a car lift in your shop

by **grumpyvette** » January 20th, 2013, 11:56 am

I found this posted on a different site, the posted info might help someone

"What 4 Post lift NOT to buy
Well I decided I'm out of floor space with the car collection so I decided to look for a 4 post lift. I looked at a few ads on line and saw what looked to be a good deal on a Direct Lift Pro 8000 Extra High located about an hour and a half away and was under a year old. Price was right so I called and setup a time to go see it. The seller had a corvette on top and a Nova under and the lift was like new and hardly dusty. He bought it new from Greg Smith equipment. He was selling it because he was moving and didn't need it at the new location. We went around on the price and struck a deal. He took it apart and I went back a couple of weeks later and picked it up with my trailer. So, fast forward 4 months and I'm just now getting around to putting it together. Now to the point of this post. In the assemble something was seriously wrong. Things were not lining up and tightening up so I started doing some measuring. Turns out the left runway was just under 9/16 shorter then the right runway. I double and triple checked and this was correct. Definitely a defect. The complete assemble was racked and overloading the cross-member and uprights. I called the manufacturer and THEY SAID they never heard or saw this before and didn't really seem to care. Since I was not the original owner I was S..t out of luck. I called Greg Smith and they basically had the same response. SO BEWARE if you already own one, better check it because I really doubt this is the only one out there and if you decide to buy a new one, check it completely after assembly before you use it. The original owner never saw this problem and very possible could have had a serious problem in time. Direct Lift really doesn't care or they would have at least showed some interest or concern. All they cared about was the Warranty didn't apply anymore because I was the second owner. My solution was to make 2- 1/4" thick shim plates to make the runways equal in length. I also changed out the bolts with longer grade 8's and lock nuts. Maybe steer clear of this manufacturers lifts all together considering their lack of response and concern."

by **grumpyvette** » March 2nd, 2014, 11:03 am

http://forums.performanceyears.com/foru ... tcount=271

http://www.bendpak.com/blog/top-10-guide-to-car-lifts/

THIS IS ONE OF SEVERAL POSTS I found related to cheap imported lifts failing ..
from either improper installation or in most cases crap quality materials used or construction,faults YOU DO TEND TO GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR TO SOME EXTENT! so do your self a huge favor and look for a CERTIFIED LIFT, and it certainly won,t hurt to deal with a local company with an established service track record, rather than shipping in the least expensive piece of crap you can find listed
just looking at the pictures posted below make it obvious that they were dealing with a flimsy import lift , that was structurally not up to safe standards that you would not want a 4000 lb car supported over you on, once you started working on it!

the money he might have saved on the initial cost would be far exceeded by the cost incurred, to make repairs and pay medical expenses, or the car damage , if the car fell on him and the resulting damage to him if he survived

THE CERTIFICATION STICKER IS MANDATORY ON A DECENT LIFT[/color]
http://www.autolift.org/

Bentwheelbob's wrote:
Default Don't Let This Happen To You - Really
OK, time to come clean. Sort of like confession. I bought myself a second four post lift for Christmas. Kind of a Merry Christmas to me offset to the blue Tiffany box. I got it put together the Saturday before Christmas and after getting it adjusted and in position I couldn't wait to get a car on it and up in the air. At about the 10:30 that night the Red Car was loaded up and raised. I took it up, brought it down. Took it up again and brought it down again. Everything looked good, so I started taking it up to full elevation and that's when all h_ll broke loose.

The seal in the hydraulic cylinder failed and the whole car started coming down. The lift has safety guards for such a situation, and it sort of worked. The problem is that the drivers side rear was just high enough to catch to upper safety lock. The passenger side rear was enough lower that it came to rest 5" lower. The driver's front also settled on the lock 5" lower. By this time the whole lift was twisting and had become unstable. I was holding onto the front driver's side leg trying to keep a total collapse from occurring. Ultimately the passenger front locked in about 1.5' lower than the driver's rear. It was ugly. There was hydraulic fluid everywhere, I was holding onto the lift, my neighbor Ken was in shock, and the Red Car was about to go through the garage wall.

When all was said and done the whole mess stabilized, but barely. Each post was leaning about 20 degrees off of plumb and resting on only one corner of the base plate. I could have pushed it over with about 10lbs of force. Talk about a mess....I called My Pal Dave and MPD, my neighbor Ken and I quickly went to work. We secured the top of the posts using binder straps hooked to the ceiling bar joists. We also anchored a chain to the wall with Hilti anchors and secured straps between it and the bottom of the posts to keep them from kicking out. About 2:30am that morning I went to bed hoping that when I woke up the car would not be sticking through the garage wall.

Well I got up about 7:00am and the car was still standing. I called two fantastic neighbors over and we devised a plan of action. One of them had a good friend that runs the local All Crane branch. All Crane dispatched two of their best guys on a Sunday and they showed up with a 9000lb Fork Lift, a cube of crib timbers, chain hoists and a bunch of steel to bridge the bar joists. The other neighbor dispatched his best guy from the manufacturing facility he owns with more steel, chain falls and a service truck. Ultimately we secured the whole structure with chain falls, cribbed the rear of the lift solid, and used the fork lift to elevate and level the front of the car and lift. Once this was accomplished, we started lowering the whole thing 6" at a time. By 5:30 the car was on the ground and the only things damaged were my pride and pocket book.

The lift manufacturer stood tall and agreed to replace the lift. I spent the next weekend tearing down the old lift, and last weekend installing the replacement lift. All is now well. Here are some pictures of the mess.

by **chromebumpers** » March 2nd, 2014, 12:00 pm

I don't care what anybody says, this lift looks like cheap China shit, so who in their right mind puts a $75K plus collector car on one of these?
On the first lift,
I would have made myself available when the lift was taken down so I could take photos at each hardware assembled areas and take notes overall. Again, all floors are never perfect and some modifications could have been made for up and down posts (uneven floor) or being out of square.

by **87vette81big** » March 2nd, 2014, 12:48 pm

I don't like chuna stuff likewise Rich.

by **grumpyvette** » March 14th, 2014, 7:08 pm

http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/v/B ... y-Lift.htm

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas ... ison-Guide

http://www.asedeals.com/Product_Compare ... ary_1_.pdf

look very carefully at these pictures comparing two fairly well known lifts
which would you buy?
and there are FAR WORSE LIFTS... YOU NEED TO DO RESEARCH

some of the cheap imports make both these lifts look MASSIVE in comparison, when the steel thickness is compared, and thats not taking into account the quality of the steel, you can bet your butt that the cheap import lifts you see on sale at 1/2 the price of the better brand name lifts did not select or use the best steel , or experienced welders either

THE CERTIFICATION STICKER IS MANDATORY ON A DECENT LIFT
http://www.autolift.org/

any lift worth having will have this sticker, its NOT just a "STICKER" its a certification that the lift design HAS BEEN TESTED and will function under its rated load plus about 30%-50%, and that it meets some minimum safety feature requirements.
A certification for any product serves several purposes. The one that no one sees is consistency of manufacture. That's a big one and the one that should concern you with a product like a lift.

by **grumpyvette** » July 6th, 2014, 9:03 am

there will always be a few guys that have very limited ceiling height issues that may prefer a floor scissor lift, or other semi portable lift option that they can bring with them if they move
http://excel-equipment.com/bendpak-lr-6 ... 7AodukkAqQ

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... 7Aod6CsA2A

http://www.eagleequip.com/product/PAD-6000W.html

http://www.directlift.com/ceilingCalc.aspx