When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I would imagine that a drip tray is A MUST with "White Lightnin'"
It's a must with all my cars. The lift comes with four drip trays that can be positioned anywhere along the length of the lift, and more can be ordered if needed. I think the four will be adequate.
It's a must with all my cars. The lift comes with four drip trays that can be positioned anywhere along the length of the lift, and more can be ordered if needed. I think the four will be adequate.
yeah, no doubt. I had the same style lift in my last place. I miss it whenever I am laying on the concrete working on one of my cars. Alas, I don't have the ceiling clearance with my current shop. Maybe I need another shop...
Nice! I wish I had the ceiling height for a four post lift but I make do with a pit lift that raises the car about 3’ off the ground. Better than jack stands that’s for sure.
For anyone interested, this is the company I purchased it from, and they did the installation. Great people to work with. They're based in Romulus, Michigan outside of Detroit, but they serve all of Michigan as well as Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. If you're in the general area and looking for one of these, I'd recommend them.
I would get some bright, bright red paint and mark the posts with the maximum height for the lift with the car on it. This way if you are ever moving the lift with the garage door down you know exactly where you should stop the lift.
Like the idea above of moving the tracks up so you don't have to worry.
Sweet. I've been enjoying my 4-post since '08 when we moved into our new home. Its primary purpose was to allow me to park 4 cars in a 3-car garage (not scraping windows in the winter ever again......unless it snows at work). It assisted me w/ a transmission swap and rear-axle swap thus far. Ceiling height is ~9'11" and the two cars I park on it ('68 Cutlass and '98 T/A) are within ~1" of being the same height, so adjusting the lift so a stop is exactly 1/2-way to the ceiling allows me to park either car on top & bottom. I've got white tape marks at each stop with the hightest stop marked w/ red tape. I did also have to remove the round celing light above it and replace it w/ a flat outlet plate which I now have a flat-plug extension plugged into it feeding proper shop lights behind the car. Its a tight fit, I have ~1.0 +/- 0.5" clearance above each car. I also put a warning sign on the front face of the lift to remind the driver to lower the antenna first (yes, I've bent them on both cars to learn that lesson).
Instead of relocating garage door tracks, all I had to do was adjust the up limit switch so it stops ~1' short of hitting the bumper of whichever car is on top. This does reduce the opening height of my garage and prevents me from parking anything taller than ~66" next to the lift (its now also a head-smacker through, ask me how I know).
Mine is a 8000 lb capacity Direct Lift with adjustable stops. Purchased it from a distributor down in Indy, had to rent the biggest U-Haul truck they had to swallow the length of the package. With help, I unloaded it into my garage and built it on site. The heaviest piece is the ramp with the hydraulic ram inside of it. It came w/ a caster kit to move it into position after assembly. It also came w/ 3 drip trays and I purchased the slide jack accessory, which was invaluable w/ the rear-axle swap. I highly recommend the slide jack.
Last edited by JohnnyBs68S; Apr 29, 2026 at 04:11 AM.
Just installed today. Just barely enough room for the two cars and still be able to open the garage door, but it does all fit.
This has freed up room for another car....
This picture is a little confusing - maybe because I'm not familiar with this brand of lift. The garage door is in FRONT of Toronado but it looks like the lift is installed backwards! The one we have has the drive-on ramps on the garage door side and the lift handle is also on that side. How did you back the car onto the lift? Are the ramps removable and they attach when you driving on/off??
If I just saw this picture on the internet I'd dismiss it as AI at a quick glance because it looks like the Toro was driven onto the lift from the side with the fixed wall!
Regarding the height of the lift and the garage door, check this photo out, which is from the front (and the red Toro can be partially seen at the far left). Everything fits, just barely, but it fits. I can raise the Toro on top just enough to allow the convertible to park underneath, and the Toro is just low enough that the garage door doesn't hit it when it's all the way open. The garage door, though, DOES hit the Toro's hood ornament. Fortunately, it's one of those spring-loaded, "breakaway" hood ornaments that can be "bent" all the way to sideways, and it springs right back again. This was a safety feature. If the car were to hit a pedestrian, never minding the fact that the person just got hit by a 5,000 lb. car, at least they wouldn't get scratched and gouged by the hood ornament.
