Question Regarding Safety of Car Lifts

Ex-mechanic with a total of 8 years turning wrenches + 6 years adjusting warranty claims for Ford + 4 years in the insurance business. I've used, been around shops for a total of 18 years. I've used or been around every type of lift imaginable 1 post old style air/hydraulic, 2 post electric/hydraulic, 4 post hydraulic ect... Never ever seen one collapse. Saw a F150 with a shifter malfunction and drive itself across a shop about 50 feets into one post of a 2 post lift with a Crown Vic on top of it, lift didn't budge. The only thing I've ever seen was a old one post air/hydraulic lift leak down over night and the car on it was left up with a jack stand under it.... But I don't think you can buy those types anymore.

 

I bought an EAGLE 4 post 7000LB lift 10 years ago. I use it for all of my service work on all 3 of my cars and my pick up truck. Oil changes , up to engine removals. I do not have it bolted to the floor and I park my year old Lexus under it with the 308 on top. I check it out visually every month and lub where I need to. I have had 0 problems. It saves me a lot of time and potential back problems. As to other brands I assume you will get additional comments here.

 

Most lifts have mechanical locks so they cannot fail/fall. The concern for a really lousy 4 poster would be it collapsing to a side like in an earthquake, think I saw a picture of that once.

 

I have a Bend Pak 4-Post lift and it is a 9000 lb. lift rated to be free standing--I love it. They are located in the heart of earthquake country.

 

I'm looking at getting a directlift pro park sometime soon. Leaning towards them as someone locally has one and is happy and there's a local service/install company in my city, whereas other brands don't seem to have someone in town.

 

I have a Rotary Revolution 4-post lift.
I bought the one that plugs into a regular 110-volt wall plug. (versus the 220v one).

Very safe. The 100v model slowly lifts the car up.
Plenty of time to stop it at any time while it is moving.

Must keep your finger pressing the button to continue lifting or keep pulling the handle to get it to descend.

Just make sure you have enough clearance up above the lift to put one in.
Be sure to include the garage door tracks hung below the ceiling and the electric garage door opener in your height calculations.

Good luck.

 

The best lift bar none is the Mohawk Lift. Very expensive, but you do get what you pay for. If budget is truly no object, then this is the one. Next seem to be Bendpak and Rotary, but everyone seems to have an opinion that includes other brands for this second tier.

Take a look at the garagejournal dot com forum for detailed commentary on just about every lift brand there is, pictures, etc.

 

I don't have any experience with lifts, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. I would assume they would be relatively safe as long as they have a mechanical locking mechanism you can engage once the vehicle is lifted. Anything above and beyond that would just suggest an abnormal fear of the unexpected.

 

Be sure you have it bolted to the garage floor. The installer that installed my 4 post lift years ago said the only failures he had seen was when they were not bolted down and two of the legs would do a split causing the car on top to come tumbling down.

 

If installed correctly you don't need to bolt it down. Most 4 posters have a wheel kit with them which allows you to move the lift with a car on it around the garage.

 

I live in California where the last earthquake is pretty destructive at 7.3. I chose to bolt down my 4 posts for 2 reasons:

1. Earthquake.
2. My garage floor is not level at one corner and the up and down motion of the lift makes it walk around. So I shimmed it up to level, and bolt it down.

There is no way to move the lift around, but the way it fits into my garage, there is no benefit in moving it anyway. I even threw away the casters... which was stacking up in the corners. So far, I have found no needs to move it.

 

Its not necessarily faulty installation that causes the risk of falling. Its the lack of support on the bottom of the legs when a car is 6-8 feet up top that can cause the lift to do a split.

