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Nothing to add from personal experience, and I'm leaning towards a 2-post lift or in-floor style lift table rather than a four-post, but Garage Journal has some really detailed discussions on this topic...
Great info, Im also in the market for alift but was leaning towards a 2 post so its easier to remove wheels and work under it. I first have to work on changing my garage door rails and putting in a side mount opener. But will keep an eye on this thread. Thanks
I owned the Bendpak lift you are looking at, and it is fine. My only issue with the lift was the pneumatic actuators used to disengage the safety locks on the lift. I had more than one of the pheumatic cylinders leak or develop leaks over the years. And, of course, to use the pheumatics, you have to have a pressurized air system. Turned out to be a PITA design feature, IMO.
Which brings me to the "cons" of owning a four poster. First, if you have a tight multi-car garage, the extra two posts and runways produce a "claustrophobic" feeling. My wife was always concerned about clipping the post closest to the door when she entered or exited the garage.
The second con is that servicing your car is much more difficult with the four poater. This is because the runways impede your access to the bottom of the car. And, you may find out the hard was (as did I), that you cannot lower a 911 engine between the two runways. I had the runways set in the widest position for my BendPak and was still lacking about 4 inches clearance to drop the engine out of my 993. I had to remove both mufflers to gain the needed clearance.
Another major con is that you cannot service tires or brakes with the car's wheels resting on the runways. You have to use a bottle jack to raise the car in order to get the wheel to be free spinning.
Pros are that getting a car onto a 4 post lift is easier than positioning a car for a 2 poster.
So, when I moved, I sold my 4 poster and purchased a narrow bodied Rotary 2 poster. The lift requires slightly less than 12 feet in width which makes it good for a multi-car residential garage. I installed my lift in the center bay of a 3-car garage to make best use of the higher ceiling in that section of the garage. With only 2 posts, my wife has absolutely no problems getting her car in and no longer feels claustrophobic.
And, when I am not using the lift, I raise it to maximum height which frees up garage floor space.
The single con of the 2 poster is that you have to position the car pretty much centered between the posts and that you need to get on your knees to properly see to position the 4 lifting arms.
So, having owned both designs, I would recommend purchasing the 2 post lift over the 4 poster.
I highly advise staying away from Bandpak. My brand new 4 post BendPak lift arrived in horrible condition with nothing but problems and customer service at BendPak was absolutely terrible. FWIW, I'm never the type to complain about a product. Heck, I did not even call BendPak to let them know their poor packaging caused spray paint to go all over my garage causing thousands of dollars of damage. They are not the company they once were. I don't know if their 4 post consumer lifts are made in China or the USA but the quality is certainly not on par with USA made products. Issues:
1) The 4 post lift arrived completely beat up looking as if it were 10 years old and used in a commercial shop for the last 10 years. The packaging does not protect the lift at all. A quick search around car forums shows loads of complaints about the same issue.
2) Customer service - BendPak did not care and blamed all issues on anyone and everyone else. It took weeks of my time and loads of pone calls and emails to get BendPak to send me free touch up paint. Unfortunately, I can't paint the lift to look like new so my new lift still looks horrible.
3) BendPak 4 post lifts come with ramps which are not suitable for any sports car. Their ramps are short and tall and apparently made for an SUV. My 997 Turbo has absolutely no chance of driving up the lift. I tried my GT350 and Audi and none could make it up the ramp without taking the front bumper off the car. Only my SUV could go up the ramp without bottoming out. You have to buy the super expensive optional aluminum ramps which are 1 foot longer than the included ramps. No, BendPak will not allow you credit for the useless ramps included with the lift.
4) The above mentioned extended Bendpak aluminum ramps are terrible quality. Mine are already bending from the weight of sports cars.
5) When my lift was installed, one of the lift cables snapped off the very first time I put a car on the lift. My car started to fall and fortunately the locks caught it. It was the fault of the installer BUT the way the lifting cables attach to the lift is an extreme weak point IMO. One single small screw is all that holds the lift cables to the lift.