So the garage door can open fully with a just a quick bump of the hood ornament, and all is good.
I could actually buy a couple of inches of clearance for the convertible by putting the top down. The top of the top is about 2 inches above the top of the windshield header.
This picture is a little confusing - maybe because I'm not familiar with this brand of lift. The garage door is in FRONT of Toronado but it looks like the lift is installed backwards! The one we have has the drive-on ramps on the garage door side and the lift handle is also on that side. How did you back the car onto the lift? Are the ramps removable and they attach when you driving on/off??
If I just saw this picture on the internet I'd dismiss it as AI at a quick glance because it looks like the Toro was driven onto the lift from the side with the fixed wall!
It should not be confusing. The drive-on ramps are removable and attach to the side that the front of the Toro faces. Yes, I backed the Toro onto the lift because the front end fit better under the garage door. With the "long, low" hood, the height of the Toro in front of the windshield is about two inches lower than the height of the trunk behind the rear window.
As you can see in this photo, which I took when we first tried putting the Toro on the lift facing forward before deciding that it might work better to back it on, there is a bulge in the center of the trunk lid. The drive-on ramps can also be seen.
Regarding the lift being installed "backwards," I don't know what that means. The lift pump can be installed on either end of the lift on the left side as you face it in the above photo. The pump can be seen in the photo at the left rear where it is convenient to plug it in. There is also a 90-degree bracket that can be purchased which would allow mounting the pump to the front or rear, rather than to the side, if space to the side is tight. You can see the available but unused bracket about three-quarters of the way up on the left front post next to the Toro's left rear wheel.
Here's a few more photos showing the lift being installed. They partially assembled it at their shop and then drove it out to my house on a trailer. Once at the house, they attached the pump and "raised" the lift. Because the posts were not on the ground, instead of the platform going up, the four posts went down. Once they contacted the ground, the platform began to rise, When it had cleared enough, they drove the trailer out from under it. Then they attached the casters, which are included with the lift and are removable, to push the lift into place.
Last edited by jaunty75; Apr 29, 2026 at 10:16 AM.
Those are game changers! Did you get a bridge jack with it?
I'm not sure. It came with a panel that fits across the two drive-on platforms that can be used with a floor jack to lift the front or rear of the car. I've not tried it, but apparenly you lift the car with the lift far enough to get the jack under it, position the panel under the car where you want to lift it, and then put the floor jack under the panel and lift. The purpose here is to lift the wheels off the platform so you can service them or the brakes or whatever that needs to have the wheels removed for servicing.
If this is what you're talking about, they didn't call it a bridge jack when they were describing it to me. If you're talking about something else, please tell me what it is.
I'm not sure. It came with a panel that fits across the two drive-on platforms that can be used with a floor jack to lift the front or rear of the car. I've not tried it, but apparenly you lift the car with the lift far enough to get the jack under it, position the panel under the car where you want to lift it, and then put the floor jack under the panel and lift. The purpose here is to lift the wheels off the platform so you can service them or the brakes or whatever that needs to have the wheels removed for servicing.
If this is what you're talking about, they didn't call it a bridge jack when they were describing it to me. If you're talking about something else, please tell me what it is.
I got the same panel you described with my Danmarr 4 post. You can use it with a small floor jack or bottle jack but axle stands can be a challenge to position. Mine is maybe 9" wide with a smooth surface that I would prefer being non-skid. I've been able to use mine to lift the car but I have limited confidence in it's strength and utility.
A bridge jack is similar configuration but has one or two hydraulic jacks incorporated to get the car up for wheel work. I don't have one yet, but it's fairly high on my list.
For now I usually just position jackstands on the floor and lower the car onto them until the wheels are off the ground.
Hard to tell but is the lift 'bolted' to the concrete floor?
No, it is not. On purpose. The idea is that it is portable. As I showed above, the lift comes with removable casters. With no load on the lift, you raise it slightly, place the casters underneath (they attach to the poles in each corner), and then lower the lift crosspieces onto the casters. Two people can easily push it around.
It can certainly be bolted to the floor, and holes are provided in the base plates to do so. But then it wouldn't be very portable.
The installers went through an extensive leveling process, leveling it front to back, left to right, on each of the four sides and at various heights of the platform between fully lowered and fully raised. I think the idea is that it's perfectly safe without being bolted to the floor as long as it is installed properly and leveled.
