Considering a mid-rise lift - Bendpak? Harbor Freight?

Ok, my 50-something back is winning the war..... I need a lift... or more accurately, would like one. Lotsa stuff out there......

Questions:

1 - What is the real ground clearance of a 992.2 C2S with PASM? My owners' manual denotes that clearance is 4.33" at max gross weight. Really? Anyone with real experience here?
2 - Anyone with BendPak experience? I really like the $1995 MD-6XP w/hydraulics and 50" lift but a 4-3/4" requirement.
3 - How about the Harbor Frieght model? 7" clearance but high lift $1500
4 - EZ Car Lift - no hydraulics, expensive, not as high lift but appears lighter, easy to store, portable, won't drag on the ground as it lifts, and some say safer. Drive-over clearance not an issue as you can slide the unit under the waiting car. $2000

BendPak: [www.northerntool.com]

Harbor Freight: [www.harborfreight.com] 7" clearance but high lift

[ezcarlift.com]

Here is a really good review of the BendPak model: [www.corvetteforum.com]

Use: Light use such as brakes, oil, detailing (most common use), plugs, winter/summer wheel changes, control arms. I am looking at another plug change in 9K miles and have a set of control arms staring at me waiting for installation.

Constraints: No room for a multi-post or similar lift. I suspect I will have to build wood platform and always park the car over it..... seems like a ton of work.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

A lift should be easy to use and get the car in the air reasonably quick. And it should allow you to lift vehicle by the proper lift points. A nice feature to have is a lift that allows you to lift the car by the lift points or by the tires.

I would avoid any lift that required you to build a wooden platform on which to drive the car. These platforms tend to get in the way when you are working on the car.

The lift either wants to be high enough you can work on the standing up -- but you don't have clearance for that sophisticated of a lift -- or you can work under the car on a nice creeper with the car at a nice height above you. Ideally the height should be somewhat adjustable. I watch the techs working on cars and they move the lift up and down some as they need more or less room to work on something at the very bottom of the car like the oil drain or they need access to something a bit higher up like the plugs/coils.

Can't help you with the clearance question other to point out that often the car's ground clearance is measured from some other place other than the lift points. Thus even if the car's ground clearance is less than that of the lift's collapsed height you might still be able to drive the car over the lift. 'course, you obviously would want to know this is the case before you bought the lift.

While I would not want to have to build a wooden platform to raise the car high enough to clear a lift with a collapsed height of 7" I could see building a couple of very low height (say no higher than 1" thus they could be made out of solid pieces of lumber) ramps that you would drive the car onto and which would provide just enough clearance to for the car to clear the lift.

Bruce, I've had the Bendpak MD-6XP for almost three years and am very happy with it. The Boxster needs ramps to clear the flattened lift, so I quickly built two ramps by stacking two 2x10's a bit longer than the wheel base. A little stagger and angle cut at one end is enough to make it easy to drive onto. Then you swing the arms under the lift points and go.

The lift height is maybe a bit over 40 inches which is plenty for doing everything. You can't stand upright underneath that but unless you have, what, 10' ? ceilings, no lift will be able to let you do that. You can work on wheels at standing height, and you can crouch, or sit on a rolling workshop stool, for lots of things under the car. Don't forget about the garage door when it is open and in the way! You can stop the lift at any height, and the safety stops are every foot, meaning that if you raise the car to 40", the farthest it could drop if there were a catastrophic hydraulic failure would be six inches.

I wish I had bought it years earlier!

Here is a set of photos I just uploaded. I took them when I first set up the lift. Hopefully it gives you a good idea of how it fits in a 20'x20' normal height garage. Note that in the photos of the car on the lift, it is not at the max height (there's at least a foot of clearance available between the car roof and the garage ceiling).
Bendpak MD-6XP setup photos





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2014 11:34AM by Trygve (Oakland, CA). (view changes)

As Bruce knows, i'm also in the market, once i renovate my house. That said, i wont have space for a 2 post lift, nor height to lift more than about 40" anyway.

A PCA buddy has a bendpack and uses it heavily. We've even had tow vehicles (RAM trucks, Peppers) up on it (!). One of my big concerns is safety, and having several people all with good experiences is very reassuring.

With a lowered car like mine, almost nothing allows "drive on" without a ramp. But as Trygve notes, that can be a couple of 2 x 8s or 2 x 10s. We use them all the time to tech cars for DE -- even in professional shops.

I also like the EZ car lift in part because it is USA made, and i have a bit more confidence in the steel and the welding, but again, the many testimonials on the Bendpck have me fairly comfortable.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

This one looks like a winner. Drive on!!! No clearance problems!!! Any experience with this "Atlas" brand? $1500 plus shipping.

