Yup, another garage lift post

I have a few posts over the last few months about my garage lift saga. Feel free to search the threads for the full story, but I’ll re-cap here. I purchased THIS LIFT locally for $1500. It’s a mid-rise scissor lift that lifts 6,000 lbs 48” high. I knew it was an inexpensive lift and wouldn’t be perfect, but it had 3 serious failures by the time I used it once. I called the company and they came and got it. I ponied up the extra $500 for THIS LIFT from the same company.
I’ve used the BendPak lift twice now, so here’s my impressions of the two different lifts.
The BendPak is a much, much sturdier lift in every way. The knock-off lift didn’t have secure attachments for the bottom of the lift cylinders. Basically, they counted on the pressure of the cylinder expanding to hold a piece of re-bar that was welded to the bottom of the cylinder in a little pocket at the base of the lift. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of it. It worked, but came off hokey. The BendPak has actual attachment points at both ends of the cylinders, and these cylinders are much larger, heavier duty than the knock-off lift The Knock-off comes with more attachments, but I don’t know if they are really needed because the BendPak has enough to do what I need. Here’s what the BendPak comes with four of each of these.
Then there are little things that make the BendPak better. The knock-off had the crossover hydraulic house just kinda sticking out into the air, right where most exhaust pipes are. The BendPak has a metal loop to keep the hose away from the hot exhaust The biggest differences that make the BendPak better?
The knock-off lift would lower a bit faster than the BendPak (unloaded) but the trade-off is that the knock-off would literally drop the last 6 inches of down travel. Let me tell you, the first time this 900+ pound lift drops 6” it’ll make you crap your pants. The BendPak is controlled all the way down, very nice.
Every part of the BendPak lift is beefier, from the pins at the pivot points to the way the hydraylic reservoir is secured to the power unit.
The knock-off had the arms bolted to the lift plate and they pivoted at that point, that’s it. The lift pads could be placed anywhere on the arm but you were still quite limited as far as lift possibilities. The BendPak has much more flexibility as far as where you can place the lift pads. The pads can be placed anywhere on the arm like the knock-off, but the arms can slide in channels on the lift. The illustration below shows the difference. The light yellow are is where the BendPak pads can be placed, the solid yellow area shows the knock-off. One more difference. The knock-off had studs that stuck up through the lift arms that prevented my Golf from being driven over the lift. Heck, even our Chrysler minivan couldn’t clear these studs. The BendPack can clear either car. This is a huge difference to me.
So, I’ve been to the cheap end of the garage lift pool, and there is poo in the water. The BendPack is a much better lift in every respect. So, if you can come up with the $1500 for the knock-off lift, raid the couch cushions or fine a way not to pay your kids allowance for a while to come up with the other $500.

You are making this decision much easier for me.

DrBoost wrote: So, I’ve been to the cheap end of the garage lift pool, and there is poo in the water.

i LOL'd

$2K for a decent lift in my own garage? I'm interested...

Woody: What are you thinking of getting? MaxJax?
Angry: Glad I could make you laugh.
Jerry: Yup, for two grand there are a few choices, even new equipment. How tall is your garage ceiling? For the same $2K you can get a portable twin post, the MaxJax mentioned above. I kinda wish I had gone that route, but my garage isn't wide enough to accommodate that lift in use and park another car in there.

No, I've more or less been talked into a four post. You're convincing me that I should stop looking at other brands.

Yeah? I don't want a 4-post, but I think it's because it's just soo stinking big. But if I can barely work around this little lift there's NO WAY a 4-post lift will work for me. When I get a real garage or shop, I want a twin post though. Mainly because that's what I'm used to from my days wrenching.

In reply to DrBoost:

The height is...average (without getting up & going down stairs). But it's a 2 car garage with one big door, that has a support in the middle (looks like a big jack used to shore up sagging floor beams, may or may not have been installed at the beginning.)

Not sure if the width makes a difference.

I've been putting together a garage lift buyer's guide for work. I'm up to part three right now and I admit I've learned a few things doing this project.

http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/How+To+Buy+A+Garage+Lift-208459.xhtml

I'm pretty much settled on a 4-post setup, but no idea what brand.

Very timely post, thanks! Moving into the new dream house at the end of the month and the lift will go in right after the floors are coated.

I have the same lift, although I didn't go the cheap route previously.

If there's one thing I wish the Bend Pak had that I've seen on other scissor lifts is a remote safety release as well as a couple of more catches for the height (not sure about Dr Boost's, but mine only has three height settings).

