Westfalia or Vanagon on MaxJax hoist? Yup!

[denwood]

Fleet, Dave, thanks for the kind words and/or emoticon applause..ha.

Phish, one look at this and I called the concrete company: concrete calculator

2 yards, about 7500lbs of concrete, and/or 123 x 60lb bags hauled/mixed/dumped...looking at the bag costs here, the truck was cheaper..and as you said..1 hr vs 8-10! Concrete delivered, tax in, was $375..and the driver helped out with the pour. I'm no cement expert but finishing was sure a lot easier with a single pour as well. It was about 8C when we poured, so lots of time to make it pretty. I just checked the slab this am and surrounding floor is at 11C, but the slab is showing the exothermic nature of curing concrete at 24C after wetting it down. I'm trying to ballpark it at 10C (50F) as apparently that is the ideal cure temp for concrete over 28 days to reach max strength.

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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[denwood]

Many hours of clean up later...we're making progress. Drilled the holes today for the MaxJax, but it's too soon to set the epoxy anchors. The nice thing about pouring a slab is if you planned right, no rebar to hit, and full depth holes for each anchor. I just chalked a center line down the slab, marked each MaxJax base for center line, and measured three times. Pilot holes weren't required..I just used the Maxjax base as the drill guide, hammer drilled for 10-20 seconds in each hole, moved the base and finished each hole with the 7/8" bit. Easy peasy.

Drywall should be done next week so the floor epoxy process and Kee-clamp organizing can start.

This was just two weeks ago..ha

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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[teej]

Nice progress! thanks for updates
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1986+ Wolfsburg Weekender Pop-Top 2.3 WBX Manual Trans

[denwood]

You're welcome T. Should have the Westy up on the hoist in a week or so.
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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[denwood]

Slightly, off topic, but as this is a thread on getting my Westy on a hoist, here's a sneak peak of the shop refurb. I usually use Microsoft Visio for 2D planning. 3D, particularly in a garage is very useful, but comes with a learning curve, and/or price tag. The easiest 3D tool I've used to date is free, and works using Chrome, Firefox, or IE. Ikea's planner might have you thinking that kitchens are the only thing you can visualize, but you can see here that my shop planning actually works very nicely too. I'm not necessarily using Ikea cabinets..the tool though makes setting up in 2D/3D with a learning curve near zero. The hoist columns are modeled adding "obstruction-wall column", garage door using a "resizable wall opening" benches added using wall mount tables, etc. A very useful tool, and deserves awards for how crazy easy it is to use. I tried at lease one dedicated garage planner but quickly ran into Internet Explorer issues with their setup. The Ikea software works nicely on Firefox, Chrome, and IE 11, both MAC and PC.

_________________
Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[denwood]

Finally, the hoist is working. I'll wait until tomorrow to torque the mounting bolts as the epoxy anchors will need 24 hours to cure.

There were some large burrs left inside the jack column (sloppy hole punches where the safety bar goes) which would have taken some material off the guides if left. I also clamped the end of the column to take up a fair bit of play before attaching the end brace, and tacking it with a quick MIG weld to make sure the end column stays put. This will help to keep vehicles level at full hoist height.

_________________
Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[dobryan]

Looking good. Heads up on that conduit.... I assume you are going to stuff some foam or other such plug in the end just so the unobtanium small part doesn't dive right into the open end....
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[denwood]

Dave, it's happened already..ha. Shop vac blowing in reverse fired it right out. If you look carefully you'll see I created little troughs for each line with a small 7" diamond blade attached to my skillsaw. I'm going to install a small plate over each trough/opening to ensure the hydraulic lines are well protected. Doing this again, I would have had the conduit exit about 6" closer to each wall.

Looked up the all weather epoxy DanMar sent with the anchors..90 minute cure time at 5C. Their all-weather epoxy sets even if there's water in the hole, in temps down to -15 ... interesting product. Tonight's the night the Westy heads for the ceiling
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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[MarkWard]

Dennis, thanks for the updates. I wasn't going to mention where the pipes came out in relation to the arms. Oh well, still better than having them laying on top of the floor. Can't wait to see your van in the air. mark
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☮️

[denwood]

Mark, hard to see, but there is a shallow trough cut into the concrete so the arm won't touch the hose...once the cover plate is added, no worries. I've posted my mistake so others can take notes and a plan a bit better than I did A good bet would be to use 120" inches between the centers of each conduit. My columns are at 128", measuring from the rear of each plate.
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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[denwood]

Not a vanagon, but a good 3000lb test lift. Time for some winter tires. So far so good. One small leak (fitting not tightened..oops) The lift is surprisingly solid. The Westfalia will be the bit test tomorrow. I'll leave the A3 up there overnight.

[/img]
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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[vanis13]

[fleet_maintenance]

Great to see wheels in the air! Thanks for the write-up. Enjoy the lift.

