[Stl-986]

The lift itself goes up to almost 24". the pads the car sits on gives another inch or so. You can also stack the pads to give more lift but will need to have the car up on some 2x10's to get more ground space. The space also comes down to what you put the engine on to pull it out. I just put it on cardboard and pulled it out.

Yes take the bumper off along with exhaust and pulling both together is one way but is heavier.

Nice thing about low rise, mid rise & quickjack is you can just drive over them so no need to worry about storage.

I went through everything you are going through so I know the pain in deciding. I work on multiple types of cars from the 986, 996, Corvettes, to Miata's, parents mini van and various kids cars. I haven't used it to lift up the Wrangler yet, but those are just easier to lift up and put on jacks and means I dont need to get the suv extenders. I have the SLX 5000 so I wont be able to lift our Jeep Commander, but that's easy to just use with jacks if I need it up in the air.