The seal on one of the rams is leaking as well, but the lift still works. I just make damn sure to NEVER get under the car unless it's on the catches and not being supported by the hydraulics except for the slpit second I have to reach under to flip the safety to lower the car.

I called the Bend Pak service number in CA and need to get them my ram's part #. Not sure if they'll sell me a rebuild kit or a new/rebuilt ram.

I bet that ram is not proprietary. You could probably bring it to a hydraulic place and they could rebuild it for you or at least sell you the parts so you could rebuild it yourself.

Every time one of these threads pops up I weep and gnash my teeth because my garage ceiling is so low.

DrBoost - thanks for the comparison writeup, that was very helpful!

nderwater wrote: Every time one of these threads pops up I weep and gnash my teeth because my garage ceiling is so low.

A low ceiling (~9') is why I have a mid-rise lift.

RossD wrote: I bet that ram is not proprietary. You could probably bring it to a hydraulic place and they could rebuild it for you or at least sell you the parts so you could rebuild it yourself.

Maybe... but that sounds like work... vs. making a phone call and having said parts shipped to me. But I'll look into it once the lift is free of broken cars.

nderwater wrote: Every time one of these threads pops up I weep and gnash my teeth because my garage ceiling is so low.

Same here, 8' ceiling. Meanwhile, my brother has 10' and no interest on a lift.

Slippery wrote:

nderwater wrote: Every time one of these threads pops up I weep and gnash my teeth because my garage ceiling is so low.

Same here, 8' ceiling. Meanwhile, my brother has 10' and no interest on a lift.

Mine's 7'6" to the rafters. If I drive the truck up on ramps and open the hood, it hits them.

The next house will be better....

In reply to Ian: I think my lift might have four catches? I never counted but yeah, the first time I used it I lamented the manual safety release and the amount you have to lower the lift to get to the next catch.
In reply to nderwater: I'll have to measure my ceiling, but it's just your standard garage built in the 50's. Our minivan has about a foot of clearance between the luggage rack and the rafters. But, I when I lift my Golf I can get the wheel centers to right about 45" off the ground. It's 1000% better than a jack and jack stands.
In reply to DJ06482: Glad it was helpful. I figure with this group of people, a comparo between the two cheapest lifts would be a good thing to have out there.

In reply to DrBoost:

When I do the raised floor and figure out where the lift will have a more permanent location, I'm planning to try rigging up a remote release. I just need to find a stranded cable that will fit inside the ton of bulk derailleur cable housing I have. In theory, it shouldn't be too hard.

So...it's been a couple of months. How's it working out?

(Starting to think about a scissor rather than a four post....)

Woody wrote: So...it's been a couple of months. How's it working out? (Starting to think about a scissor rather than a four post....)

It's good. Truth be told, every time I use it I wish I had a conventional two post but that's because I spent a decade wrenching under a two post. I can get the car high enough to stand comfortably and work on the brakes or suspension. Or for undercarriage things I can sit on my roll around seat. The only access issue is a RWD trans, or pulling exhaust. For the exhaust (or brake/fuel lines) though, I could just use the spacers to get the car higher off the lift to give me some room. I had issues with c-clips popping out of this lift and e-mailed BendPak. They were VERY responsive and made me new pins that were just a bit longer, but with holes for cotter pins. They sent these pins to me over night, even though I mentioned that it'd be at least a week before I do anything to it! Each one has to be 4-5 pounds so that wasn't cheap.
For $2,000 I'm happy. I posted my thoughts about the two lifts a while ago, now I'll add this to it. The first lift (the cheap knock off) would sort of crab-walk a bit each time the lift went up and down. This one stays put.

Thanks for the update.

I did a brake job, tire change and alignment on my four post this weekend...

I still can't make up my mind. Even though I never see myself doing an alignment, I'd love a four post, mainly so that I could store an extra car, but I know that I'd be cursing the damn thing every time I try to access the door to my basement. Fortunately, I only do that about 90 times per day...

It's great to see a report of a real user on those things. I was really tempted by those cheapo lifts at one point, and DrBoost's experience makes me really glad I didn't pull the trigger.

But I wounder why we don't see the smaller/cheaper lifts that they have in Europe? Those are just a few that I think are interesting:

Tilting lift for more access.

or

Lifting drive-on ramps.

or even

This flawed but cheap four post lift

Ignore the prices, because they are all in the UK, but they all seem like good solutions for the space- challenged diy-er.