do in one. I never had any money if China had not paid for my garage and several cars I would not have them.
Oh BTW what does you digging a pit in your garage have anything to do with your neighbors or community. Do they not allow basements?
