Racor - PHL-1R, Garage Ceiling Storage Rack Lift

This hoist is rated for 250 pounds and I use it to lift, store and re-install the hardtop on my two door 2015 Jeep Willys. I considered electric hoists and various home made hoists before deciding on Racor. I decided a manual hoist made more sense than electric due better reliability and control of operation. The home made hoists were mostly contraptions made from ratchet straps which might work for lifting the top but not reinstalling it. The Racor hoist has been installed in my garage for more than a month and I'm quite pleased with the result. It turned hardtop handling into a one person job with reasonable effort. My garage has 11 foot ceilings and I'm over 6 feet tall. I can lift the hardtop and have enough room to walk underneath with several inches of clearance even with both Freedom Tops on top of the hoist. Standard installation requires the hoist's support rails to be 48 inches apart so if the joists in the ceiling aren't 12, 16 or 24 inches apart you'll need to first mount two 2X4 studs perpendicular to the joists, which I did. Be sure to measure everything and verify the joist locations at least a couple of times before you start drilling holes, especially in a finished garage. My garage is finished so I used 5 1/2 inch by 3/8 inch lag bolts from Home Depot to mount the 2X4's. The 2x4's were each about 6 feet long with each stud mounted with four lag bolts into four ceiling joist. This is probably way more strength than I need but I prefer the extra safety. Using the 5 1/2 inch lag bolts made sure I was getting through the studs, through the plaster board and into the joists. I pre-drilled 1/4 inch guide holes and it was a bear getting the lag bolts screwed in with a hand ratchet. An impact wrench would've been helpful. I also beefed up the rail mounting screws from less than 2 inches to about 3 inches to increase the tensile strength. I also increased the width 1/8 inch too. The pre-drilled holes in the rails were able to accommodate the larger size bolt. The pulley wheels and the gear box made a lot of noise so I gave them all a good shot of WD-40 which caused everything to work easier and quieter. There were a couple of bolts and washers from the parts list that were missing from the box but those were standard metric size items that I was able to buy at Home Depot. Also, the nuts attaching the cables to the wire frame via a C-bolt weren't even hand tight out of the box so those should be checked and tightened, if needed. I purchased three ratchet straps to hang the hardtop to the bottom of the wire platform. It could be done with two ratchet straps but three distributes the weight more evenly and provides more safety. You'll need some type of padding between your Jeep hardtop and the bottom of the hoist's wire frame. I zip tied plastic or rubber pipe insulators along the edges of the platform and then put an old quilt on top of the hardtop. I'm very happy with the Racor hoist for lifting, storing and reinstalling my Jeep top. It is useful for other storage too. As mentioned earlier there is plenty of room to hold the Freedom Tops and a few other items. I was able to assemble and mount everything by myself but did call a helper for a few minutes to make things a bit easier. My only gripe is a couple of small missing parts that cost a couple of dollars to replace at Home Depot. I suggest upgrading some of the bolts for better strength and safety although the included hardware is adequate.

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 bought and installed this a couple years ago. I won't get into the installation details too much as others have posted about them quite a bit... yes it is a pain to install, but mostly because it is a bit heavy and you are working overhead on a ladder. I don't know why people had an issue with the 48" centering, it should work for both 16" and 24" centered studs. The hardest thing for me was finding exactly where the studs were then drilling a pilot hole, etc. etc. Once I got it up I loved it. It was high enough out of the way not to be obtrusive (I have 9.5' ceilings), but I was still able to have it low enough to get a decent amount of storage on there. The problem is, after today, I don't love it so much anymore. A gear or something must have stripped because the unit will no longer raise at all (it still lowers, however). I have probably had 125lbs on there for the last two years which is half capacity, and today added maybe another 50-75 max, so I am still under capacity. Also, I have only raised and lowered the unit about 10-15 times since owning it, and most of those were within the first two day initially loading it up. Other that than it pretty much stays up all the time. I just sent an e-mail off to the manufacturer, so I'll see how they handle this. The good news is, if they send me a new gearbox without giving me too much of a hassle, it should be a fairly quick job to remove the old one and put the new one on due to the design. If that's the case then I'll be sure to update this review to have more stars. ***Update*** I spoke to the manufacturer and they sent me a new gearbox for the unit, free of charge. Installed in in about 45 minutes and it is working fine now. I did measure the weight of everything I had stored on the unit and it was only 155lbs, so I'm leaving the review at 4 stars because I'm not sure the gearbox is as robust as it could be. Apparently they are now owned by Illinois Tool Works which I have actually used as a vendor in the past and they have always been a pretty good company. This experience was no difference. Unfortunately the e-mail address on the instruction sheet in my unit was wrong, but I found their website and contacted them through that: [...]

