Asymmetric or symmetric 2 post lift - help please

[thriftwood]

I’m looking to install a 2-post lift and wondered if anyone has specific advice on whether a symmetric or asymmetric version is significantly better.
The lift will have to accommodate a range of vehicles (Morgan, DB9 , E-Class, Discovery) and I can imagine that depending upon the task in hand, I may wish to place the vehicle in forwards or in reverse.
Most of the options I’ve looked at have a between post width of 2.7-2.8m which doesn’t seem to leave a huge amount of squeeze room to get in and out.
Anyone used a standard symmetric lift with their DB9 and has it been ok? Any other thoughts or gotchas I should be aware of?
TIA
Richard

[DB9VolanteDriver]

Symmetrical is fine if you can space out the columns to give you lots of wiggle room, otherwise asymmetric is better. In addition to getting in and out, consideration also must be given to arm reach. If you can’t shorten them enough, you will have trouble swinging them into position without hitting the front or rear tires. I have to position my 9 exactly perfect L/R and F/R in order to swing the arms inwards while clearing the tires by an inch or so. In my case, a shorter front arm would be ideal.

[telum01]

From my discussions with people about lifts, asymmetric is generally to manage space constraints. Opinions will differ from person to person and case to case, though.

[KevinBird]

I have this lift with the optional sports car arms and is single phase https://www.liftmasterge.com/garage-products/lmh3s...

[dlgis]

I’m sure you’ll be checking weight limits for potential options if you’re planning to lift a Disco. My Disco4 gives my mate’s 2 poster a challenge 🤔

[JonnyCJ]

KevinBird said:

I have this lift with the optional sports car arms and is single phase https://www.liftmasterge.com/garage-products/lmh3s...

Asymmetric looks scary - so it's just one arm each side covering F&R ? What happens if you're doing some serious spannering on the unsupported corner, I have pictures in my head of the car doing a sideways nose dive.

[LTP]

JonnyCJ said:

Asymmetric looks scary - so it's just one arm each side covering F&R ? What happens if you're doing some serious spannering on the unsupported corner, I have pictures in my head of the car doing a sideways nose dive.

Look again at the picture (click on it to enlarge if necessary) - there's two arms per side; the car is supported in all four corners on the normal jacking points.

[JonnyCJ]

LTP said:

Look again at the picture (click on it to enlarge if necessary) - there's two arms per side; the car is supported in all four corners on the normal jacking points.

Gotcha - I can sleep at night now. Was wondering why I hadn't seen what I was describing before. Thought I'd missed out on a vital part of a physics lesson.

[thriftwood]

Thank you all for the input.
It looks like I can get away with a symmetrical lift with different length arms – which, fortunately, is exactly what I was looking at

The Disco weighs in at about 2.7 tons so I’m looking at a 3,600 – 4,000kg lift. Hopefully that’ll give me enough margin.

Thanks also for the pictures and the link to the lift – they helped a lot in showing how much room there is to open the doors and comparing the one shown with the specs of the ones I am looking at.
The Liftmaster kit looks really good but I’m a little height challenged (well the shed is) with only 4m at the eves. It looks like I’ll go with one from Automotech as both GEG and Twinbusch have bumped their prices by 20% in the last few weeks

Hopefully it’ll be installed in the next few weeks

[JonnyCJ]

As usual - pics or it didn't happen !

Good opportunity to get the garage floor tiled if not already done.