Four post ramp in garage with no power
Discussion
Saleen836 said:
Sod using that hand lift thing!
Looks like 4 individual levers to jack each corner, so you would need to do one corner a little bit then corner #2 then #3 etc until you have your desired height....
This is my thought, unless you never want to use the top car, surely it would take the edge of going for a spin in it!Looks like 4 individual levers to jack each corner, so you would need to do one corner a little bit then corner #2 then #3 etc until you have your desired height....
mudnomad said:
Just power the inverter from your car. I'm guessing you will drive to the garage. You will easily find 2000 or 3000W inverters that you just hook up to your car's battery and then run the engine for these few minutes when lifting/lowering the lift
That seems neat though I will have to power it from the car while it is on the lift in that case I guess I can use some long cables provided there are not too much in the way of losses?
A generator seems a wasteful option unless you need power for other things in there: you'd be taking the mechanical output of the engine, converting it to electricity just to turn a motor on a hydraulic pump so back to mechanical motion again. There's plenty of applications where a hydraulic pump can be fitted to smaller Honda engines, then you'd literally just need to pull it when you needed to move the lift and switch it off after. Sort of thing any plant fitter would be able to knock up for you if you bought a suitable lift.
With a generator you could run a heater, or a kettle, microwave, or some lights, or a charger for your power tools, or power the cabled tools.
You will find a myriad of uses for a generator - I have since purchasing one, and when theres a power cut in your street you will be the guy with the telly working, a hot cup of tea and the freezer not defrosting !
You will find a myriad of uses for a generator - I have since purchasing one, and when theres a power cut in your street you will be the guy with the telly working, a hot cup of tea and the freezer not defrosting !
Def just get a 5kva generator, as has been stated you will want to power other things..
Make a wooden lean to box with hinged lid outside to stuff it in, run leads through wall.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114901949769?hash=item1...
Make a wooden lean to box with hinged lid outside to stuff it in, run leads through wall.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114901949769?hash=item1...
Thanks for all the feedback.
The thing with a generator is that if it sits outside then it would be visible and perhaps a theft risk (the garage is not at my house). If I put it outside and cover it I could get problems because it is in a conservation area.. I also worry about it not starting, if it starts, runs for a minute and then stops, certainly with a car that would not be a good usage pattern. I could put it inside the garage and route the gases outside I suppose. I won’t be working on cars there.
The thing with a generator is that if it sits outside then it would be visible and perhaps a theft risk (the garage is not at my house). If I put it outside and cover it I could get problems because it is in a conservation area.. I also worry about it not starting, if it starts, runs for a minute and then stops, certainly with a car that would not be a good usage pattern. I could put it inside the garage and route the gases outside I suppose. I won’t be working on cars there.
Your overthinking the whole thing!
It's a £400 ten a penny generator not a £400,000 Ferrari..
It will only be running when you are there.
It won't care about usage patterns or pretty much anything else.
Get a can of ether easy start if paranoid about starting it..
They aren't that heavy just flip up the box lid/front unplug the socket and put it in the garage or take it home when you are not there.
Put it on a dolly maybe inside a box. Just wheel it outside when you are there.
Or make a simple noise insulated box using kingspan offcuts and plywood in the garage, and route exhaust gases through the wall.
That will quieten it down 100%....
Make yourself a F1 style cordless drill type starter to engage at the end where the pull cord is..
It's a £400 ten a penny generator not a £400,000 Ferrari..
It will only be running when you are there.
It won't care about usage patterns or pretty much anything else.
Get a can of ether easy start if paranoid about starting it..
They aren't that heavy just flip up the box lid/front unplug the socket and put it in the garage or take it home when you are not there.
Put it on a dolly maybe inside a box. Just wheel it outside when you are there.
Or make a simple noise insulated box using kingspan offcuts and plywood in the garage, and route exhaust gases through the wall.
That will quieten it down 100%....
Make yourself a F1 style cordless drill type starter to engage at the end where the pull cord is..
Edited by peterperkins on Monday 26th July 08:43
peterperkins said:
Your overthinking the whole thing!
