Garage Lifts

Do a search, you will find tons of info about parking lifts.

I have a Pro-Park Direct Lift that I am very happy with. Here's a great thread that talks about the Direct Lift:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213966

- Eric

 

Backyard Buddy. Support USA.

 

BENDPAK.

 

Backyard Buddy. Great product, not impressed with the service. But long term the quality of the product trumps salespeople's, in my experience, somewhat surly attitude. The engineer I spoke to was very impressive. In my opinion, the most security from a safety standpoint. Safety was the most important factor to me, though I was glad to buy "American" on the strength of of the product.
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Is that a 928 in the garage?

 

Yes!
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Have Direct Lift. Purchased it approx. 6 mo ago. Completely satisfied. Can't beat the price.
Docf

 

+1 I'm very satisfied with my Direct Lift. It's well made.

 

I got a Direct Lift Pro Park 8 Plus (extended height) in April. $2250. Very satisfied. I'm 6'1" and can walk under the raised lift without ducking. I have an ~11 foot ceiling in the garage. I picked the lift up in Delaware to save shipping and sales tax. Very efficient customer service at the Greg Smith warehouse in Delaware (right off I-95). We were in and out with the lift loaded onto a car trailer in one big package pretty quickly. Note that the package cannot be carried in a pickup. It is too long at something like 17 feet. Beware claims that "two people" can assemble any of these lifts. If the two people are Olympic-level weight lifters, I guess they could, but for aging mere mortals, it's a three person job, and even then we needed an engine hoist to move the heaviest piece, the beam that included the hydraulic ram, onto a dolly. These lifts are heavy muthas. Be very careful how you lift the pieces, even with help. I found the assembly instructions for the Direct Lift to be a little sketchy at times, which created a couple of @!@#A!!A do-overs, but all in all the assembly went fairly well, although I stretched it over two days. Very wide cars like my Ford GTX1 just make it onto the lift with very little room to spare side-to-side. The GTX1 is also very low but did not scrape bottom going onto the lift using the ramps that came with the lift. I have no problems with my older Ferraris, SL600 Benz, etc. I rigged up a winch so I could pull the cars onto the lift by myself, which also saves clutch wear. I will be getting another Direct Lift in a few months. Kicking myself for not doing this years ago. Here is the website for the Direct Lift that I got:

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Direct-Lift-Pro-Park-8-Plus-p/tppro-park8.htm

 

bendpak, it is wide and they deliver and install.

 

Another one for Bendpak. I understand backyard Buddy is also very good.

If you're parking only, get a 4 post with the drip trays. If you're doing any real work to your car get a 2 post so the suspension can be unloaded. If you have room for two lifts, I'd get one of each.

RMX

 

Bendpak - Not to start a fight, but I think it's better than BB. Honestly though, for home use, just about anything will be fine.

http://www.asedeals.com/backyardbuddy_bendpak.pdf

 

American Custom Lifts sells mostly (if not all) American made and assembled products. I got my lift from them, and Brad Davies (the pres.) was very helpful when I had a few questions. The three I considered were:
www.aclifts.com Titan-07 SUV model
Backyard Buddy Extended height model
www.allamericanlifts.com M-815 .
I bought the Aclift model, but the allamericanlifts was a close second. They have the same exact locking mechanism as the BYB which is a little better in my opinion than the AClifts design. The BYB and AClifts products are both powdercoated, and the allamericanlifts model is painted. I'm happy with the lift I got but I wish it had the same kind of locking design as the other two.
If you go to the aclifts web site the pics of the lift I got look really familiar!

BT
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I've got the same lift - however for $800 I had it delivered and installed by a commercial lift company from the Bronx NY (Bravo Equipment). Interestingly two pretty small guys did the install in about 3 hours, basically using a dolly and floor jack, but clearly they know the lifts well. Very happy with it - I leave it on the locks that give me 6'2" clearance underneath which fits my height (5'11")and my volvo wagon even with the Thule box on top (see picture) - excuse the road salt but it was installed in early february of this year - still lots of snow and ice around.
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Actually, I assembled and installed mine myself.... No Help! Had to turn the ramp with the hydraulic ram over (est 600lbs) and just used jacks and cribbing to do it. Where there's a will, there's a way. Just be careful, however many people you have.

 

Any suggestions if you only have 9-1/2 to 10 ft of height clearance to work with?

 

All the lifts are pretty similar in that they have stops about every 4-6 inches or so. If you have a 9.5-10 foot ceiling, you need to have the combined height of the cars not exceed about 10" less than the clear ceiling height. Assuming your door gets relocated up to the highest it can, you probably have about 9'-3" on a 10 foot ceiling under the door, so you could have the combined height of the cars be about 8'-5" total in that case, or 7'-11" combined car heights for the 9'-6" ceiling. The 10" allowed includes 4" for the ramp thickness, and 6"to make sure you are resting on a stop, and have the height to release the locks.

BT

 

As I think you point out, I also think fights are worthless. But dialogue is what is so valuable about this forum. So I offer this in the vein of productive dialogue.

To address only one point. The assertion that channel post design (Bend Pak) can be as strong and a boxed post design (BYB) is tough to support. If all your forces are directly downward the advantage of a boxed post is negligible. If there are torsional forces (uncommon, but I live in CA and we have a little thing called earthquakes,lol!) there is no question that torsional loads can cause a channel "C" post design to fail much more quickly than a boxed post. That is enough for me right there.

Bend Pak is a very good company, and I strongly considered their products. There were definitely aspects of their lifts that I liked. Since inherently a lift can be dangerous and even lethal, like many in the decision making process I spent all my time researching the design, engineering, and build material. I think we can all agree that nobody cares if the lift cost $1,800 or $5,800 if someone is hurt or killed because the lift failure.

If BB did not exist, I may very well have a Bend Pak in my garage. But since in my estimation a better (albeit more expensive) alternative was available, for me BB was the choice.

I acknowledge that lift failure is rare in the extreme for any of the products on the market. But there is a reason that prices are different, and in this case it relates to design, construction and engineering.

 

I have a 9' 8" ceiling in my garage and although not purchased yet, I have spec'ed out lifts what will work, although you aren't putting an SUV on it! I would have enough room for a 360 and M3 though.

The big thing to watch for is your GARAGE DOOR OPENER. In most applications it hangs down, and will get in the way. You will either need to get rid of the garage door opener, or go for a wall mount opener....I have the Wayne Dalton I-Drive units which mount on the wall just above the garage door and run the torque bar directly.

 

A mechanic-client friend if mine who runs his own shop (and has for years) suggests buying lifts from repair shops that are closing down. He said he pays pennies on the dollar for them.

RMX

 

I watch CNBC all the time. Everything is fine, the economy is going to be booming by the end of the year so no more shops are going to be closing. LOL. Being sarcastic.

 

LOL...I used to watch Squawk Box while doing my cardio at the gym, but now I get done with the elliptical a full half hour before it airs so I haven't seen it in a minute...Joe Kernan always seemed pretty pessimistic and realisitc. Has that changed?

RMX