BendPak 4 post lift with bridge jack questions

So I've had a 4 post hobby lift in my garage for a few years now.  Not sure of the brand, maybe a Direct or Tuxedo.  Pretty standard 8000lb 4 post lift, no bridge jack, lifts to 72".

My Cayenne turbo fits underneath it just fine, but I can't have the ski racks on it and nothing taller than the Cayenne will fit underneath the lift.

I discovered that Bendpak makes a 4 post lift that raises to 82", and can have not one but two bridge jacks.

So now I'm debating "upgrading".  I'll have quite a bit more clearance for the vehicle underneath, and won't have to remove ski/bike racks from the Cayenne.

I'll be able to have 1 or 2 bridge jacks so I'll have a far more secure and easier way to lift the vehicles up off the deck. 

My questions are, if I go with 2 bridge jacks, are they wired up so they act in tandem?  That is to say, that they raise at the same time/rate?

What do you guys think my current lift is worth?  It's in great shape, looks good, no leaks, fully operational etc...

Not sure if two of them would work together, but if the hydralic lines use the same pump, then you would thik that they would.

As far as the worth of your old sucky "can't fit a Cayenne turbo with bike rack" lift, I will gve you $300.00 USD for it today! 

I appreciate your offer, but I'm hoping that I can get at least $1000 for it, hopefully more like $1500....

I have the Bend-Pak HD9-ST with a pair of rolling bridge jacks, which is a 70" max rise.  I'm guessing you're looking at the STX (same as mine, but taller)?

The two jacks are not set up to work in unison.  They are air operated, so if you had a big enough compressor and ran dedicated air lines to them, you could probably rig up some mechanism to run them together, but there's no synchronization.

Having two is convenient in some ways, less convenient in others.  The convenience is obvious, the inconvenience is that they take up space underneath the car, and since they stick up further than the runways it reduces the clearance available for getting low cars onto the lift.

Here I'm using one of the jacks to support the rear of the Miata, I have the front on jackstands, and am using the second jack to lift the transmission into place (floor jack is to tilt the motor backwards to line it up)

That's some good info to have!  I thought they were hydraulic and sat even/below the deck of the lift.

How high above the deck do they sit? 

Do you feel that 1 bridge jack is enough to get most work done?  Obviously then I'd lift one side, place it on jack stand then have to slide over to the other side and lift it...

How do you put the lifted side on jack stands, does the bridge jack lift from another point?

So, if you get the 82" one, you can put two Europas stacked underneath?  Oh, and $350 on that old, shabby, short, used one. 

I'd pay you $1,200 for it.

But it would require transportation and setup in North Carolina.  :/

I will assume you will pass on my offer.

docwyte said:

That's some good info to have!  I thought they were hydraulic and sat even/below the deck of the lift.

How high above the deck do they sit? 

Do you feel that 1 bridge jack is enough to get most work done?  Obviously then I'd lift one side, place it on jack stand then have to slide over to the other side and lift it...

How do you put the lifted side on jack stands, does the bridge jack lift from another point?

The main lift is electric-hydraulic (definitely get the 220V motor for it), but the roller jacks are pneumatic-hydraulic (that is, the ram that lifts the jack is hydraulic, but the motor to pump the hydraulic fluid is pneumatic).  They sell a kit for mounting air lines under one of the ramps, with curly-q hoses to go to the rollers. 

I don't remember how high they stick up, it's high enough that I have to put a pair of 2x8s down on the ramps or my Miata (which, granted, is stupid low) will scrape on them.  I'll measure them when I get home.

I usually wind up using both bridge jacks because the Miata is low enough that I can't get the lifting pads underneath the front without lifting the back first.  This is because the pads aren't long enough to use without any spacers (otherwise the center of the jack hits the car first), and the shortest spacers that come with them are too long to fit.  I've been meaning to make some shorter spacers, but haven't gotten around to it.

You can lift the car in multiple spots.  The bar in the center of the jack is mostly flat (has 4 bolt heads sticking out of it) and lines up with the subframes in a couple spots.  That's what I do when I want to put it on jackstands.

OK, so I went out and measured it and took some photos.  The roller jacks are about 3.5 inches taller than the top of the runway when unloaded.  (They are mounted on springs, so that when you put weight on them by jacking up the car, the springs supporting the roller compress and the jack rests on the rails on either side.  This prevents the car from rolling backwards and forwards when it's sitting on the roller jacks.)

As you can see, my Miata is pretty low, and it will not clear the top of the roller jack across the entire bottom of the car without having it on the 2x8s:

With a tape measure:

You position the roller jacks by rolling them forwards or backwards to the right location, and then sliding hte extendable arms out either side.  Each arm has a hole in it for a rubber post, you can either put the post into the hole by itself, or use one of two different lengths of spacers that they include.  From left to right, this is the rubber post, the long spacer, and short spacer.  The long spacer is currently mounted in the hole.

I have no idea what the long spacer is for, I have never put a vehicle on my lift that used it.  Perhaps it's useful for trucks -- dunno, my lift isn't wide enough for them (nor is my ceiling high enough).  This roller jack is adjustable width and can be used on much bigger lifts, so maybe that's why.

If you put the rubber post into the hole by itself, you wind up with this.  I think this is supposed to be useful for low vehicles, but in my experience there's usually a some low point on the car in between the two points that I want to lift on that the cross-frame of the roller jack will hit.  So I don't find doing this to be all that useful.  It seems to me that if I had a couple of "washer" spacers, roughly 3/4 inch long, to put between the post and the hole, then this would actually work well.