They aren't that heavy just flip up the box lid/front unplug the socket and put it in the garage or take it home when you are not there.
Put it on a dolly maybe.
Or make a simple noise insulated box using kingspan offcuts and plywood in the garage and route exhaust gases through the wall.
That will quieten it down 100%....
Make yourself a F1 style cordless drill type starter to engage at the end where the pull cord is..
It's contagious, clearly!They aren't that heavy just flip up the box lid/front unplug the socket and put it in the garage or take it home when you are not there.
Put it on a dolly maybe.
Or make a simple noise insulated box using kingspan offcuts and plywood in the garage and route exhaust gases through the wall.
That will quieten it down 100%....
Make yourself a F1 style cordless drill type starter to engage at the end where the pull cord is..
northwestrecovery said:
Get a hydraulic ramp and covert it 12v and run it off a couple of batteries , seen it done a few times at farms .
The solution has been posted
Inverter isn't mentioned once
As above, use a 12 or 24 volt hydraulic pump and batteries
Pumps can sometimes be found cheap at commercial vehicle breakers, they are sometimes fitted to the chassis of trailers or tankers that tip
A 5kva generator is somewhat a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but it also does the job cheaply and easily without cutting and shutting anything and using commercially available available kit. And a conventional frame generator will take a lot of abuse, hold a reasonable sinewave, etc.
I've basically never known a Honda engine/genny not start, if it doesn't go on the second pull it is either out of fuel or you have forgotten to turn it on!
Given the time it will be on to operate the lift, just have it near the door with the exhaust facing outwards. You will be running the car in the garage briefly anyway and you say your not doing any work there just storage. Take a LED battery powered floodlight or two with you if you want light.
An inverter is the other option, you will need a reasonably sized one if the motor is 2.2kW (and pulls 20-25A starting) but it's unlikely to be that fussy about wave profile so even a reasonably in expensive one is an option, and as said if you are driving another car to the garage in the first place you could hook it up to that cars battery, of if it is more regular even fit an Anderson plug discreetly under the bumper to save lifting the bonnet/bootlid. Could even jump some lights off the back of it. The beauty of this is no humping boxes of lead and acid around!
Alternatively you go 'full hog' off-grid, get a set of nice lead acid batteries, a nicer quality Victron inverter, some suitably spec solar panels and a decent solar controller, and while you're at it some nice lights, wired in with a switch by the door. Which would if setup right allow silent power, on demand, totally of grid. Enough capacity to life and lower maybe 3-4times easily and enough solar to bring it back up between uses even in winter. Plus you could run powertools, hoover etc if you wanted. But it would cost a little more time effort and kit to setup than a used Honda frame genny.
Ive for a friend with an off-grid garage 1/3mile down the road from his house and will have to catch-up with how that's getting on and what he has settled with for that.
Daniel
I've basically never known a Honda engine/genny not start, if it doesn't go on the second pull it is either out of fuel or you have forgotten to turn it on!
Given the time it will be on to operate the lift, just have it near the door with the exhaust facing outwards. You will be running the car in the garage briefly anyway and you say your not doing any work there just storage. Take a LED battery powered floodlight or two with you if you want light.
An inverter is the other option, you will need a reasonably sized one if the motor is 2.2kW (and pulls 20-25A starting) but it's unlikely to be that fussy about wave profile so even a reasonably in expensive one is an option, and as said if you are driving another car to the garage in the first place you could hook it up to that cars battery, of if it is more regular even fit an Anderson plug discreetly under the bumper to save lifting the bonnet/bootlid. Could even jump some lights off the back of it. The beauty of this is no humping boxes of lead and acid around!
Alternatively you go 'full hog' off-grid, get a set of nice lead acid batteries, a nicer quality Victron inverter, some suitably spec solar panels and a decent solar controller, and while you're at it some nice lights, wired in with a switch by the door. Which would if setup right allow silent power, on demand, totally of grid. Enough capacity to life and lower maybe 3-4times easily and enough solar to bring it back up between uses even in winter. Plus you could run powertools, hoover etc if you wanted. But it would cost a little more time effort and kit to setup than a used Honda frame genny.
