Racor - PHL-R, Garage Ceiling Storage Rack Lift

This is a great product. I highly recommend it for its intended use, as well as for its use in my "modified" fashion (that I will explain below).First of all, if you have the space in your garage to install one, you should, because we all know how full a garage gets with extraneous items. This way, you can store the off-season items you don't need, and rotate it out for things you do. That's what most people do.For me, I wanted a place to store my jeep soft top parts when I had the hard top on. These parts are fragile and expensive, so I wanted them safe and out of the way. As a bonus, I also found a way to hang the hard top, but I'll get to that later. First, the installation.You "could" conceivably do this alone, but it would be a challenge. Better to get a friend (or two) to help. I had my father in law and a buddy, and it went up in a snap. Assembling the shelf is a snap. Where it gets tricky is installing the mounts into the ceiling joists. Make sure you've got a stud finder. The mounts need to go into the studs with 10 screws per mount, evenly spaced. So if you want to install it in a particular orientation and the joists run the other way, you'll have to put up 2x4s first, on the ceiling, and then install the mounts.Luckily for me, the joists ran the correct way for me to install my Racor, which had to be oriented with the winch mechanism on the side (so that I could pull my jeep in and still access it). Think about that orientation before you start installing.Anyway, having a friend help you by holding the mount as you drill pilot holes and insert the screws is very helpful. Went up quick that way. Make sure you do drill pilot holes first, else it will be a lot more work. Also, make sure you measure correctly when installing the second mount, so that it lines up properly.Once the mounts are installed, snaking the cables and attaching to the shelf is no problem. The winch mechanism can be used by hand, but you'll get a real workout, particularly with a load. A drill works great to automate that task, and I highly recommend it.So, for me, I did some mods. I wrapped the edges of the Racor in pipe insulation to provide padding and weight distribution. Then I wove some cam buckle straps through the flooring, leaving the hooks hanging down the sides.So with these hooks, I can "grab" the Jeep hardtop when I back up my jeep right underneath the Racor. One person can then undo the roof bolts, lift each corner, and hook up the Cam strap. Once all 4 are hooked up, I raise the Racor a few inches, and drive the Jeep out. Then I lower the Racor again, adjust and tighten up the straps, and raise it to the ceiling, giving me Hardtop storage without sacrificing valuable square footage in the garage.Bonus that I can store my Jeep soft top parts on the shelf, out of the way, in the winter when the hardtop is on.You can spend more to buy a "custom" jeep roof system that gives you no other storage, or use this with some mods and have a dual purpose system. The roof only weighs ~125 lbs, so plenty of margin for safety.Highly recommend this versatile product.

I had bought 2 of these nearly 4 years ago and installed them in my garage to save space. I recently purchased another 2 of them. I now have 4 total units spread out across a 2 car garage. They fit perfectly the width of my garage and the high ceiling allows for ample clearance for storage. I use them to store 2 car luggage boxes, 5 rolls of astro-turf that I plan to install later, 3 inflatable kayaks, oars, life jackets and other accessories. I use some tie down strap to keep the objects secured on top so they don't shift and fall down. I have the attachment to use a power drill but I currently use the manual hand crank. The hand crank works well and is smooth operation. The units feel well constructed and sturdy. On one of the units I had a missing part. I emailed support and the customer service lady was exceptional. She sent me the parts manual to me, got the part number from me and immediately placed an order in her system. The process was quick and painless and I had the part delivered to me within a week. Installation was fairly straightforward but I added wood cross beams from Home Depot to make my installation extra secure for load bearing. These are great value for the build and quality. I would get these again.

This is not much of a review, the other reviewers have covered most of the high/low points well.You'll want to read this if you are considering hoisting a heavy-duty snow thrower, or any other load which is close to the recommended load limits, or going to be a point load, and not spread out over the whole platform.This is a cool product. For one, here is a company willing to sell an inexpensive consumer-grade product with moving parts that is rated to hold 250 pounds above people's heads. I think this company has succeeded tremendously.I needed a platform which would hold my heavy duty snow thrower out of the way in my shed during the off-seasons. My 30" 357cc snow thrower probably weighs 240 to 260 pounds, so it is over the edge of their design parameters. Add to that their restriction that the weight be spread evenly on the platform. Not my snow thrower. I would say 200 pounds of its weight is carried by its wheels, so it has two point loads less than 2' apart of 100 pounds.To accomodate the anticipated overweight cargo, I planned put some thin plywood over the platform to better spread the weight, and to attach a system of extra pulleys and counterweight (5 gallon bucket of ice melt!)Luckily I stood on the platform, and bent it slightly during my initial assembly. (I say lucky, because otherwise I might have bent it worse trying to hoist the snow thrower.) This clued me in to a key design detail that I initially thought was a major flaw, but now realize is intentional. The platform is intentionaly meant to bend if it is overloaded, or has a load which is not spread evenly over the whole platform.If you try to hoist a 250+ pound load without making any changes, the platform will act more like a cargo net with very stiff cables, instead of a platform made of steel rods. I suspect that all four corners might fold upwards, cradling your load in the middle depression. What an ingenious solution Racor has come up with to prevent getting sued by knuckleheads who overload their product. All they have to do is show a jury a photo of the folded up product, and ask the knucklehead why he (its always a he) kept cranking, even after the platform folded in on them. Its sorta like a circuit-breaker, to prevent overloading, without having a catastrophic failure. My guess is that the pulley and hoist mechanism is actually capable of handling 4 times the load, but why risk it?I will describe what I did with this overweight snow thrower though. I beefed up the platform with some old hickory "studs" I had around. (photos included.) Once I hoisted the snow-thrower up (with counterweight system), I looped chain around all four corners, and backed off the Racor pulley/cable system so the dead weight is mostly being sent to the chains. When I need snow thrower next winter, I will crank the platform up again, disconnect the chains, make sure the counterweight system is still working, and then lower the platform.BTW, let me say that this is not hanging in some dorky little mass-manufactured shed. My shed is built more like a house, with 2x4's and rafters. You will see from my photos that I was able to remove one rafter, and sister up the rafters on either side of this opening. This allows me to lift the platform with snow thrower on it almost 6 feet in the air (a good portion of the snow thrower is actually up above the rafters and pulleys and lifting mechanism.) You will note that I had to position the snow thrower on the platform so that the central axle of the Racor mechanism slides into a low area on the snow thrower between the motor and the auger shield. Otherwise I'd be limited to lifting the thing to only a not-so-useful 3-4 feet.You will find photos of the slightly bent platform (from standing on the edge), then photos of the snow thrower hoisted up into the rafters, and finally a photo of the chains loop on one corner. (That's a rusty old garbage can on it in first photos)