|
Buying a Lift
By Jonathan Bird |
When I bought my 308 a few years ago, the previous owner told me
to visit FerrariChat to learn more about the car and how to work
on it. Within a week or so on F-Chat, posting the usual newbie
questions, Tech Q&A guru Verell Boaen invited me to bring my car
to his house to help me out. Talk about luck - living so close to
Verell! Of course, I took him up on his offer and drove over the
following weekend. I knew I was in the right place when I drove up
the long driveway and saw his red 308 parked outside. Verell came
out and introduced himself, then said something that changed my
life forever: “Lets throw it on the lift.”
Say what?
He
led me into the garage and there before me was something I had
never seen before: a two-post hydraulic car lift in someone’s home
garage. "Wow," I thought, "Verell must be rich! Maybe I really
don’t have enough money to own a Ferrari after all." We pulled my
car into the garage, slipped the lifting arms beneath it, lined
them up with the lifting points on the frame and up she went.
Within minutes, we were standing under the car, inspecting,
tinkering, and cleaning. Now this is the way to work on a car.
The following winter I replaced my rear suspension bushings with
the car on jack stands at home. It was then that I decided I
needed a lift of my own. Working on a car is so much easier when
you have one and you don’t have to crawl around on the floor or
worry about the car falling off a jack stand. A lift of my own
would round out my new garage! My wife thought I was nuts. My
friends rolled their eyes. But after getting to know a lot more
car enthusiasts since I bought my 308, I realized that having a
home lift is not uncommon anymore. A lift can be used not only for
working on a car, but storing one as well. But what kind of lift
to buy, and how much would it cost?
TYPES OF
LIFTS
Lifts can be broken down into three general categories: two post,
four post and mid-rise (sometimes called a “scissors” lift). A two
post lift has two large columns, one on each side of the car, that
bolt into the concrete floor. Each column has two arms that come
out. They
 swivel back and forth and telescope in and out so they
can reach the lifting points on the car. You end up with 4 chassis
lifting points, two on each side. The advantage of a two post lift
is that, when the car is lifted, the wheels hang down with no load
on the suspension. The lift has very little interference with the
car so you can work on virtually anything, except perhaps the
doors, which are obscured by the posts (this can be reduced
somewhat with an asymmetrical lift). While you can store a car on
a two post lift, there is some question if long-term storage with
the suspension unloaded is good for it. It certainly gives the
springs a little R&R but may not be good for the shocks long term.
It has not harmed my 308, which spends 3 months a year suspended
in mid-air.
A
four post lift has a rectangular layout with a column at each
corner and a set of “runways” on each side. The car is driven up a
set of ramps onto the lift and, once lifted, it rests on the
 runways. In this type of lift, the car remains sitting on its
wheels and suspension while in the air. The disadvantage is that,
in order to work on the suspension, you must use a jack package to
jack the car up while on the lift. However, this kind of lift is
easier and faster to get the car up on. Just drive it on and lift.
The sides of the car are accessible without a post in the way, so
the doors can be fully opened. It’s also a better option for
storing a car since it sits normally on its suspension. Some four
post lifts can be purchased with a caster option as well, so they
can be rolled around in a large shop. Even without casters, many
four post lifts do not need to be bolted to the floor, so they can
be moved to a new garage easily. Moving a two post lift is a real
project since it must be unbolted from the floor, after which, the
floor has holes that must be plugged.
If you do a lot of body work, need a lift for additional car
storage and only do minimal under-car work, particularly
suspension, the 4 post lift is probably better. If you do more
drive train, suspension and restoration work, a 2 post lift will
probably work out better. You need to choose the type of lift you
want based on your needs. I would like to have a lift of each
type, but so far my wife isn’t going for it!
