Ok time to set-up my new/used 2 post lift. I poured a 14'X 25' pad, let it cure for 3 weeks.

So I will drill into the concrete and use 3/4 X 10'' wedge anchors. they will be 8" deep.

obviously the holes need to be drilled in exactly the right places, not only for each post, but also, the 2 posts have to be set at the exact width (dictated by the bar across the top, between the 2 posts).

so do i set up the posts, bolt on the top, then drill down through the feet?

Or use a template, put in the anchors, then drop the posts onto the anchors?

Bit of an issue is i am working alone, and even with a bobcat 763, i have not figured out a way to get the posts vertical yet, i plan on calling in my propane guy, who has a real live Ferrari crane on his service truck to lift em upright and position them.

Tech guys at Greg Smith say to drill the holes a couple of inched deeper than you will be anchoring at - so if you screw up, instead of having to cut off the anchor - you just drive it down in the slab. That seems like a good idea, but what if, while lowering the post, you miss and hit the top of the anchors, that would probably drive them down into the slab - No?

I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm hoping to draw from the experience of others who have gone before me on this venture!

Im not saying they are correct but there are a bunch of youtube videos on how to set up a 2 post lift. Some are from the manufacturers so there is probably one or a couple that fit your situation. Good luck.

I put it in place and got it squared away, rented a Hilti from Home Debit, drilled it in place, put the washer and nut on the redheads (anchor bolt) hammered them in and then torqued them down.

Hardest part was standing the posts up, I have an overhead crane. Once standing I walked them over to the spot. The posts on my lift were actually very stable even unbolted.
If your pad isn't perfectly level take a large diameter washers cut one side out so you can slide it under the base at the bolts where needed, that's how the pros do it.
Electrics I hooked up temporary with BX same day, later I did it proper with conduit, Kellems grip, etc.
It was an easy job and I installed my Aamco 7K lift all by myself in a day.

It's been several years, I can't remember if I walked the post over a bit to clean it out or not. I don't think I did. Likely I just popped it up a bit and blew it out with air.
Once you drive the bolts in there's absolutely no way to move the post without some kind of lift. Frankly I wouldn't even try, too dangerous.

Thanks Mark - Thats what you do! I know the standing up is the big issue, but now i know to do that first, then drill and pound in the anchors. I already have a milwalkee hammer drill - my whole house is iCF - so I drilled a whole bunch of concrete during the construction. i'm thinking after drilling the concrete I can clean out the holes using a combination of compressed air and the shop vac working together.
The using cut washers as shims - absolutely brilliant, i will have a supply on hand to make the posts perfectly vertical!

I am trenching the route for the power. I will pull both 230 and 110 to the lift, so i can power the lift, plus plug in any lights, tools etc to work on the car I need. My lift is outdoors - because where I live 330 days of sun a year, and temps rarely ever drop below about 50 degrees.

drill the holes once it is all set up. That is the only way to be sure your holes are inthe correct place. If you drill the holes in advance using a template, and just one hole is 1/4" out of place you will have to redrill all holes about 4" away from any of your existing holes (and preferably grout the holes that will not be used). You do not want to be doing that. So get it all upright and assembled then drill the concrete holes using the holes in the steel base to guide the drill

Be sure to clean the holes out with a shop vac. The dust from the drilling will keep the bolts from setting tight at the bottom of the holes.

For me and a few helpers we stood the posts up by lifting the post top and walking them up, turned out to be easy.

Set everything in place by rocking the posts to get them to move, squared it up, measured twice, etc. then marked the holes, moved the posts, drilled the holes. My garage floor is 6", so I drilled all the way through in case I had problems with an anchor I could hammer it through, believe my anchors were 4.5" or 5". I vacuumed the holes with a shop vac.

My lift came with an assortment of C-shaped shims to plumb the posts.

Not to open a hornets nest here but what is the best two post lift? I am on two post Rotary's now and really appreciate the span between posts, speed of up and speed of down and range of vehicles the lift can lift.

Susan and I are going next week to Scottsdale to scoop acreage and builders / to build a 4 place minimum multi-lift garage with an upper deck mountain views studio over the top of it and I would like to start off on the right foot(ing).

