My new lift

#21

And that, boys and girls, is a SpecE30 up on a lift.

#22

Down with the Chinese crap! Not only am I done with HF but im done buying Northern and Sears as well.

#23

Agree, my $200 aluminum CrapsMan racing jack failed after 2 years. It decided to fail when i had the car up on it, luckily I had a jack stand under there. Time to look for a quality replacement, it’s not worth getting injured due to cheap equipment.

#24

Ranger, You should have come by Tom’s house and saw our lift. It wasn’t cheap even used, but for lack of a better description, it’s a giant pallet forklift! It’s made by BendPak, so it’s good and very heavy. It wheels around just like a big pallet handtruck and has “fingers” that go all the way under the car.

Looking for a picture and if I find it, I’ll post!

Like this but much heavier duty looking!

#25

My Harbor Freight engine hoist doesn’t stay up. That was a real pita the last couple of times I had to mate engine with tranny. And it was a pita this past week as I moved an engine block around and disassembled it.

I finally resolved to do something about it last night. I pulled the ram off and put it in the trunk of the car. I figured that I’d call up HF and if I didn’t like what I heard I could take the ram to the same local hydraulic shop that repaired the lift’s ram.

The downside of getting the ram repaired is that a new lift can be bought on sale for only $100, so I didn’t know if spending that much for the repair was wise.

So I called up HF this morning and talked to some Indian lady. She sold me a replacement ram for $25 + $8 to ship the 30 lb beast. $25 for a hydraulic ram? $8 to ship a 36" long 35lb box? Dang! Those Chinese are so going to kick our asses.

What especially amused me about the conversation with the Indian lady, who’s English was better and less accented than mine even if the call quality was rough, is that she pronounced “three” as “tree”, as all good USMC radio operators are taught. 30yrs ago, when you were on a radio net and heard someone that pronounced 3 as “tree” it told you that someone on the net was squared away and could be depended upon to keep their shit wired tight. As the Indian lady did.

#26

My HF engine hoist also leaks profusely and wont stay up. I have to top it off before every use. I figured I would eventually get a good ram. One with a chrome plated piston like any good shock absorber or hydraulic ram ever made has. You can’t expect a seal to work with bare iron piston covered in lathe marks. Northern has the same thing as hf painted red. I suggest you go the fleet farm or tractor supply or whatever is closest and buy a ram that will last 50 years.

#27

jhall1957 wrote:

[quote]Ranger, You should have come by Tom’s house and saw our lift. It wasn’t cheap even used, but for lack of a better description, it’s a giant pallet forklift! It’s made by BendPak, so it’s good and very heavy. It wheels around just like a big pallet handtruck and has “fingers” that go all the way under the car.

Looking for a picture and if I find it, I’ll post!

Like this but much heavier duty looking! [/quote]

I searched all over the bendpak website and couldn’t find anything like that. Do you have a link?

#28

Ive been thinking about just getting a 4 post lift so that I can store the e30 on the top and still have room for another car under it, while still allowing the little lady a spot in the garage. And with the added jacking point you can lift the car off the lift to do brakes and tires and such, and the entire center of the car is accessible underneath. I was looking at a bendpak, and backyard buddy but there are a few other cheaper ones, from china, that im looking at too. Any one have any suggestions on those?

#29

lmoorefx wrote:

We’ve got a 4 post in our shop. It is pretty handy for certain jobs and for storing cars, but if we had it to do all over we would have gone with a 2 post. You can still store one car up in the air, and it will be a much better lift when it comes time to service the car. We’ve been seriously thinking about adding a two post to the other side of the shop. Dannmar makes an affordable asymmetrical 2 post. Our 4 post is a Dannmar and has been problem free for 3 or 4 years now.

If you are thinking about a lift stop thinking and pull the trigger. It will pay for itself within a year!!