I researched this for a long time before I bought it. Mostly I was worried about the difficulty with the installation. Necessity finally dictated that I give it a try. We were given a 12' artificial Christmas tree that is stored in two huge boxes. These were too heavy and bulky to lift up and down a ladder to store on my Hyloft garage ceiling shelves. I read the instruction and decided to modify it so that I can install this myself. All told it took about five hours but I took my time measuring everything and was being extra careful. The key to a one-person installation is to NOT assemble the arms with the T fitting on the ground. The entire arm assembly is just too heavy to lift overhead and to drill the pilot holes. I first made sure I had an unobstructed part of the garage ceiling, AND that there were studs 48" apart fairly centered within that space. Then using a stud finder, I mapped out the two studs to which I will be installing this. I rough assembled the arms and took the length measurement. From this, I marked where the ends of the assembled arms should be. I used a laser guide anchored and projected down the centerline of the stud I'm working on. I found this very helpful. I started on one end. I took one unassembled arm and lined up the outer edge (end with the pulley) to the mark. Then I used the laser guide to help me keep the arm centered to the stud. This way I was able to hold the arm steady against the ceiling and mark my drill holes keeping them centered. Then I was able to fill my pilot holes using the 1/8" bit as instructed. HERE IS A TRICK--put a tiny bit of liquid dish detergent on the lag screw. You don't have to go nuts. A tiny bit will do. I had no trouble putting these in through the pilot holes using a manual ratchet socket, and not one of these lag screws broke. With the pilot holes drilled, I put up the first unassembled arm with the four lag screws. DO NOT TIGHTEN. Once I felt the lag screw has entered the wood, I gave a few turns. This was enough to keep it from falling. Then I rough assembled the T fitting to the arm with the two little bolts. This allowed me to push it up against the ceiling and mark the two drill holes. Again the laser guide helped me keep the whole thing centered. I took off the T fitting and drilled my pilot holes. Then assembled the T fitting to the arm with the bolts and nuts and loosely anchored into the studs with the two lag screws. Repeat the same with the second arm. Once the entire arm assembly is attached and loosely anchored to the ceiling, I made sure everything fitted together and the placement was correct. Then I tightened all of the lag bolts. Repeat the whole process for the other arm. Although this took more time, there was not one pilot hole that did not match with to the assembly. The rest of the assembly was straight forward per instruction. It took me awhile but it was worth it and I really like how this thing functions. Good luck to you.

Bought this lifted storage platform even after seeing all the bad, catastrophic reviews that some users have written. Install was relatively easy, followed every step of the well-written directions. Currently I have 201lbs evenly distributed sitting on the platform and will be leaving it for 1-2 days to test out the setup. There's a ladder, BMW transmission, box full of tools, some saw horses, etc. One thing to comment on the plastic drive gear failure - yes it looks weak, but I don't believe that carries the load UNLESS you unspool the entire cable which I don't think anyone should do. As a rule for my install and use, I will leave 2-3 turns at a minimum when lowering, to ensure that the load is not going to that plastic drive. I'm planning on adding some safety cables in case any piece does decide to fail, it will limit any damage done below. I agree with other reviews that their are a few single point of failure issues with this design, so I will add the cable for additional safety. On the topic of lag bolt selection.... Came with 3/16 lab screws. If they are made out of 1090 mild steel, with tensile yield strength of say 247MPa (841MPa is ultimate) or 35.8ksi, area is 0.028 in2, then these bolts would yield at 1002lbf and they would ultimately fail at 3415lbf. Now we have 20 of these screws, so if they are all properly fastened to the joist, you have 20,040 lbs needed to yield these screws, 68,300lbs to shear them... I feel like this is more than enough to hold your 250lbs of xmas decorations. Upsizing the screws may also increase the chance of missing a joist centerline. In my case they were long enough to go through the drywall and into the joists. On the topic of sheet metal cost down where they went from large to small frame - sheet metal is really strong, particularly when you add bends to it, the U channel gives it two bends. I've dealt with sheetmetal enough to know that this frame is not going to give out, especially with all the bolts spreading the load across it.

I was looking for a rack to put up in the garage. These looked like they would work well, because they can be raised and lowered. After reading the reviews, I almost changed my mind, as they seemed difficult to install. However, actually they were not that bad to install. I followed some suggestions that I read in the reviews. First, I bought different mounting hardware. I used 3" #12 self tapping hex head screws that I purchased from Home Depot. I did not get the 5/16 lag bolts, as they were much larger in diameter than the slots on the rails. Second, I did not assemble the rails before putting them up. I put one half of the rail up and got it straight and true with the beam. Then, I attached the axle holder (without bolting it to the cieling). I attached it with the supplied nuts and bolts. Then, I mounted the second part of the rail to the axel holder. Next, I made sure that the new rail was straight and true with the beam, and then bolted it up. Lastly, I put the two bolts through the axel holder into the beam. Third, I did not use a stud finder. Well, I tried, but the drywall on the ceiling was over an inch thick (which is why i used 3" bolts to put it up), and the stud finder did not work well enough to be trusted. So, I took out my long skinny phillips screw driver and poked holes in the ceiling to find the edges of the beam. This way I knew exactly where the edges of the beam were and could confidently mount the rails. I purchased two of the racks. The first one took about three hours to put up. The second, only two. Now, I am not a fast worker and like to take tea breaks when I work, so I figure that these are pretty good times. As for the racks, I have to get used to stuff hanging over my head. The ceiling is ten feet high, but I got about three feet of storage bins on them, so then are between 6 to 7 feet off the ground. Also, they claim to hod 250 pounds, which is probably true. but, I wonder about the strength of my rafters. I got two racks side-by-side, so I guess at max 250 pounds per rafter. My wife loaded up one of the racks and we have 8 bins on it. Each bin seems to be about 25 pounds or less. But, what if she packed 40 pounds in each bin? There is no way to know for sure. Anyway, it is a little omnimous having them hanging over our heads.