[denwood]

Thanks fleet Vanis, the little TDI has not been without a gremlin or two, but redeems itself in the "6 weeks between fill up" department. Just wish I could drop its drive line in the Westfalia

Finally, the "Grape" as my kids called it went skyward today after finishing the work on the A3 TDI. My shop life will now be defined as LBH, and LAH..Life Before Hoist, Life After Hoist. I'm happier than a pig in poo I was able to thoroughly inspect the little diesel for the first time on a hoist, and found a broken rear suspension/CV joint shield, as well as the main exhaust hangar assembly right behind the engine hanging in air. It just came back from the VW dealer after the intake air flap misbehaved..hmm. Swapping over to the snow rims/tires was a treat. I can never go back to the floor jack...

Test 2 was the Westfalia. Fortunately all the measurements worked out, and zero issues other than the front mud flaps are a slight PITA as they are sitting where the lift arm wants to be. The hoist includes 3" lift pad extensions, but 6" would be perfect as far as clearing the front mud flaps. The lift is very solid with the van at full lift. I checked each column for any flex with a 4ft level, and I'd say it's effectively zero. The first thing I did with the van is to lift it 6" and bounced all of my 230lbs on the front and rear bumpers to see how it behaved. There's a small amount of flex in the arms I'd guess, manifesting to maybe a 1/4" of movement at the bumpers if you're trying really hard to mess with things. My confidence level under the hoist went up to 95% with just the safety bars in place after doing these tests. I'll still use the four 2 ton low rise jack stands that are inbound, at which point the safety margin will be excellent. For reference, I did 100% of the oil changes and line truck grease/oil jobs on Bell vehicles here in town for three years back in my early university days as a contract gig. So I've hoisted a lot of heavy vehicles...

Here are the measurements.

The shop is 16x24 (outside dimensions).
The ceiling is raised over a 16ft stretch, leaving four foot lofts at each end of the shop for storage.
Maxjax columns measured to the outside of each base plate, are 128" apart.
The columns (measured to column center point) are set back 11'6" from the shop door opening and about 12 ft from the back wall.
The ridge beam has 10'2" clearance to the floor, and you can see there is just enough room for full lift with the Thule roof racks in place.

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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[luVWagn]

Do you have a nice wheeled heavy-duty chair to slide yourself around on?

Assuming folks have the space, do you have a break-down on total costs in summary form? Concrete, lift, add-ons, any electrical, etc.?

Looks great!
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'91 Syncro 16 Reimo Hightop Conversion, eTDI

[denwood]

Luv, I picked up a couple pneumatic garage chairs with casters a few years back on sale at Can Tire. At lowest, they're about 18" off the floor which works well. A 15" stool would be perfect. Scooting around on the stool is actually pretty relaxing.

As far as costs, the lift was $2200 CAD (delivered) from Costco. I think it's somewhere around $1900 US. The hydraulic pump only requires 1100 watts, so will work off a standard 110V receptacle. It's slow, but that's fine for a home lift. I'm going to order a few 6" lift pad extensions as well as offset lift pad kits which will make lifting the van (at front hoist points) a bit more convenient. They also have truck rail lift pad adapters which would be perfect to use on the rear lift points. These pads have raised edges which prevent any possibility of the pad slipping off the rail section. I'm not lifting at the rear jack point, but rather just inboard of that where the rail section runs across the van.

If your concrete was 4" thick, you could bolt it down and be done. In my case, the concrete itself was about $350 delivered. Add in another $130 for rebar and $180 for tool rental (Hilte concrete saw, Bosch demolition hammer, concrete agitator).

I extended one hydraulic line 9' to allow the under-slab setup. That line was $70 made up locally.

Epoxy anchors (which I'd recommend over the included mechanical anchors) would add another $130 for 10 anchors + epoxy.

As far as structure, Unitized (local truss guys) delivered the Versa-Lam beams for $650. I could have re-used the fiberglass pink as the roof is being dry-walled, but decided to go with spray foam for a much better air sealing job.
_________________
Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[dobryan]

Dennis, Looks great. Enjoy!
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[denwood]

Thanks Dave

I've ordered up the 6" lift pad extensions as well as Danmar's truck frame rail pads. These will increase lift height 3" overall, improve safety a bit for both front/rear lift points on the vanagon, (the truck rail adapters make it impossible for the vehicle to shift off the lift points) as well as improve access to the front lift point without bending the mud flap back too severely. I will have to remove the roof racks for a full height lift using the 6" extensions, but that's just fine. I'll post a few pics of the lift points/adapters ...applicable to any lift really..not just Maxjax.
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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[Homercules]

Nice!

I've had my Maxjax installed for awhile and it's been great. For stability, when I'm wrenching on the engine and such, I have a telepost that is cut down to about 4' with a base welded on. I put it under the front and it keeps the van from swaying badly. Not in the picture though.

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89 Syncro

[hans j]

If you get a rolling chair, I suggest one with a short back. It makes it much better to sit and lean back a little bit.

You will never go back to wanting to work on flat ground again!
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1986 Canadian Syncro Westy TDI - 1989 Syncro Single Cab - 2001 Audi S4 - 1981 VW Caddy ABA - 1980 VW Caddy EV - 1973 VW T-181