6) BendPak sent me touch up paint allowing me an attempt at fixing my completely beat up lift. They sent me the extended ramps in the same package. They left the aerosol paint cans completely loose in the box and left them to roll around inside the box with the 40+ pound aluminum ramps. I opened up the box only to find the ramps put a hole in one of the touch up spray paint cans so paint started spraying all over my garage. Apparently a ramp was plugging the hole in the can of spray paint and it started spraying everywhere when I lifted the ramp out of the box. The paint ruined my cloths, my garage floor, and was all over one of my cars. The paint completely ruined my paint protection film on the car but fortunately the PPF saved the car. I had to have new PPF installed because of the inept people in the shipping department at BendPak.
7) My lift leaked air like crazy from every fitting on the lift. Air is needed to release the locks on BendPak lifts. The installer told me this is normal and they all leak. After loads of phone calls BendPak sent me new compression fittings for my brand new lift. Guess what? They sent the wrong fittings. They did not come close to fitting my lift. After more phone calls, posting videos, and finally talking to the head of customer service, I received more new fittings. They did not fit the lift either. I called my installer and they swapped out all my fittings from parts on their truck no thanks to BendPak.
8) My lift showed up with missing and broken zerk fittings. You must keep the BendPak lift bearings in the pulleys greased and oiled. I was unable to do this on many of the pulleys because the grease fittings were missing and/or broken. Again, many painful calls to Bendpak later, they sent me the wrong replacement fittings that did not fit my lift. Apparently they are not familiar with their own lifts. I had to find the proper fittings on my own.
9) The hydraulic cylinder leaked oil all over my GT350 hood. Fortunately, the PPF on the hood was easily cleaned and no damage was done. I discovered this and moved my cars out from under the lift. You realize this resulted in less parking rather than more. I had to call BendPak yet again. I sent more photos and videos and 4 or so calls later they realized this was indeed a problem.
I don't think my lift is a year old yet. During all these calls to BendPak, I was treated like I was bothering them. They could not care less about the poor quality of the product I received. They had the attitude that I should be happy their product graced my presence.
I have zero confidence in my 4 post Bendpak lift. As I raise the lift the posts start to lean outward. As I lower the lift, the posts start to lean inward. I'm sure I could screw the lift to my floor and it would fix this but I have no intention of doing this. I don't trust the cables. I'm waiting for one to fly off again. I simply don't feel comfortable with this lift in my garage. What I'd like to do is start over with a higher quality brand lift and a company with customer service who cares. I've never had a worse customer service experience with any product in my entire life. If I could return this lift, I would do it in a heartbeat.
I have heard that the quality of the BendPak lift has gotten worse. Perhaps because it is now produced in China?
But, I have a similar tale about my Rotary lift. I paid what I believe is about a 25% premium to buy the Rotary 2 post lift, which was produced in the USA. When the lift was erected in my garage, the height of the lift arms differed right to left by about 1 inch. The company did not hesitate to stand behind their product, except that I had to wait a month for replacement arms. When I questioned the Customer Service rep for a reason for the delay, I was told that the new arms had to come from China! So, my "made in USA" lift was assembled in the USA from parts fabricated in China.
Towards the end of my waiting period, Rotary offered to replace my entire lift instead of waiting on the arm. I deferred and the replacement arm finally materialized and fit perfectly.
I owned the Bendpak lift you are looking at, and it is fine...
Thank you, earossi. This is just the kind of feedback I've been looking for. And overall, it seems to be a good review for Bendpak.
I'm not worried about the need for compressed air as I built my garage with a 220v outlet and compressed air outlet right where the lift motor will be in the garage.
I'm using this lift for both storage and service so, that really makes the 4-post the best design for my purposes. Plus, I'm ordering the lift with a hydraulic rolling jack that will make servicing wheels, brakes, suspension an cinch.
The one thing you mentioned that concerns me a bit is that you said you couldn't drop the engine on your 993, but then you said you just had to take the exhaust off. So you can lower the engine, you just need to remove the exhaust?
I'm guessing that if your 993 is the 3.6L then our engines are the same size...
Originally Posted by Car Crazy
I highly advise staying away from Bandpak. ...
Who is to say that if I were to choose another company that I wouldn't be subject to the same issues? As earossi points out, he had issues with both Bendpak and Rotary. It sounds like you had a really bad experience and I'm sorry that the company didn't stand up for their product and provide better costumer service. But I appreciate your feedback and you have certainly caused me to second guess my decision to purchase Bendpak.