Last edited by jaunty75; Apr 30, 2026 at 06:07 AM.
It should not be confusing. The drive-on ramps are removable and attach to the side that the front of the Toro faces. Yes, I backed the Toro onto the lift because the front end fit better under the garage door. With the "long, low" hood, the height of the Toro in front of the windshield is about two inches lower than the height of the trunk behind the rear window.
As you can see in this photo, which I took when we first tried putting the Toro on the lift facing forward before deciding that it might work better to back it on, there is a bulge in the center of the trunk lid. The drive-on ramps can also be seen.
Regarding the lift being installed "backwards," I don't know what that means. The lift pump can be installed on either end of the lift on the left side as you face it in the above photo. The pump can be seen in the photo at the left rear where it is convenient to plug it in. There is also a 90-degree bracket that can be purchased which would allow mounting the pump to the front or rear, rather than to the side, if space to the side is tight. You can see the available but unused bracket about three-quarters of the way up on the left front post next to the Toro's left rear wheel.
Is there anything else still confusing?
The lifts I'm familiar with have fixed/swinging ramps. I assumed yours must be removable and installed on the door side.
You have THE car I fell in love with in 1980 when a co-worker bought one used - the XS in White with the amazing Wrap Around Rear Window - so many classy touches in THAT CAR!
You Sir I Salute your excellent taste !
Oldsmobile produced approximately 22,300 Toronados for the model year 1978, with the XS accounting for approximately 11% of the output, or 2,453 units. The numbers recorded a small decline from the previous model year when Oldsmobile built 31,371 Toronados, with the XS production reaching 2,713 units.
My experience in taking either the '77 or the '78 to any car show is that people will usually have never heard of the XS, which is not surprising given its short time in the marketplace, and half of them will think it's an Eldorado.
Here's a couple of shots of the two together.
Did you note the license plates? Had fun with those. But they're off the cars now because I'm in Michigan now, and they just have collector car plates.
The bumper sticker on the left side on the white one is a Missouri AAA sticker. The car was originally sold by Lloyd Ketcham Oldsmobile in Independence, Missouri outside of St. Louis, so that sticker dates from its earliest days. Have to leave it on there!
These 4 post lifts are super cool and their portability is the best. I ordered mine for $3300 just a few years ago, assembled it myself and move it all the time in my shop with the 442 on the lift. I have a winter storage position and a summer position so that I can drive the cars off/on the lift easily. I chose the Triumph brand for the reasonable cost and included removable aluminum ramps. You can see them and the drip trays in the pic. Lift arrived on the semi truck. Put together and ready with the casters. In use....winter position hugging the wall.
The bumper sticker on the left side on the white one is a Missouri AAA sticker. The car was originally sold by Lloyd Ketcham Oldsmobile in Independence, Missouri outside of St. Louis, so that sticker dates from its earliest days. Have to leave it on there!
I haven't heard that name in years! But Independence is on the other side of the state, outside of Kansas City.
This picture is a little confusing - maybe because I'm not familiar with this brand of lift. The garage door is in FRONT of Toronado but it looks like the lift is installed backwards! The one we have has the drive-on ramps on the garage door side and the lift handle is also on that side. How did you back the car onto the lift? Are the ramps removable and they attach when you driving on/off??
Not sure if all 4-post lifts are like mine, but there is no "front" of the lift as the ramps can be installed at either end. The pump only has to go in the corner where the hydraulic connection to the ram under the one ramp is located (the hose is only so long). The lock release lever should also go in the same corner as the pump for easy control when lowering (but its mechanically capable of being reversed WRT the pump if that's your desire.......but then that makes it a 2-person job to hold the lock release open on one corner while another person controls the hydraulic release valve in the opposite corner to lower it).
The slide jack is simply a hydraulic scissors jack with arms with lift pads that extend out the side that can lift the car at its factory lift points. It comes with spacers to accommodate various heights at the lift pads. It resides between the ramp rails and can slide back and forth as desired. Here's a pic of it in use during my S60 swap on my T/A, its holding the entire rear of the car so I can raise / lower the rear during axle installation. Works great for brake / wheel work too.