Pete posted he owns the model up from the one I am posting and it was a 7,000 lb unit and required an additional compressed air system for safety locks. This "one model down" looks fine....

[www.gregsmithequipment.com]
[cdn.gregsmithequipment.com]

[youtu.be]


So far..... this appears the best to suite my needs... The only thing I may want is more gradual ramps... easily done with some wood stock. I could drive up on it every day.... 4" climb.... yep... looking good.

The BendPak will require me to make those wood planks ..... I looked under my car and the 6" or so bump from the BendPak safety latch absolutely would require these planks... no way could I drive my p-car over the BendPak without the wood stock.

Peace
Bruce in Philly



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2014 03:14PM by Bruce In Philly (2000 S Boxster, now '09 C2S). (view changes)

Just a couple of possible caveats/pros/cons on those:

- The Kwik Bay (the one requiring an air compressor) looks like it has a 4-1/2" flattened height. Would the car basically "bottom out" when driven over it after the front wheels pass the platform? Would there be enough clearance to actually put the lifting blocks in place at that point? You might want to check the horizontal measurements vs. the Boxster wheel base, and your actual lift point clearance, to see how the car would sit when in parked position. But the platform is appealing to avoid the need for ramps; on the other hand it will block the underbody of the car, probably including access to the water pump, and certainly things like the fuel filter.
- The LR-10P low rise doesn't go high enough for conveniently working under the car. Tires and brakes only.
- The TD6MR and EM06 appear to use the same electric motor as the Bendpak MD-6XP based on what I see in the photos. In fact the EM06 power unit photo looks entirely identical. The whole concept is very similar to the MD-6XP.

There was a Bendpak video (maybe on their website?) that compared their construction vs. a Chinese "clone" lift and the differences in sturdiness of materials was apparent. It might have even been showing a two poster lift. I don't know where the ones sold by Greg Smith are manufactured.

Quote
Trygve (Oakland, CA)
Just a couple of possible caveats/pros/cons on those.....

Thanx so much Trygve, good points all... I am interested in the EM06 model that does not require the air compressor... the EM06 does have safety dog ratchets. The Canadian site for this equipment has better descriptions and pictures.

So I went out and made some measurements:

- Distance floor to jack point = 6 1/2"
- Hockey puck = 1"
- EM06 "lowered height" = 4 1/4 " per their PDF

It appears to me, that the EM06 unit gives access a few inches in front of the jack points if you put the puck at the end of the solid blue rail. If you lock the ramp and move the puck back on the ramp, you get more inches. I don't know what that does to stability as my 011 has the engine way out back, but I think I would have access to the water pump in with the puck on the blue rail.

[www.gregsmithequipment.com]
PDF manual:
[cdn.gregsmithequipment.com]

Great points...... I didn't realize this was such as big decision and riddled with details. Regarding mfg location? I sent them an email with this and a few other questions. Not much information about this out on the net. Their Delaware location is not far from me so if they have them in stock, I will take a drive down. However does Chinese really equal bad? Isn't most of our stuff made there now?

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Bruce,

I've been looking for a lift as well. I've been considering the Dannmar 2 posts mid rise lift.

You can see it here

From costco

Or on you tube

[video]http://youtu.be/RRjdBeTk7Fw[/video]

Any comments and opinions welcome.

Eric,

I have the maxjax lift you linked to at Costco. I got mine from Costco in Canada.

Works great. I use a roller stool to work with it. To get the max height with it, I drive the Boxster up on a 4 squares of plywood. Otherwise, there is enough ground clearance to use the lower set of lift pads.

I've had the maxjax for 3-4 yrs.

I have an EZCar lift. It is low enough to fit under my lowered spec Boxster race car and I never had clearance issues with any of my stock ride height cars. I store it vertically against the wall so it takes up almost zero garage space when not in use. It lifts the car approx 27 inches, so it's great for tire/wheel changes, brake bleeding and oil changes. With the caveats noted below I've been very happy with the lift and barring a proper 2 post lift with appropriate ceiling height I can't imagine a better solution for my needs.

Caveats: The longitudinal members that support the car are quite wide and can get in the way if you're working on power steering lines or other lines that run along the sill area. For this type of work I use a jack and jack stands. Also the lift cross members can get in the way if you're wanting to remove all the underbody panels, again this isn't a show stopper you just need to plan ahead when placing the lift. You will need a 1/2" drill and heavy duty extension cord to lift a Porsche size car - the drill really struggles with the car approximately 6" off the ground once above that the lifting becomes progressively easier and the torque required from the drill declines. I overheated my drill several times before I realized the extension cord needed to be a bigger gauge.