Lift placement

Do you or someone you know own a crew cab truck?

Park it inside and see.

My building is 30w by 26 deep and I barely have room to work under the hood of my 17' long Dakota ext cab.

That should be NINE FEET of clearance, but it gets eaten up fast.
I have a 24" deep workbench along the back wall, but that's it.
Where is that SEVEN FEET?

You never want lass than a foot of clearance on each end.
Really a foot is not enough either.