This move is to get the hell out of California's regulations Whack-World - regulation of tool size, tool and useage noise ratios to protected rat bowl movement micro-decibel levels, number of tools allowed on one property in a commercial zone at one time (limited to two,.. to allow the folks with no tools or knowledge of the use of them an "opportunity" to learn) not to mention, the traffic that consumes 38% of productive wake time,

Sidebar: We recently were cited by code enforcement for out house numerals being 1/4" too small - after twenty years of being OK / Now , in the new world, those brass numerals pose a hazard to our safety from police and fire intervention in case they need to find us.

They sure as could find us when we were in party mode.......

I don't know if you did this but I would have dropped 2 #4 (1/2") rebars perpendicular to each post (parallel to the car) 8 ft long near the location of each anchor. Then thicken the concrete along the rebar. Then I would have set 2 #4 rebars perpendicular to each anchor to tie the post together and thicken the slab underneath each rebar. Then when you cast your concrete you will have 3 sets of reinforced beams along the length and perpendicular to each post. Also the rebar will provide incredible shear strength to the shear cone of the anchor bolt. That's the way I did mine.

Sounds like exactly what my dad did on his. He used compressed air to clean up the holes before hammered the bolts in.

They make epoxy set anchors for this job, don't skimp on this do it right the first time, sometimes you don't get a second shot.

HF sells the drill and bits for concrete anchors. Might be cheaper than renting.

there are, but wedge anchors are what the manufacturer recommends - so thats what I went with!

Forestkhaagg - Yeah, I have to agree with the lunatic libtards absolutely allowing CA to go to ruins. I am a born and raised SF Bay Area native. We now have graffiti everywhere, garbage on every street and highway, human waste in every city as you walk around. Homeless people using the sidewalks as bathrooms and their personal storage space. The roads and highways are horrible with potholes, cracks and just damage from large heavy trucks. It seems like CalTrans only sweeps every couple of months and then does a crap job at that. Bumpers and car parts just left on the freeway from crashes. But drive your car w/o a front plate or dare to touch your cell phone while driving and they will be quick to write you a ticket.

The police do nothing about the homeless bums creating issues for hardworking people who are paying taxes to keep this country afloat. San Francisco is a complete garbage can cesspool. I stopped going there years ago when it began to become a sanctuary city for every thug and criminal in the country. SFPD is worthless-they just drive around and ignore all of the crime, crazy people, litter and human waste. But you can bet they cash their check every two weeks. Go ahead and park your car in SF and see how long it takes before it is broken into, vandalized, stolen, etc.

A lifelong friend just sold his home in the Bay Area and built a new home in Colorado Springs because he got tired of all of the above ruining his quality of life. I can't blame him.

Jerry Brown is a complete asshat and so are most of the liberal elected officials in this library state. If my wife and I did not have family here, we would be gone too.

OK- rant over- back to the discussion re lifts. (Sorry)

solved my standing up the posts dilemma. Had a BBQ, invited some of my Grad students, you can count on em showing up for free food!
we just picked it up, walked it vertical, and shinnied it onto the correct location. Drilled the holes with my Milwaukee hammer drill driving a new 40 buck bit, used shop vac and compressed air to remove the dust periodically - went up super easy, once i figured out free manpower was the key!

Amazing what we can get done when there is good will, cooperation...and a thirst for knowlege and truth!

Enjoy your new lift!

A vacuum would be safer, concrete dust not the best to be breathing

Michael - when you get tired of CA, come visit us in DE. Lots of great roads in the Tri state area to blast around in a hot 914!!! The school my wife works for just gave us a 3 bedroom house on the pond. We move next week. It's only 45 minutes from our house in pa so we are keeping it ( I need a place to keep my 914's).

Makes me cringe when I see the guys on the road crews using the gas powered saws to cut concrete without a face mask.

anytime drilling vacuuming or whatever with concrete wear the appropriate breathing device - silica dust in the lungs can cause silicosis - and thats real bad. I wear a mask, run the vacuum constantly - right at the entry of the bit, and water down the area if necessary. sometimes I will blow air down the hole, but the vacuum is running side by side with the airnozzle -

when I cut the floor for a thicker pads I used a concrete saw with water, made a mess but didn't create any dust. I used floor anchors that were epoxied in, they are not going to pull out

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I have been thinking about getting one of those lifts.
How deep a pad do you need? Mine is 4 inches.