A mid-rise lift is a smaller, portable unit that sets up under a
car and lifts by rising up from flat into an X shape. It takes
up space sitting directly under the car, generally right between
the
 doors,
so it has limited usefulness for working on the underside of the
car. Typically you can still reach engine areas and of course
you can work on the suspension easily. While this lift cannot go
very high (usually about four feet), it still beats jack stands
by a mile and has the added benefit of being portable. Two guys
can throw it in the back of a pickup truck and take it some
place else easily, something that can definitely NOT be said
about the other lifts here. This kind of lift is often carried
by “mobile mechanics” who will come and work on your car in your
garage, rather than theirs. Unless you have a particular need
for a portable lift, most people find that a two post or a four
post is a more useful product for a home garage.
AMERICAN
VERSUS IMPORTED
Most people will have a preference for a quality, heavy-duty
American-made lift given the choice. I hate to brag, but some of
the very best lifts in the world are made in America with American
steel. But when comparing the prices of brand new lifts, the
Chinese lifts often come in at 1/3 to 1/2 the price of an American
one. Like anything, there are good and bad lifts no matter where
they are built. As much as I would like to say that all Chinese
lifts are junk, this is not the case. There are some excellent
ones out there, and some real junk as well. You need to do some
research and figure out what you can afford. The fact of the
matter is that a home enthusiast does not need the kind of build
quality that a professional shop needs, lifting cars up and down
all day long. Lifts almost never collapse but they can wear out
from repeated use. A better lift will last longer before the
hydraulics, chains, rollers, etc. give out.
LIFTING SPECS
A lift has a rated weight. This is the amount that the lift can
safely hold with a large safety de-rating factor. A typical lift
might be rated for 8,000 pounds. That means the lift can carry
8,000 pounds safely without worrying about anything breaking or
the car falling on your head. Manufacturers typically test lifts
to twice their rated capacity. Unless you happen to have a
Suburban or a truck that you need to lift, most people don’t need
a lift rated at more than 6,000 or 8,000 pounds. Considering that
my 308 weighs in around 3,000 pounds, I can technically lift twice
the weight of a 308 on my “small” 6,000 pound lift.
THE
BEST DEAL
Many people buy a lift without considering the used option. Nearly
every city has at least one if not several automotive equipment
dealers that sell lifts. Check your local yellow pages. As cars
and trucks get heavier and more people buy SUVs, a lot of shops
are trading in their perfectly good 6,000 and 8,000 pound lifts on
10,000 and 12,000+ pound models. Once considered the mainstay of
lifts, the “small” units are now considered whimpy. But guess
what? You can buy these smaller lifts used for 1/3 to 1/2 of the
new price. I bought a Mohawk 6,000 pound lift (premium U.S. made
lift) used for $2,000 from a local dealer, one third of the new
cost. For an extra $500 they delivered and installed it for me.
They leveled it, drilled the floor, put in the anchors, hooked up
the hydraulic lines and filled it with fluid. All I had to do was
wire it to 220 V and I was lifting cars the same day.
People often search on-line for deals on new lifts. You can find
excellent prices for lifts on-line, but when you add up the
shipping (considerable on a lift that weighs 700+ pounds) and
installation, you may find you that can actually do better
locally. It’s worth making a few phone calls. I discovered three
dealers in the Boston area that were eager for my business. The
other benefit to buying locally is that you have someone in the
area that can service your lift if something needs replacing. In
my experience, the guy who sold you the lift will almost always go
the extra mile for you.
IN
CONCLUSION...
I have now had my two post lift for over a year. I did, not one,
but two majors (with Verell’s help of course!) this winter with
the lift and I can only imagine how much harder it would
 have
been without it. Since we added a Mondial to the collection, I
store my 308 above the Mondial on the lift for the winter, which
has added a parking space to my garage. Overall, it was one of
the best uses of $2,500.00 I can think of, proving that you
don’t have to be rich to have a lift. Furthermore, my friends
come and visit more often when they need to put their cars up
for anything from simple oil changes to more complicated work.
If you have a lift, your friends will come… and you can make
them bring the beer. Need I say more? |
|
|
