...and I still haven't read the thread, but I did get introduced to something that made think about lifts again last week.
I said in my last post that I will probably end up with both a 2 and 4 post lift, and that's still an accurite statement. The 2 posters are good for stuff that you can't do with a 4 poster. 4 poster has advantages too. One thing I like about a 4 post lift over two post is the fact that you can install casters and move most of them around the shop. Very convenient if you need the bay clear for working on something. That isn't so easy with a two poster. You figure out where you want it and that's where it stays.
Well, a used MaxJax popped up on Facebook locally the other day. Never heard of one of these before. It's a "portable" half-height 2 post lift. Current versions are made by Bendpack. They have a max lift height of 4' so you can;t get the car high enough for most of us to walk under it, but that's plenty high enough to sit in a rolling chair/stool and work on anything. Heck 4' will work to lift the body off of anything that I own. That's plenty high enough for my purposes. The real advantage to me is the portable part. You wouldn't want to throw it in the back of the truck and use it some where else, but you could. It does anchor to the floor like any other 2 post lift, buy when not needed or when you need the space, just pull the bolts out of the concrete anchors and roll the lift into the corner. Easy to get full access to shop space when needed.
So now I think a MaxJax and a 4 post lift are in my future.
I have installed 2 of the original MaxJaxs for friends years ago. They went in easy and worked well, the biggest thing is to buy extended hydraulic hoses, as the ones that come with it are way to short and are always in the way as is the motor unit. One friend ended up with 20-something foot extensions and the lines going up to the ceiling and then back down the wall with the pump mounted on the wall. The line quick-disconnects at the columns still functioned and he could still unbolt move the posts if desired and coil the lines up near the ceiling. So it was a more permanent install, still mobile, and the lines were never laying across the floor in the way.
I've had a Bendpak 4 post for maybe 15 or so years now, and have install 4 others for friends, never a single bit of trouble from them, just to keep the cables adjusted and the sheaves greased. For BUILDING a project car, 4 Post all the way! No question, the runways double as workbenchs, all your tools and parts are with the car at the same height you are working, and you can leave it all laid out while working on and off for months without the stuff on carts and benchs and the floor in the way for day to day life, the suspension isn't drooping so you can work on setting ride heights, suspension clearances, building exhausts to clear the loaded suspensions, doing bodywork, and let's not forget
OPENING THE GOD DAMN DOORS ON THE CAR IS UNIMPEEDED!!!!! So when buiding entire projects cars you have access to the whole car at all times, inside and out. You can do good base tape measure alignments quick and easy with turnplates that only cost a couple hundred bucks. There is also a safety aspect vs a 2 post that you can shove, beat, yank, push, pull the living hell out of the car working on it with no concerns of it tipping off or a lift arm kicking out. As well as and easy to load the car, no crawling on your (my) old knees everytime.
The runways do impede some access to the rockers, but there is minimal mechanical work that would require extensive access there. Pulling engines is still easy with an engine hoist, and I've had no issues dropping gas tanks, subframes, or axles on the 4 post.
We have 8 2-Post, and 1 4-Post at work and 2-Post are great for faster brake work and rotations, dropping an engine still connected to the lower subframe, and a few other instances, but for a home garage that is not a high volume vehicle maintenance operation the benefits of a 2-Post start to dwindle.
When the 4-Post doesn't have a car on it, also as shown below it can double as storage for non-car stuff, lawn equipment, or just 20ft long workbenches that are height adjustable. (I have a bunch 2x6's cut to width that lay between the runways to act a floor, which also work to stack on each other to support transmissions, gas tanks, etc during removal, or to set drain pans on doing fluids without the need, cost, or storage space of transmission jacks, spinning under hoist support jacks, or rolling oil drain tanks.
To me the 4 Post has been an extremely multi-functional workshop tool in more ways than I can describe, and a 2-Post lift would be just that, just a lift and that's about it.