After shopping for a garage ceiling storage system, I purchased this device. I was attracted to the ability to raise and lower the platform to load and unload items. This avoids the obvious pitfalls of using a ladder to hoist large or heavy items up from the ground.
In summary, I am reasonably happy with the overall product with some exceptions mentioned below. However, I will caution potential buyers that the design of this device is unforgiving. Unless your ceiling joists are EXACTLY 48" apart (they can be 1.5" less but not more than 48"), installation will be no where near as easy as the video on the website. You may need to mount this to a rigid board first if your joists are not 48" apart. The axle is not made to be adjustable and I find this to be a major design flaw of the device.
The foundation of the system includes 3 heavy metal grates that are secured to two metal cross beams with J hooks. I had a little trouble aligning the J hooks with the holes on the metal beams. However, by far, the most trouble I had was with securing the system to the ceiling. I really did not want to mount this to a board before securing it to the ceiling for aesthetic reasons. My ceiling joists were about 49" apart (instead of 48") and this created a VERY problematic installation. You need to secure this into wood (and not just the ceiling drywall) and you cannot mount the arms of the device further than 48" apart as the axle will not be long enough. I ended up lengthening the axle by a few inches by screwing both halves of the axle together with only the first set of holes. The two halves of the axle are supposed to come together with one inside the other aligning two sets of holes on each piece. I only went as far as the first set thus making it a little longer. Then I bought some aluminum 1/2 inch metal from a hardware store and reinforced the axle by screwing it to two sides of the axle. Keep in mind that the axle is not completely load-bearing so as long as it is rigid and reinforced, the system will work fine (see my uploaded picture of the lengthened and reinforced axle).
Problems continued when I used the included hardware lag bolts to screw the arms into the ceiling joists. Using a drill, I pre-drilled the holes as instructed and used a socket wrench to screw the lag bolts to the joists. I torqued 4 of the heads off of the cheap lag bolts. Do yourself a favor and go buy some better lag bolts at a hardware store before installing this device. The included lag bolts are totally inferior. After finishing the installation, it worked as described and I loaded it with a few hundred pounds of things I had previously kept on my garage floor. I will also mention that using the included crank device to raise and lower the platform, while not overly difficult, is a good work out.
Overall, I would recommend this product IF you know your joists are no further than 48" apart (or you are comfortable mounting it to a board first) and you go buy some decent lag bolts before trying to secure it to the ceiling.
I just finished my install today. Plan on at least 4 hours for this project. The joist do not have to be EXACTLY 48" as other reivews stated. That is the MOST the distance can be. You can be as close as 46 1/2. There is play in the bar that attaches the two ends.
Here's my contribution to make this easy and keep it a one person job. Get a 4 foot piece of 1 1/4 lattic piece of trim. You can find it at any big box hardware store. This will be used as your template when drilling holes.
I have a finished ceiling Before getting started, I used the 4' lattice to outline the joist. Instead of using a stud finder, which doesn't always work, I just use a finish nail to find the edges of the joist which are 1 1/2" wide. I marked the joist at one end and measured 48" down then found the edges of the joist. I put the lattice between these marks on both ends, then traced the lattice with a pencil
In step 7, you notice the only indicate 7 bolts to be installed, but 9 in step 8. You have to remove the nylon rings in order to reach all 9 bolts, but this isn't mentioned. With the nylong rings off and the arm sitting on top of the lattice piece of wood, mark all the slots in the middle with a pencil. Make sure to mark the center of the T-bracket, too. This is critical for hanging the arms by yourself.
Since the pre-drill hole size is 1/8, make the template holes one size larger at 3/16 with a drill. With the template, use a wood screw in the center template hole to temporarily attach to the joist so you have both hands free to line up the lattic to the trace marks I mentioned before. Now drill the pre-drill holes with the 1/8 bit.
The manual doesn't mention this but there are those keyhole type of holes in the middle part of the arm. BEFORE you grab the arm in step 7, but the first lag bolt in the middle pre-driller hole, leaving about 1 1/2 inch. Now pick up the arm and angle it over the lag bolt in the middle. It takes a little wiggling, but it will eventually slide in. Now tighten the lag bolt, but not 100% Now the joist is hanging hands free from one lag bolt. Now, you are free to mount the other lag bolts by yourself.
The stock lag bolts are junk. I shredded two when installing. I did install the stock lags so I could line up the two arm properly, but came back later with high quality lags of qty. 12 5/16" with a 3 1/2 length lag bolts. Trying to enlarge this existing gaps don't work very well. What I recommend is drilling BETWEEN the existing slots. First use a smaller bit to get thru the metal easier and create a pre-drill hole. I think I used a 3/16". Then I used a slightly larger bit like a 7/16" to cut a hole to allow it pass thru the new hole in the metal. Make sure you use eye protection and cover your forearms. The metal shaving are burning hot! Don't attach the 5/16" lags until Step 9 alignment is done.
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This is a great storage solution for garages with high ceilings. Once installed the heavy lift works very well.
One drawback is that many garages have a double layer of 5/8" drywall on the ceilings as mine did. The mounting lag bolts are only #12(the metric equivilant) screws 2" long which is woefully short if the extra thickness of drywall is considered. The only easily available lagscrews I could find that were longer were 1/4" by 3" long. These were too large in diameter to fit through the #12 mounting slots in the ceiling brackets, so I had to drill new holes which was very labor intensive and cumbersome.
