Moving up in the world

After about 12 years of wanting one I finally ordered a hoist today! It should be delivered Tuesday or Wednesday. What I want is a big twin-post set up, but I don't have the room for that. It'd turn my 2.5 car garage into a one car garage. The next step down was this flush-mounted lift.

It's two independent scissor lifts that work together. It's amazing.....and expensive. I figured it'd be over $5,000 and I don't see me staying in this house for too many years so I decided on a mid-rise scissor lift.
http://www.aresco.org/Mr6xscissor_lift.html

It's a big compromise from the ultimate set up, the twin post, but it's a HUGE step above jack stands. And the only thing the $5,000 lift has on this $1500 lift is the clearance between the lift pads. I can deal with that.

Anyway, I'm excited. No more up and down off the creeper, no more taking 10 minutes to get a car set on the stands. I can't wait.

Color me jealous.

Toyman01 wrote: Color me jealous.

Me, too!

The in-ground one would be easier to load a car on - 4.75" is going to be too tall for my racer, for example. But you can't beat the portability and the price. Hmm, it's my birfday soon...

DrBoost wrote: No more up and down off the creeper, no more taking 10 minutes to get a car set on the stands. I can't wait.

+1 on this.

I gave myself a used two post hoist for Christmas. My buddy and I swapped out a subframe a couple of weeks ago. So easy compared to working on jackstands with your nose pressed against the oil pan and rust raining in your eyes.

Seriously that is only 1500? Why don't I own one already.

I wonder who actually makes them?

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200102674_200102674

The manual's available on that link for those who want nice techy drawings.

I'm very interested in how you end up liking this. When school starts next fall my garage remodel begins and a lift of some sort is absolutely happening.

I got nothing else beyond jealousy

moovin on up!

I'll update you guys/girls when I have used it a few times. For those that are up for the drive, feel free to come by and check it out, especially if you are thinking about something similar. Put your car up, fix/break/modify stuff to your hearts content.
In reply to Moparman: That's exactly what I thought.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

The Chinese naturally.

Doc, I've looked at those a couple of times. When you get yours in, take a couple of shots from underneath the car while on the lift. I'm curious about the access in the middle of the car. Could you pull a transmission while it was on the lift? How about the exhaust?

I'm still jealous.

I doubt it - look at the diagrams in the instructions on the Northern site.

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to Keith Tanner: The Chinese naturally. Doc, I've looked at those a couple of times. When you get yours in, take a couple of shots from underneath the car while on the lift. I'm curious about the access in the middle of the car. Could you pull a transmission while it was on the lift? How about the exhaust? I'm still jealous.

I'll do that, but I'd say you're not removing a trans. Maybe exhaust work since you can use spacers to get the car quite a bit above the platform. But yeah, I'll take pics for sure. I was going to change the oil on the car tomorrow, but I'm waiting until I get the lift. Supposed to be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

Wayslow wrote: ....your nose pressed against the oil pan and rust raining in your eyes.

This. This is why I did it. Anytime I'm doing a job that requires me to work both under the hood, AND under the car (that happens quite often) you can't have the car high enough to work under it comfortably or else you can't work under the hood, and vice-versa.
If I had this 18 months ago, I might not have hated the Benz as much as I did.

drboost.

congrats on the super cool toy..errr tool buy. Every single time i work in the garage i wish at the minimum i had a set up like that.

I may have to swing by next time i visit family.

Ill also be keeping an eye out for one locally....thats quite inexpensive for the ease of use

In reply to Toyman01:

This page has a video with lots of under-car shots:

http://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/specialty-lifts/md-6xp.aspx

Looks really good to me!

Is there any difference between the $2000 Bend Pak lift at northern and the $1500 lift linked by Doc?

I couldn't find a place to buy the Aresco - Doc? How bad is shipping cost? The $1950 Northern price included shipping.

Thanks for the video, really useful. I'm going to be measuring a few things this weekend...

Aresco is a brick and mortar place near where I work, about 40 minutes from my house wwwaresco.org
They are Bend Pak dealers, this is the same lift ecxept the hands-free lock release. It's 1495 and they're delivering and setting it up for $100. Any other lift, 2-post, 4-post, alignment, etc. is $500 to deliver and set up. That includes everything except the work an electrician has to do.
I don't know how far they'll deliver to, but they were willing to deliver and set up to Logdog's place, close to an hour away for the same price. They have used equipment, anything to set up a shop.

I bet if you made a couple wood ramps for each side of it you could fit the truck adapters under a car real easy. Then you would have alot more undercarriage access.

So jealous I don't even have a garage to put ine in.....Hopefully I'll have onethe soon though. (A garage that is, followed by a lift and tire machine)

logdog wrote: I bet if you made a couple wood ramps for each side of it you could fit the truck adapters under a car real easy. Then you would have alot more undercarriage access.

Yeah, I was thinking of the wood planks next to the lift to get low cars on there.

I'll be watching this closely. I've been thinking about one of these for a long time and I'm anxious to see how you like it.

DrBoost wrote:

logdog wrote: I bet if you made a couple wood ramps for each side of it you could fit the truck adapters under a car real easy. Then you would have alot more undercarriage access.

Yeah, I was thinking of the wood planks next to the lift to get low cars on there.

This is what I did - two 2x12's with a sort of off-set scarf joint in the middle so I can move them easier and offset and chamfered on the drive on end. It works pretty well. Occasionally I need some additional height to get enough access under the car for the middle lift risers.

You'll love it. My Mini is currently making use of mine while I rebuild the rear brakes and swap the steering rack.

Mine plugs into any standard receptacle. It's also an older model and doesn't have the remote safety release. I wish it had that. I'll have to cal Bend Pak and see if it can be retrofitted.

That looks super nice! Just get some plywood and stack it until you have a flush mount.

Much safer than jacks and stands. You get a stamp on you Man Card.

mr2peak wrote: That looks super nice! Just get some plywood and stack it until you have a flush mount.

You'll need a lot of plywood to do that, but I'm planning on a similar idea since my plan is to make my garage the drive-through access to my back yard and having to negotiate driving over the 2x12's would get annoying after awhile.