Keith Tanner wrote:
Did you call Ranger about what looks like a bad crimp on that hose? Because I'll bet that if you did, there's already a replacement on the way to you.
I did call Ranger and they are indeed shipping me a new hose. Good for them.
However as noted above, this is a frustrating situation form the beginning...and this is NOT the first part that they have had to send to me.
When I bought my BL5000 I had read this thread and a half dozen others on other forums. I was supposed to buy a second one with a friend and he backed out after reading this thread, so I just bought one unit.
My hope was that I'd be one of the people who post up about having no problems and how much I love it and rainbows and unicorns and skittles, but that is not the case.
First off, when I got it it looked like the chimps form the old American Tourister commercials had gone to town on the boxes:
Really, would double-walled boxes be too much to ask? How about maybe wood for the critical/fragile components like the motor/pump assembly?
Anyway, unboxing revealed nothing but a few scratches, so I was able to live with it. Somewhat significant gripe: The pump assembly does not come attached to the metal housing (which is shared with the 12V units and the 3500). This (somewhat sharp) sheet metal part was poorly cut/drilled, had holes in the wrong place, is unwieldy to use in the process of attaching it to the pump, and actually would add a margin of safety for the pump in shipment. I ended up with a pretty good gash in my hand when the pump slipped during assembly. Blood plus shipping grease is not a good combo.
So after doing that assembly, I looked at the rest of the supplied parts.
My unit was a 1Q 2015 production unit so the revisions should be up to date. Most of my components did NOT match up with the photos and drawings in the instructions, but at least I had instructions. Some things were assembled and the directions said to assemble them- other were NOT assembled but the instructions made no mention. My 90* hydraulic fitting, for example, were already installed (instructions told me to install them)- but they were not the proper ones. I had supplemental instructions that came with revised fittings in a bag taped to the inside of one of the boxes, so I installed them. Not a big deal, but if I am about to trust my life to a product, I want the directions to be accurate.
Next up was the air cylinders. I went to air them up to 50 PSI (per the instructions) but they would not hold pressure. I checked the cores and they were not installed properly in the valves. When I went to tighten them they snapped right off. This was on a weekend when I was hoping to use the unit so I lost a couple days waiting, calling Ranger, waiting for the parts, and installing the (completely different) valves.
I had a few weeks where other obligations (family stuff, house projects, actually WORKING ON CARS [without a lift after selling my old mid-rise scissor lift to make room to use this one]) took priority over finishing assembly of the lift but this weekend I wanted to change the steering rack in my e30 and I went to hook up the hoses and bleed the lines to use the lift for the steering rack project and the results were what you saw above. Once again, time wasted in diagnosis, plus this time I had a mess to clean up as a result of a crappy fitting on a $1300 product. And once again, I am about to trust this product with my life, yet they can't get simple (critical) accessories right.
I just got the email that the replacement hose arrived but I really needed the rack swapped last weekend. Time wasted. Now I get to install the new hose, bleed the system, and HOPE that this was the last issue with my brand new lift.
I have not even used it yet and I have had 2 warranty claims. Not a good sign, IMO.