Secondly, The order of operations as described in the installation instructions is not very usefull if you are installing the lift by yourself. It is much easier to loosely mount the center of each ceiling bracket to the ceiling first and then attach the extension arms one at a time. If this is done first as indicated in the instructions, the assemblies are prety heavy, and cumbersome to be holding over your head while up on a ladder, pre-drilling holes through the bracket, and then installing the lag screws. This cost me at least an hour to assemble, and then dis-assemble the brackets just so I could handle the peices.
Thirdly, the instruction have a flat out error when it comes to the order of operations for installing the winding shaft. If you follow the instructions as written, you will again have to dis-assemble what you are instructed to do. The winding shaft must be inserted through both ceiling brackets first, through the gear box brakcet, and back into the bearing bracket. Following this the gear box can be installed.
Lastly, it is very important that the brackets are not installed too far apart. I did not calculate the tolerance available, but ran into a problem when my available ceiling joists were between 49 and 50 inches apart. This rendered my lift incapable of being assembled without modification.
So far I have installed 2 of my 3 lifts, and each lift had one nut which had no threads in it. This left me one nut short for each assembly. If this is a standard piece of hardware for the installation, there were no self tapping screws included for this nut. I ended up needing a different solution for holding the winding crank together.
The drawbacks of this lift are pretty typical of most "low cost" products these days that are being manufactured "off shore". This is a great device with many quality oversights, including the lack of a mastery of the English language.
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If you want to make this product work without fail or doubt purchase two 2x6x12 (I hung side by side heavy lifts), find center of boards and pre-drill either a 5/16 or 3/8 inch hole and measure out 16 inches from center which is where your studs will be. Then use either the 5/16 or 3/8 size 5 1/2 or 6 inch steel lag screws. Secure the 2x6x12 into the ceiling with lag screws and then use the smaller screws provided to add some "extra insurance". I ended up with 8 lag screws into the 2x6x12. I also had to drill (3) 5/6 inch or 3/8 inch (which ever size lag screw you choose)holes into each pulley/arm assembly to get the lag srew through the metal arm assembly (there are slots where the manufacturer wants you to put the small screws through and into the joists). I mounted the center of the board lag into the stud and then measure out 16 inches on each side and drilled my 5/16 inch hole for another lag. So, with some real simple modification you can make this a great item, otherwise I wouldn't hang my coat on the heavy lift with the screws they supplied. I couldn't believe it when I read in the instructions to "wait one hour" to make sure it was going to hold. I assure you that if you attach with the screws provided it will fall to the floor if you hang 250 pounds from it. By using long lag screws that are hefty in size you are really adding some strength to it. I would recommend using some lock tite on the nuts just to keep you from having to "check" the nuts and bolts. The crank works great. To give you an idea of the strength you gain by using the large lag screws, I hung a small sears craftsman pushmower, a gas powered edger, a bag with logging chains, four gas cans, a weedeater, gas powered blower, and a chainsaw (all on one heavy lift). I probably could have added more but didn't have anything else to add. If you secure it "right" you won't have to do something stupid like pick all you crap off of the garage floor because you used the rediculous screws they send with the kit. Otherwise, pretty cool item.
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Great design, very cheap hardware. I read several Amazon reviews before installing, so I saved myself some trouble by buying good hardware prior to installing. The lag bolts were junk, so I replaced them with 5/16" x 3 1/2" lag bolts. Had to drill out the slots on the arm assemblies to accomodate the bigger lag bolts; would have been easier to drill if they were holes, not slots.
Step 10 of the instructions says use locknuts to assemble the winding axle-there are no locknuts in the box. In fact, there are no lock washers either. Probably would be a good idea, given the constant load and the vibrations from the garage door opener. I recommend putting lock-tite on the threads of bolts. I put lock washers on the bolts that fasten the grate to the cables.
One of my bolt heads shore clean off while assembling. Same junk hardware.
Between step 12 and 13 of assembly-don't put the fender washer on yet... it will be impossible to put the cable ring on the gear drive end of the axle. Instead, install both ends, complete with the cable rings, then go back and install the fender washers on the ends of the axle.
Another tip when choosing the location on your ceiling: don't put the gear drive end of the assembly up close to a wall-you won't be able to fit your body between the lift and the wall. Instead, put the gear drive on the open side.
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I bought this shelf thinking it would be similar to the one I had put together back in college and found very useful and sturdy. Certainly the two shelves looked similar in the package. Upon taking the pieces out to assemble, I immediately noticed a striking difference between the two. On lifting the first piece (a shelf piece) it fell apart. The slats fell out of groove of the end piece which is supposed to hold them all together. Optimistically thinking that a little glue would fix it, I kept going through the stack of parts until reaching the final shelf, the one which cracked apart upon being lifted and can't be fixed with glue at all. I read about the person who found assembly lengthy and tedious, I couldn't tell you about that as I don't have enough actual functioning parts left over from just opening the package and sorting out the pieces that I could create any sort of shelving unit at all. The wood is dry and brittle and unusable as shelving. It's kindling, and I've spent more than I really should have for kindling.