Ive for a friend with an off-grid garage 1/3mile down the road from his house and will have to catch-up with how that's getting on and what he has settled with for that.
Daniel
Fessia fancier said:
By way of a very belated follow up, the garage is more or less 90% built now. I can't readily get a 12v powered ramp so was looking at the inverters.
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TLINV2500ST....
or
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/streetwize-3000-wat...
Does anyone have any thoughts on these, or indeed any alternative ideas?
I am happy to lug a battery or top it up with a solar panel. I'm curious to know whether the above will have enough oomph to get the ramp going with a car on it.
Thanks
I *think* you need a pure sine wave inverter to drive motors.https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TLINV2500ST....
or
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/streetwize-3000-wat...
Does anyone have any thoughts on these, or indeed any alternative ideas?
I am happy to lug a battery or top it up with a solar panel. I'm curious to know whether the above will have enough oomph to get the ramp going with a car on it.
Thanks
I'd be thinking about a car battery and a solar panel - I used this in my shed to avoid running power to run lights and 12v tools.
Glad I'm not the only one thinking solar panels,I may have a similar situation soon (albeit without the lift) with a garage off grid. I was looking at solar panels for lighting, power tools, vacuum cleaner and maybe trickle charging a battery etc, so nothing too demanding. Solar panels seems like the obvious solution to me.
MikeM6 said:
Glad I'm not the only one thinking solar panels,I may have a similar situation soon (albeit without the lift) with a garage off grid. I was looking at solar panels for lighting, power tools, vacuum cleaner and maybe trickle charging a battery etc, so nothing too demanding. Solar panels seems like the obvious solution to me.
Makes no sense to meRelying on the weather to produce electricity is a big no goer
Lots of panels needed to produce anything like enough power
Unused power is wasted or is saved by charging batteries
No solar power produced during dark hours when lighting is needed
Just can't see it somehow
Penelope Stopit said:
Makes no sense to me
Solar PV does not require direct sun to generate power, and will do so all year round even in the UK.Given the duty cycle of use (a few operations a month max) the number of panels needed will be quite moderate.
Even a reasonable small battery will have enough energy to operate the lift up and down a couple of times without issue.
Once the batteries are charged up, the power is not needed, so the fact it is wasted is of minimal concern.
The amount of power needed for lighting is very small (if required at all) and will easily run off a very moderate battery.
There are a huge number of narrowboat, on which people live and work, running almost exclusively off solar power for everything except propulsion and perhaps cooking (gas) and or washing machine (done while propulsion engine is running) and it is very possible to run power tools, hair drier, etc even a washing machine, off an inverter as long as you do some basic sums and patch the incoming power to the outgoing power.
The kit of bits; batteries, inverter, panels, pv controller, is a slightly larger up front cost than a used frame genny and you would have to some basic sums and or make a few assumptions to spec the size of panels/battery required but it should then work reliably, silently and with basically no maintenance for a decade, swap the batteries, and do it all over again!
You can get used 250w panels on ebay for £50 a pop if you were willing to do a DIY installation.
A 110Ah reasonable spec L35-115 Yuasa for Tayna are £80 and two would likely be all you needed
Good inverters are not cheap, but 3kV Victron is £850 or you can get cheap unbranded ones for half that.
Plus £150 for a MPPT solar controller, and then throw in a few LED light fittings.
So it might be £1500 all up with a mounting kit for the panels etcm which is three times a second hand frame genny but amount the same as a new one!
Daniel
BlueFocus said:
Would Solar Panels really produce enough power ?
You'd need to estimate the number of Watt-hours need to lift the vehicle and average frequency of lifting it, calculate the panel area needed to produce that amount in the environment where it will be used, and size the battery to suit the maximum number of times you need to lift without recharging.My gut feeling is that it will need so many panels that it is cost prohibitive, even assuming there's suitable space to fit them.
A small petrol generator or petrol engine driven hydraulic pump is a far safer solution IMO, almost no installation cost and would be available to use elsewhere - which the panels obviously aren't.
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