Zach

my floor was also only about 4", IFIR they recommend at least 6". I poured 4' x 4' pad about 8" to 10" thick of high psi cement

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Ok guys, got it done, thanks for all the advise, experience and inputs!

I went with 11" long wedge anchor bolts, following engineer and manufacturer recommendations. I have used epoxied in anchors in the past - but the engineer insisted the drive in wedge anchors are stronger. That makes sense, as the bolt is tightened - the "collar" expands - so it is putting pressure on all sides of the concrete, as opposed to counting on the glue to bond with the concrete. I'm sure either way is fine.

But 2 unexpected issues showed up

1. once the drill hole got deeper than 4 or 5 inches, the shop vac would not pull out the dust. I'm using a 14 gallon 6 hp shop vac. -
to clean out the holes to the complete 9", required I used compressed air with a long nozzle, down the hole, with the shop vac sucking up the stuff as the air got it moving. That worked really well.

2. instructions and advise reminded me to thread the nut on the top of the anchor, to use that as the surface the hammer would hit , to preserve the threads. That turned into a fairly significant issue, as the driving of the anchor lead to the nut essentially deforming the threads of the anchor (redheads - 3/4") once that happened, you could not back off the nut, nor drive it on any further. trying to do so resulted in the anchor spinning in the hole - because the nut wasnt putting and upward pull to set the anchor. My solution was to set up a simple fulcrum (2X4 on its edge) with a 16" long wrench as the lever. I essentially stood on the end - that levered up , providing upward pull, that started the anchor holding in the concrete. Then I was able to pull off the nut, chase the treads with a die, clean out the threads of the nut with a tap.

I tried using 2 nuts back to back, and aftermarket nuts to take the pounding - and that allowed for driving the anchor, and could be removed without levering, but it still deformed the threads enough that I chased all of the anchors, before putting on the nuts, and torqueing it down.

so I'm not saying I did it all correctly, I did the best I could - but I am confident that the lift is anchored securely, and will not cause any issues moving forward!

So .....just curious. What was your engineeer concerned about by using that long an anchor? Overturning?

Wedge anchors become problematic at those lengths to embed.
Normally at that length an oversize hole is drilled and then seated with epoxy.

As you soon found out.

Funny I had absolutely no problem installing my redheads , in fact I remember clearly I rented a hilti from home debit, drilled, drove them in and tightened them down and had the hilti back before the 4 hour minimum with time to spare.

It's a one hour round trip to home debit, so I must have done the deed in just over 2 hours.
Never had an issue hammering in the redheads.

Potential issues:

1. Wrong size bit.

2. Rebar

3. High strength or large aggregate.

4. Hole not straight or not round.

5. Concrete dust in the hole.

My quess is that a 4 or 5 inch long anchor is more than enough.

11 inch.....naw.

See it happen ALL the time.

Your.re just good Mark.

I suspect you hit the redhead on the head! vI could tell when I hit aggregate, drill slowed way down, dust started coming out a different color, all of a sudden, back to normal speed. I suspect i was hitting some larger chunks of hard gravel. and you are probably right on length. I poured the sections where the towers would mount 14 inched deep - but now you mention it, no reason to drill that deep, the added depth was for weight, not mounting security!

It took me maybe 2 hours to do the first side, with all the hillbilly solutions I came up with. The other side about an hour!

Nope, being good had nothing to do with it. That's why I rented a Hilti, which is a big ass pro hammer drill.
14 holes, seven per side, I don't even think it took me 15 minutes to drill all the holes.
I think it was $40 for 4 hours. I bet it would even go through rebar. The right tool for the job.

You are right. The OP never said he used a hammer drill.....can.t imagine using a regular drill....but that is just me.

No wonder it took him so long.

In my work sometimes we use these for siesmic anchoring so there is engineering and inspection behind it. For a two post lift I.d be most concerned about overturning moment and the dead loads. So in other words the post foundation thickness and the embedment length of the anchors.

There was a picture somebody posted which showed rebar in the concrete but it was flush to grade. Ideally...the rebar should be dobied off the grade at least a couple of inches.

......and use a hammer drill for the holes or wet set j hooks on templates for the lift.

There's a 48' x 64' shop with heat & a/c and a Rotary 7500 lb already installed for you Forrest

The code here is "don't kill yourself", but if you do they don't enforce it.