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Two post garage lift lifting points?

35K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  Big-Dog1 
#1 ·
Got the new 2 door Sahara in the bay in my garage with my Bendpak 2 post lift and I'm trying to figure out where I need to put the arm pads in order to lift this thing up in the air. The frame normally is the logical choice but on the passenger side rear there is only a very narrow section of the frame available, and that would mean the lifting pad would be lifting on the edge of the pad, and not on the center. That makes me real nervous.

So where exactly ARE the lifting points I should use with a 2 post garage lift? I looked in the user guide, but it's hard to make out in those small pics. It appears that the only recommendations are for jacking up the Jeep to change a tires, and those lift points look like that are on the differential housings. I want a flat surface laying on those lift arm pads.

What about the control arm joints at the frame? Does anyone use them, or would they get damaged during the lifting process?

And where, roughly, is the center of gravity on a STOCK 2 door JK?
 
#3 ·
Rich,

Not many of us can afford a lift of any kind in our garage and, therefore, don't have much better an idea on where to lift than you did when you started. It's too bad a mechanic who does this stuff all the time didn't see this thread and shoot you an answer.

That said, I'm curious to know what your solution is. I don't have a lift either, but your solution may be the solution to someone else problem or one that I myself have in the future.

Glad you figured it out though.

Regards,

Gary
 
#5 ·
I had to watch some videos on YouTube, and noticed the ones done by TeraFlex. What they used were the body mount points. By using an arm pad extension without the pad, the nut in the center of the large washer fits right into the extension like a hand into a glove.



So I tried that and it seems to work quite well. The Jeep feels very stable up on the lift and this is actually pretty easy to set up, although I can see it might be tedious if the Jeep isn't positioned well in the lift bay.









Sorry about the light speckles. Seems I need to clean off the camera sensor again.

Oh, and fyi, TeraFlex recommended to NOT use the control arm brackets as lift points when I asked them about it.

Anyway, sorry, I would have posted pics earlier, but I just figured no one was really interested in this topic.
 
#20 ·
I had to watch some videos on YouTube, and noticed the ones done by TeraFlex. What they used were the body mount points. By using an arm pad extension without the pad, the nut in the center of the large washer fits right into the extension like a hand into a glove.
Thanks for sharing that - I will look into getting some arm pad extensions like you show in your photos - that would really increase the safety of lifting the Jeep.

I got really lucky and picked up my Rotary 2 post lift on Craigslist a couple of years ago for $1000 - sure is a nice thing to have. In this photo we are using it for a frame-up restoration of a Land Rover Defender 90 (we galvanized the frame, and installed a BMW engine):



.
 
#8 ·
Man O man I'd love to have one of those in my garage !!
 
#13 ·
Probably one of the best uses of money I have ever spent. I contracted out everything myself getting the garage built, and not paying for a contractor saved me enough money to be able to afford the lift. Wasn't all that expensive, all things considered. Something like $2200 delivered and installed if I remember correctly. Saved me from having to scrap a car out for parts a couple of years ago. Had two shops work on it that royally screwed it up, so I had to figure out how to fix most of what was wrong myself. And the emphasis is on "EVERYTHING". I couldn't have afforded to pay a third shop to fix all that crap. I had already dug pretty deeply into the retirement savings over this. So that lift actually saved me a bunch of money since I bought it.

I tried race ramps, and tried the laying on my back working on cars. I just decided that it's not for me. After you get 60 years old you start thinking about making things easier on yourself. And for a bonafide charter member of Tool-A-Holics Anonymous, how could I resist buying something like that?
 
#9 ·
I have a four door. The left frame rail is easy, as is the front of the right rail. The issue is the right rear lift point, which is intruded upon by the gas tank skid. I found I could eccentrically place a hockey puck on the lift pad and get almost full puck contact with the frame rail (if I got it exactly in the right place). It work for changing the oil and rotating the tires, but I like the solution Rich Z posted. I don't know if the lift I use has that option, but I will certainly check it out.
 
#10 ·
Damn, my garage sucks. Too low to park in it, and full of bikes and tools so even if the ceiling was higher I wouldn't be able to get in.

Maybe one day I'll get a real garage with a lift, then I'll be able to get some real work done.

I wonder if these would fit in the Ace Rail pockets.
 
#16 ·
Damn, my garage sucks. Too low to park in it, and full of bikes and tools so even if the ceiling was higher I wouldn't be able to get in. Maybe one day I'll get a real garage with a lift, then I'll be able to get some real work done. I wonder if these would fit in the Ace Rail pockets.
It does for in the Ace Rock Slider pockets! That's actually what I have, and was searching for the lift points when I found this discussion. Fits like a glove.
 
#15 ·
Actually no, it's not. And from what I have seen here in this forum of the mods people are doing, it would pay for itself VERY quickly.

Of course, you have to have a PLACE to put a lift, and that could be the stumbling block for a lot of people. Rodents were chewing the hell out of the wiring in my vehicles parked under the carport, so I had to either build a garage or continually pay to have the vehicles repaired from the onslaught of rodents. So that cloud turned out having a silver lining, I guess.

Actually, I originally thought that I only had to do about a 100 oil changes on my own vehicles to break even. I hadn't really planned on using it as much as it turned out I needed to.
 
#17 ·
I have a bendpak four post lift in the garage. Use it mostly for working on the cars and storing the hot rod. Use a rolling bridge jack on it to get the wheels off the ramps to change the tires and such. Not sure I could lift the jeep high enough to work under it with the current ceiling height. Right now I think I could only lift the jeep four feet before hitting.
 
#18 ·
I lift my Jeep in the same spots, but I have been using the frame cradle pads. The body mount bolts do tend to tear up the rubber pads on them. I will have to try it as you show in the pics.

Buying the lift, mine is a 10,000lb version has been one of the best investments I have made and wish I had done this 20+ years ago.
 

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#19 ·
Bringing a thread back from the dead, but this looks like a great way to lift the car. I have a Quickjack 5000 and with the SUV adapters should work. I was thinking of making some kind of hard rubber doughnut to use the same spots as Rick Z but would sort of fit around the protruding body mount nut. Maybe drill out some hockey pucks.
 
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