Well, as of 8 pm pst I have a mostly functional BendPak MX-10AC
http://www.gesforless.com/product_info.isg?products_id=343 in my shop.
The good:
The lift fit perfectly in my space. 2" clearance on either side between the
lift columns and the rafters. 2.5" between the end of the roll-up door track
and the air reel. 1.5" between the top of the lift and the bottom of the
florescent tubes.
The lift arms fit perfectly to the lift points on the race car and the lift is
solid as a rock at full height with the car on it, very well balanced. The
whole lift/race car combo fits very well in the shop space - there is enough
room to walk/work between the rear of the car and the closed roll-up door.
There is a lot of room at the front, between the front of the car and the work
bench against the wall. The car can be taken to full height with the roll-up
open.
Many years ago I worked in my Dad's service station which had an in the ground
single center post hoist. What a nice difference these two post hoists are.
Lots of room to work under the car. The entire center section of the car is
open providing easy access to just about every component. No more wrenching my
back out rolling around on the creeper with the car on jackstands. No more
monkeying around with floor jacks and jack stands to get the car in the air
~1ft. I suspect this is going to be one of those "why didn't I do this sooner"
type deals. I think I may have a ceremonial burning of the creeper this
weekend.
The bad:
When I picked the lift up at the terminal the forklift driver did not use the
long forks, although there are no markings on the package that require it, the
package is 12' long. He had the short forks with a 2x4 across the tips and
when he took a second bite on the lift to "push" it farther onto the trailer,
the block did not stay on the fork tips. Instead of the lift being pushed
forward it resulted in a 1.5 foot gouge to one of the columns. I could have
refused the package at this point but I had my father in-law on his way up (3
hr. drive) to help me for two days, and I had taken some time off for the
install as well. I needed to get this job done this week so I accepted the
package. I can't really fault the forklift driver. The packaging of the lift
is very, poor. After I got it un-packed I discovered several areas of shipping
damage.
The manufacturing quality of this unit was absolutely terribly. Misaligned
brackets, bent plates, paint falling off with no evidence of any surface prep,
hydraulic hoses that are way too long, massive runs in the paint job, razor
sharp edges on some of the formings. I still have not got the safety chock
mechanisim working properly. They provide a small bottle of touch up paint but
I'm going to need a lot more of it. I realize that it is a piece of industrial
equipment but I expected a lot better quality for a $2500 unit. I will be
writing BendPak a letter with my concerns..... as soon as I calm down enough
to write a rational letter.
The instructions were very poor. I doubt seriously if they were written by
someone who had actually assembled one of these things. Major details were
left out that resulted in re-work to the tune of about 4 hours wasted.
I knew going into this thing that I probably would not be able to pivot the
arms under the race car, as the car has very low ground clearance. The
published minimum lift pad height is 4", the actual minimum lift pad height is
5.5". I think a 2x12 under each tire will give me enough room to position the
arms. I guess I need to mark the spots on the floor and put 2x12's down before
rolling the car into position. I can't drive the race car into position as it
is very hard to get out of the car (rollcage, race seat etc.) without being
able to fully open the door. So I just push it into position. Hopefully I can
push it up onto the 2x12's without too much trouble.
That's my story.
Wayne
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