I'm guessing that if your 993 is the 3.6L then our engines are the same size...
lol no, that's a 993 3.6L NA air-cooled engine, you have a 3.6L bi-turbo watercooled engine. There's nearly 15 years between them, way way way different.
I don't know the exact dimensions of either but engine displacement has very little (if any) to do with the overall size of an engine.
Who is to say that if I were to choose another company that I wouldn't be subject to the same issues? As earossi points out, he had issues with both Bendpak and Rotary. It sounds like you had a really bad experience and I'm sorry that the company didn't stand up for their product and provide better costumer service. But I appreciate your feedback and you have certainly caused me to second guess my decision to purchase Bendpak.
You are 100% correct. No product is ever perfect. It is how a company handles an imperfect product that counts. Bendpak did not stand behind their product and instead blamed the dealer and the shipper for their poor quality and packaging. The dealer was disgusted with the way Bendpak handled this. Bendpak pointed the finger at everyone and insisted they were perfect. All I knew was I had a non functional lift with loads of problems and Bendpak was busy pointing fingers and would not take ownership of a single problem. Leaking air fittings, missing zerk fittings, leaking fluid, etc were all my problem, not theirs. On the other hand, earossi's story about Rotary demonstrated a company taking ownership of their problem and making it right. Trust me, if you get a Bandpak and have any problems, you are on your own. And note you cannot use the standard BendPak ramps with your 997. If you get a Bandpak, I advise upgrading the hardware in the bracket area where the cables connect to the lift. I'd also recommending bending the brackets to catch more of the cables.
A picture is worth a thousand words. That is not an illusion. The cable snapped off the lift and the whole lift is leaning toward the wall. very scary moment. Note the SUV is on the lift because none of my cars were able to get up the yellow ramps you see in the background. As I said the standard ramps make the car bottom out.
...
A picture is worth a thousand words. That is not an illusion. The cable snapped off the lift and the whole lift is leaning toward the wall. very scary moment. Note the SUV is on the lift because none of my cars were able to get up the yellow ramps you see in the background. As I said the standard ramps make the car bottom out.
I own a bend pak; it's the hd9xw. I won't speak to the quality or customer service bc mine has been fine. I would say that wider is preferred especially if you turn to park under it rather than come strait in. The other thing is max height is better for really getting it up out of the way. If you can walk fully upright under it, it's much nicer. 220 significantly faster so that was smart prep.
A picture is worth a thousand words. That is not an illusion. The cable snapped off the lift and the whole lift is leaning toward the wall. very scary moment. Note the SUV is on the lift because none of my cars were able to get up the yellow ramps you see in the background. As I said the standard ramps make the car bottom out.
I bought the Race Ramps 48" Ramps for my BackYard Buddy lifts. Even the lowest of cars do not drag. They are super lightweight, also.
I only needed one pair of the ramps though, as I never move more than one vehicle off the lifts at a time
It's been a while since I provided my opinion of lifts. Having owned both a 4 and 2 post lift, I still believe that for a Porsche, the 2 poster is the superior choice.
Be aware that you can easily store a car on a 2 post lift. I have done that for the last year when I installed the lift. The only issue might be if you want to store a leaking car above another car. For the 4 posters, there are drip pans that can be purchased to capture any drips. Since the arms can move on a 2 post lift, they don't lend themselves to a standard drip pan. Having said that, it would be a fairly simple project to come up with a system to capture drips on a 2 poster. Fortunately, since my car does not leak at all, I've never seen the need for a drip capture system.
In summary, if you are simply looking for a system to store a car, then a 4 poster would be the most cost effective solution for your needs. But, if you plan on servicing your cars, the 2 post lift is clearly superior for any mechanical work on your car.
I saw that one poster mentioned that the suspension would sag on a car stored on a two post lift. Given that winter storage usually involves putting a car on jack stands, it is not credible that the suspension would sag any more on a 2 post lift than on jack stands.
I built my garage and had the ceiling set at slightly over 12 feet above the slab, which is what you'll need for most lifts. I was also able to find a Rotary lift that was almost 1 foot narrower than most of the other available lifts. Though positioning a car to be lifted is a little "tight", I have been able to lift cars as wide as my Mercedes ML SUV, which weighs over 5,000 pounds.
If your garage is "tight" then a 2 poster that is narrow will fit nicely.
09-10-2017, 11:55 PM