 

Just went and looked at a Direct-lift Pro Park 8 and talked for a while with the sales guy. We talked about backyard buddy and why they're so expensive, Greg Smith equipment and what makes them different from Direct lift and Bendpak. What I got from my conversation was that direct lift is more the residential line of a professional hoist company. This outfit (their claim) does 80% of the local mechanics and dealers in my area and it's all with the professional line that's related to direct lift. I'm simply leaning this way b/c from what I saw, it seems to be a very well designed lift and I have some local support of install/service. I was quoted $550 to deliver, install and dial in (I have a sloping floor somewhat) and $2095 for the lift. Tried dickering them down and he wasn't having any of it. Their price seems fair especially considering what I would pay for freight from any other manufacturer and I would still have to deliver it from my work's loading dock and put it up. $550 for a turn key set up sounds good in my book.

 

I had a 9000# 4-post lift by Quality Lifts (made in Kentucky, I think?) installed a couple of years ago. All in, I recall paying about $3300, and had it installed by the regional lift pro. While you can install yourself, watching the pro do it easily and professionally was worth it; making sure the posts were all shimmed to exact vertical, etc. Mine is bolted to the floor.

As for safety; even if you have a car in the air and say your kid came in and pushed the release handle, the lift would only come down (slowly) as far as the next mechanical ratchet point - around 6 or 8 inches at the most. Your kid would have to know that you have to depress both the hydraulic release AND the mechanical ratchet release handle simultaneously to bring a car all the way down to the floor, and even that is not a fast trip. The same is true if you had a complete hydraulic failure, the car would only drop as far as the next mechanical ratchet lock point. Good practice says that, when you jack the car up to the desired height, that you hit the hydraulic release so that the car is sitting on the next lowest ratchet lock point anyway.

 

I put a keyed switch on my garage wall that you have to turn on before the lift will work as an extra precaution when my children were younger. I still use it today to help prevent theft on my BB512i which sits on top.

 

Be sure the car on top doesn't leak oil or any other fluids (e.g. radiator water, brake fluid).

If your lift comes with removable plastic center covers between the wheel rails, you might want to buy an extra 1 or 2 of those covers from the manufacturer.
My lift came with 2 such covers, each one about 1/4th the car length in size.
To fully protect the car below, I bought 2 extra covers so that the entire space between the rail is covered.

Also, it is a good idea to initially put some newspaper or tarp under the car on top to verify that no fluids are dripping any where.
If your newspaper is clean a week later, you can stop putting any under the car.

The only other issue with parking a car underneath is pre-wiring a battery tender hook-up pigtail so you don't have to open the hood to charge the battery.
In my set up, there isn't a lot of room to open the hood very high on the lower car.

Also, I am very careful when I park the lower car under the lift. You do NOT want to hit the support posts on each side when there is a car that weighs over 2000 pounds sitting right above you! So I go slow and watch each side mirror as I drive in or out.
.

 

I purchased a Quality Lift 4 post last year, had the local dealer install. Total cost was about $4k. It's not bolted to the floor and I feel very confidant that it is safe, never had a problem, it has safety features built in such as it takes two hands to lower the car and it locks in at each level. Highly recommend Quality brand.

 

Safety for Car lifts depends on the brand of the car lifter. Choose the one that's already proven that is safe.

But actually this car lifter should not fall, for it is being designed for it.

 

Mike, do this, it's worth a few extra $ to know it was assembled properly.

I had my 4 post delivered and installed for an extra $500, and the guys had it installed in 5 hours.

I've never had a problem with mine in the 6 years I've had it.

 

^^ agree. I had my lift installed by the vendor.
Plus those rails and posts are heavy, so it is a 2 person job anyway.
It was also nice to get a demo, once it was built, of how to use it and how to use the casters to move it.

Another thing to ask for are the extended tire ramps. My ramps are little longer than the stock ones and this allows a car with a lower ground clearance to drive up on the rails when they are fully lowered.

And yet another good option to buy is the jack cross-member. This is a stout metal piece that fits between the tire rails and provides the base for a hydraulic jack so that you can jack the car up a little and take a wheel off, if you want.

 

FWIW, there's a nice thread (with pix) detailing a *single* post lift in the 360 section; http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=351464

Obviously saves a ton of space, and seems pretty highly regarded - I probably wouldn't put it to "professional" use, but at home it seems like a nice way to go.

Cheers,
Ian