I received this last week. I still at times cannot get over that I can pay $4 more with my Prime account and get something like this that's pretty heavy and large, delivered via UPS to my door the next day. The install instructions are pretty clear really but for those that find it hard to follow, just go to the companies web site and watch the video there. It's broken down into the different steps and adds a bit more visual to the directions. Overall, it just took time more than it being difficult. You'll absolutely want someone helping you at least for some steps of the process. Another thing to consider that I did not until it was to late and I didn't want to remove the whole thing and do over was the position of the crank, where the rod goes to raise and lower the unit. As a result, its somewhat close to a wall in my garage and would be more comfortable to use had I put that on the other side. Oh well, live and learn. They include a chuck adapter for a drill to more quickly raise and lower the lift. Note that it's half inch, so unless you have a pretty big and heavy duty cordless drill already, you'll either need to find an adapter to adapt a 3/8" to 1/2" or stick with just the hand crank. As this is something that most will not lower and raise often once they get it loaded up, it's likely not a big deal to just use the hand crank even though it's a pretty slow process. All in all, I just took my time. I have drywall on the ceiling in my garage and used a basic Stanley stud finder to mark the edges of the joist and then marked again every foot or so until I had my 48" in length. I measured from the center of the joist to the other joist that was 48" away and confirmed it was exact and dead center. As others have noted, it's possible your joist are not as exact since human error from when the home was built could be a factor, so do not assume it's exact, make sure. I did not pre-drill though it would of been wise to do so, I just didn't have a bit available at the time and wanted to get it done. Since I had a cordless drill with plenty of power/torque, it was a non-issue to drive the screws into the joist but I could see it being a challenge for someone with a less capable cordless drill. There's no way I'd go through the bother of taking the thing down when/if I leave this house and at the price, if you get a few years of use, I don't see any reason not to buy another one should I move in the future and have a need.

I've had 4 of these installed in my garage for about 8-10 months now. The first one took about 8 hours (leisurely pace, breaks and beer), the 4th one took about 2 hours because I had the install steps mastered. Some things you may want to consider: - The provided hex-head bolts did not give adequate surface area coverage of the bolt head against the frame. This is the bolt that is holding the frame against the ceiling against the force of gravity. I found this un-nerving considering these were to be suspended above my kids when they were in the garage, let alone vehicles and other property. A simple solution: I bought some washers and went ahead and bought lag screws that were 1/2" longer than those provided (to dig deeper into the ceiling joists). - The instructions did not mention an extra step that I took - remove the pulleys in order to get another lag bolt on each end - a total of 4 more bolts per install. This step is simple and adds maybe 10 mins to the install. - I was able to install them solo, albeit it is tricky. Just be patient and take your time getting them up correctly. The provided instructions overall are very good, and are written in plain English. Be sure to follow them carefully to prevent un-doing and re-doing steps, which is exactly what I did on the first install. I went to the attic for the last "seasonal" time this last Christmas. Instead of going back up to the attic with heavy boxes, the boxes when right onto the platform and I zipped 'em up speedily with the drill These babies are heaven-sent. No more going into the attic for every $#@ holiday to dig out stuff. Now anybody in the family can get to the holiday stuff!! I LOVE THESE THINGS. PS: Careful proselytizing these to your friends and family or you may find yourself helping them with the install (after you bragged about how quick you were at putting them up)

Packaging was horrible second hand bags used for screws and washers etc which led to trhem spilling out as they had been teared and reused the box was ripped in several places leading to parts all over the delivery van least amount of foam was used so parts were scratched (only paint though) there was no clear packing order parts were just dumped in. the product works fine though so a massive down for the packaging and hassle.

Shipping was very fast and was surprised to see the package 2 days later. Installation is easy unless you have to mount it across joists. Overall it is a great product and works well.

Great little lift. I used it to make an adjustable bed for a camper and it works great. With a little tweaking, it raises and lowers a queen size bed from the floor to the roof in a toy hauler at a fraction of the cost of the fancy electric ones.

Installed this for my 2004 TJ hard top. Easy install. Took my friend and I 30 mins to install. Super happy with this product as it allows me to remove jeep hard top solo in a minute. Added bonus is that you can store the doors and additional equipment on the rack. Love it.

Assembly instructions are easy to follow, lots of pictures to assist, only a couple of basic tools are required. The only thing I would suggest is to lay a 4' x 4' sheet of 1/4 or 3/8 plywood on top of the metal platform to maintain the rigidity of the metal rod platform and spread the weight. If you place any heavier items in the center without it, the platform tends to bow down a bit. Better safe than sorry. Otherwise a good product and would recommend buying it.