Turbodan

thanks John I was planning on calling you in a week or two to check out your setup.

The Stig

Reconsidering the Maxjax and the mid-rise scissor lift. Most of them aren't ALI or ANSI certified. At least not the ones I can afford or the ones that will fit. Back to the drawing board.

You guys might want to check out this comparison. Especially the section on two post lifts. Scary.

http://www.astudyinliftdesign.com/index.html

IXLR8

You'd think there would be required standards for anything from a bottle jack to a car lift.

Onami

Thanks for posting that Stig!

Overdraft, how did you handle the delivery and install of your Bendpack?

Turbodan

where is bendpack made?

Benny771

After giving bendpak, atlas,Dannmar a call and talking to one of their sales guys.......
Most of the pieces if not all of the lift is made in China.
Bendpak was the hardest to get the truth out of. They do say that their standards for their chinese manufactures are much tighter than anyone elses.....lol.
When i asked them to prove it somehow they had no way to do this. So, its BS.
As far as advise, get yourself something that is at least 10 years old. Or china it will be. With all of them.
I spent hours on the phone.

Onami

Yep, I've researched this extensively and they are all made in China. Bendpack gets the best reviews, but they are about $1K more than direct lift with similar options. They also require compressed air to work their release mechanisms. Direct lift gets very good reviews from users also, but price seems to be the driver with this lift more than anything esle. Everytime I've approached them their sales folks have left me feeling like they could really care less if I bought one...

Giovanni

Bendpak will tell you that all their lifts (100%) are made in the USA although some of their models comes directly from China. Do a google search, there are numerous posts about this...

I read somewhere that household lifts are not certified. If you want the lift to be certified then you need to buy an expensive commercial lift made in the USA that may or may not a "made in China" sticker. I had a low budget so I purchase a used China lift on CL for $1200. You can't beat that!

The Stig

Isn't that a good thing? Less likely to have a failure? I've spent countless hours on the garagejournal forum snooping around and I'm no further ahead.

For now, I'm sick of crawling around on the floor under the 964 with little or no clearance. In the short term, a mid-rise lift is fine. But none of them, other than the Mohawk mid rise ($6,000) is ALI/ANSI certified. That's a huge price and the unit is clearly over-engineered. But then so are our cars!

The next option is a four post lift, if I intend to get another car (if wifey lets me). But I've got garage height limitations. And again, as a PP mentioned you've got to buy the $3,000+ version if you want certification.

May just have to cross my fingers and hope the cheap Chinese one doesn't fall on my head.....

Overdraft

When in the market, I specifically looked for a Canadian made lift. After calls not returned and exhausting that idea, searched for a US option as the next best thing and found a few - choosing Benk Pak primarily based on the dimensions and ratings of the unit. I only considered ALI certified and beware that not all units, amongst all manufacturers, are ALI certidfied.

As it was explained to me at the time, many of the components to Bend Pak are made in the US, but the frame/ structure is made in China. I agree with the BendPak rep who told another poster they they are of high quality - as I was quite pleased with the welds and the standard of the metal that arrived at my place. The compressor required is a simple unit (+- $50.00) at Home Depot that will apply minimum 20 lbs of pressure to the air line in order for the safety brakes to release...not a big deal. The BC dealer has a network of guys for install and I helped them put it together which was in the order of 10 manhours (5 hours two men).

My 2nd choice was Rotary that had a nice ALI certified lift as well with good national install network. Both of the units are similarly priced as I recall - certainly only a couple hundred dollars apart.

Having a lift is awesome....a blast to work on my cars with it - and presents your cars beautifully if you like to look at them like I do. I ended up doing my garage over with new flooring, tire mounting units, paint, cabinets, invisible audi with volume control, lighting, revise trusses, drywall, garage doors (side jack) ...so not an inexpensive undertaking if you are of weak disposition like me but much of the work I did myself and found it a nice diversion from the realities of the office.

Radcap

I purchased and had installed by them (the Direct-Lift folks) a Direct-Lift Pro Park 8 . I have had it a year and it has been Fantastic. My insurance company was onboard with this manufacturer due to the certification that comes with them(Gold ALI/ETL/ANSI) and I am overall very pleased.

Highly recommended.

Rod,

Nooch

+1 for Direct Lift from ADG in Mississauga.....if anyone wants to come over and check it out, feel free......oh yah, no affiliation,blah,blah,blah

The Stig

I had a look at Jim's set-up today. Mid Rise Scissor from Direct/ADG. I'm sold on that one, fellas. After looking at it in action, it was a pretty easy decision. Certification be damned. Good build quality and neat operation.