Moving a 4 post lift

Gents,

I'm moving my 4 post lift out of my residential garage to another residential garage. Garage doors are 96" wide, and 84" high. Lift is 102" OA, and 75" across the runners, and about 82" high at the top of the towers.

Prior to this occasion, I moved it by breaking it down, and hand loading the subcomponents onto a flat bed. That was 11 years ago, and I'm wondering if I can work smarter this time. Idea being to drop the lift onto the casters, and get it out of the garage door opening 1 post at a time by running it through diagonally, much the same way you'd maneuver a couch through a door way. Then winch it onto a flat bed, and drop the columns to get it off the casters.

Has anyone done this? My concern is the lift is not super easy to maneuver on the casters in my limited experience, it might take some leverage and assist of a winch, so I'll have to figure out some anchor points to move the lift in the desired direction. And it'd be a bit of a bummer to get stuck, either because it physically won't get out the opening, or I can't move the thing the way I need to.

Basically, am I going to spend more time winching and maneuvering than I would on disassembly/reassembly?
 
I'm moving my 4 post lift out of my residential garage to another residential garage. Garage doors are 96" wide, and 84" high. Lift is 102" OA, and 75" across the runners, and about 82" high at the top of the towers.
Gents,

I'm moving my 4 post lift out of my residential garage to another residential garage. Garage doors are 96" wide, and 84" high. Lift is 102" OA, and 75" across the runners, and about 82" high at the top of the towers.

Prior to this occasion, I moved it by breaking it down, and hand loading the subcomponents onto a flat bed. That was 11 years ago, and I'm wondering if I can work smarter this time. Idea being to drop the lift onto the casters, and get it out of the garage door opening 1 post at a time by running it through diagonally, much the same way you'd maneuver a couch through a door way. Then winch it onto a flat bed, and drop the columns to get it off the casters.

Has anyone done this? My concern is the lift is not super easy to maneuver on the casters in my limited experience, it might take some leverage and assist of a winch, so I'll have to figure out some anchor points to move the lift in the desired direction. And it'd be a bit of a bummer to get stuck, either because it physically won't get out the opening, or I can't move the thing the way I need to.

Basically, am I going to spend more time winching and maneuvering than I would on disassembly/reassembly?


I did just this same thing a month ago.. hardest part was finding a tow truck driver willing to move it this way. The casters were ok, not great so I used a jack to help move when the lift got hung up on the ground. Then be prepared to have it scrape all the way up the flat bed but it went up there... It did stick out the sides but I was able to convince the driver that since we were only going a mile in the city and kept it slow we were ok. Nevertheless... once the driver got there and the lift was out of the garage the entire job was done in 45 minutes..

Two quick other notes:
- I had bolts that extended above the posts, a quick sawzall reduced the height to be able to get it out from the garage door
- Check your electrical cord length to make sure you can raise the lift when needed while getting it out of the garage.

Best of luck with your move but I thought this was an easy way to move the lift.

Kevin


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Thanks for that info. I may try to roll it out in the driveway, and if I get stuck I can break it down. The casters on mine are aluminum, so they don't roll so well on anything other than polished concrete, which I don't have. Also have cobbles on the apron of my garage, so maybe I'm answering my own question. Another problem is that I'm moving about 5 miles away, not sure if the tow driver will be willing to drive that far. I also have a question about one of the bridges I enroute, that set up looks like it might be 11' or higher.
 
Good luck, the setup was above 11' but below 13.5'

The truck was also quite tall, a lower bed would work.

Last option that I was going to do was get a flat bed that narrower than the lift, drop lift on it and jack up the legs. I moved a boat lift this way. I just didn't want to drive the trailer into the narrow alley in the city.
 

Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
Thanks for that info. I may try to roll it out in the driveway, and if I get stuck I can break it down. The casters on mine are aluminum, so they don't roll so well on anything other than polished concrete, which I don't have. Also have cobbles on the apron of my garage, so maybe I'm answering my own question. Another problem is that I'm moving about 5 miles away, not sure if the tow driver will be willing to drive that far. I also have a question about one of the bridges I enroute, that set up looks like it might be 11' or higher.

The lift is heavy. I don't know how old you are or what physical shape you're in, but, given ALL of the above, it would seem hiring a company with all the right equipment to dismantle, transport and reassemble the lift might be a faaaaar less complicated and stressful way to go anyway. The initial cost may be more, but if you add in all the legal responsibilities you'd face should some 'mishap' occur along the way that option is a slam dunk regardless of cost 'far as I'm concerned! Add-in your own personal 'down time' should you be injured in some way and it's even more so! ;-)

JMPO. OMV.
 
^ you are spot on. Because I'm hard up against a deadline, and the local company that services lifts is booked until August, I had to do it myself. I must have total amnesia from 11 years ago, because this time around it was a brute. Loading was done by me and the flatbed driver. Unload had one more guy. Then setting up the columns, cross bars and runners was just two of us. Thankfully I had a dolly and a rolling jack, but still, never again...
 

Brian Kissel

Staff member
Admin
Lifetime Supporter
I once moved a big drive through tracked car wash about a mile through town on a early Sunday morning (about 25 years ago). As Tom said, never again.

Regards Brian
 

Howard Jones

Supporter
Tom, if you and a few friends can take it apart, then hire a local mover to haul the parts over to your new house and place them in the garage, you can enlist help again to put it back together at your leisure. I think that's what I would do. I helped do just that once for a buddy. We had 4 guys to start with and called up two more. 6 was perfect (we were all older gentlemen 50 and 60s). Two guys really can't do this. It took all day and your right its frigin heavy but it's a once thing, Barbeque, and beer for help after.

A light-duty chain hoist (to hang from the rafters in your garage), some lift straps, and blocks of wood (half a dozen pieces of four by fours and some 2x4s will be handy. And have them bring their jacks when they come over.
 

Doug Dyar

Supporter
I moved my Bend Pak myself.
Used an engine hoist and a flat bed trailer.
Take out all the cables.
Remove the ramps using a chain and the engine hoist.
Remove the hydraulic pump and reservoir.
Leave the cross bars attached to the posts.
I used furniture dolleys to move them to the trailer.
Reassemble in the reverse order.
Piece of cake.
 
I elected to leave the pump and reservoir attached to the runner so as not to break the connection. I pulled the cross bars out of the towers, and pulled the tower caps off so i could leave the cables attached to the piston rod. That strategy required that I move the runners in tandem, which was probably a mistake - removing the cables is easier. Upside is that I figured out the cables had jumped their pulley tracks, and at least one cable needs to be replaced. Better now than when raising a big load.
 
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