So I mostly use the small spacer.  With the Miata on the 2x8s, this works fine in the rear, but in the front there isn't quite enough clearance to actually assemble the spacer and post onto the arm unless you lift the rear first.

Hmm, ok.  I'll have to measure my M3 and see what sort of clearance I have.  Pretty sure the body will be fine but I'm worried about the front splitter.  Having to always drive it up on a set of 1x12's would really suck.

Isn't the bridge jack air powered?  If so, what size compressor do you have for it?

Fr3AkAzOiD, your offer would work if you were in Colorado...

docwyte said:

Fr3AkAzOiD, your offer would work if you were in Colorado...

I know, you don't know how hard I was crossing my fingers that you lived in middle east coast when I was clicking your profile to find were you lived.

Would've made life easy on both of us.  I have to decide what to do here, it looks like the Bendpak lift I want is $3000, the bridge jack is $1165 and the air compressor I'd need to buy (and find a home for somewhere in my already very crowded garage) is $800.

So this arrangement would cost the better part of $5000!  Ouch...

So that makes me wonder if I'm looking at this all wrong and maybe I should be thinking about replacing my 4 post lift with a two post lift.  A good one of those can be had for $3300.  But then I'd need to have some concrete work done to my garage slab to get the proper thickness and PSI grade.  Not sure how much that would cost.

I also have some questions about how high the two post lift will raise the car, whether or not I could fit my wifes GX470 underneath a car on it or not.  Plus the security of leaving my M3 up on a 2 post lift for long term storage...

Thoughts?

I would place 4” spacers under each leg of the lift, assuming that’s how much extra clearance you need under the Cayenne to fit with the ski racks. 

That would be the easiest and most economical solution. 

In reply to codrus :

If I were in your shoes, I'd be tempted to find a lathe and shorten the shoulder on the small spacers by about an inch, and then lop an inch off the bottom.

I have two thoughts,

My 9000 lb Bendpak is anchored into maybe 3.5 inches of concrete, it is the overhead cable version.  I load my 4500 lb van on it all wrong and have been for years with no problems.   

How do you like the GX, I'm thinking of one for my wife and for me to borrow when needed, 04 and up has a 6500 tow rating right?

How much space is there underneath the lift once you have it at maximum height with a car on it?  70"?  80"?

The GX is like every other Toyota product, it just never really breaks.  It does have a timing belt vs chain, so a little maintenance there.

It's been a really solid vehicle for us, gets reasonable gas mileage and can carry 7 if we have the jumper seats in.  That takes up all the cargo area tho, so you can't carry 7 people plus stuff.

It drives like a truck though, especially compared to the Cayenne.  I also HATE the "barn door" rear hatch it has, totally a PITA to deal with.  I'd much rather have a vertical opening hatch or a lift gate or anything else.

We've never towed with it, although I'm sure it'd do fine...

I'll lift a car up when I get home and check for you.  I use a 2x4 spacer on top of the lift pad for my mustang, when it is all the way up I can walk under it without bonking my head.  So at least 5'9".   When lifting an SUV I use the taller spacers under the lift pads that gains another 3 or 6 inches everywhere except the tires.

Woody said:

In reply to codrus :

If I were in your shoes, I'd be tempted to find a lathe and shorten the shoulder on the small spacers by about an inch, and then lop an inch off the bottom.

I've thought about that, but I'm not sure how important it is to have the extra length sticking out the bottom to make sure the lift pads don't fall out.

I have a 33 gallon 110v Craftsman compressor.  The roller jacks don't need much air, they usually just run off what's in the tank and even if it's low the compressor easily keeps up with them.  I did plumb an inline oiler into the air lines on the lift, though.

Well, another option popped up, looks like Direct Lifts makes a bridge jack that should work on my current lift!  Not only that, its fairly reasonably priced.  On their website it looks like it's hand operated, which I'm not thrilled about.  I'd rather have one that air assisted, but the distributor seems to think that it is.  He's supposed to call me tomorrow to let me know for sure.

So that'll solve the bridge jack issue, the height issue is another story.  I suppose I could just put spacers underneath the legs, but at that point I really should bolt the lift/spacers down to the garage floor.  Right now I just have it sitting there, not lagged down...

docwyte said:

So that'll solve the bridge jack issue, the height issue is another story.  I suppose I could just put spacers underneath the legs, but at that point I really should bolt the lift/spacers down to the garage floor.  Right now I just have it sitting there, not lagged down...

You can have the spacers threaded and bolt them to the lift legs, or have them counterbore the bottom and install bolts from the bottom up and nuts on the top.

If you need help with the spacers, send me some dimensions and I will check if I have any scrap material and I will be happy to machine them for you.

How are you going to load the car onto the lift if there are spacers under the legs?

I'd have to either get longer ramps or a small set of race ramps to extend my current ramps

codrus said:

How are you going to load the car onto the lift if there are spacers under the legs?

A couple of 2x8s under each ramp that extended further from it?

Slippery,

I'll just some measurements and send them to you tonight 

I rarely use the spacers under the lift pads, however I almost always use a chunk of 2 x 4 or 1 x 4 on top of the lift pad.  Maybe just a habit but my fifteen year old pads look like new.