[Fot] The garage mahal

[BillDentin at aol.com]

In a message dated 04/04/2008 11:02:45 AM Central Standard Time, 
bownes at seiri.com writes:


> Just a heads up...
> 
> I got my lift from a source that bears some investigation for our uses
> 
> My F-I-L worked for a company that installed lifts at car dealers. Turns out
> they replace them every few years and the old ones are ... thrown out or
> sold for scrap.
> 

Investigation might be a good word choice.  My first question would be why 
are these lifts being replaced and discarded every few years.  Is there a 
fatigue factor to be aware of?

The lift we bought new quite a few years ago is an Autolifters 9000C.  It's 
rated capacity is 9,000 pounds, and we are quite satisfied with it.  While it's 
a post jack lift, we've not had the problem Tim Murphy describes...getting 
the pickup points to accommodate unit body vehicles.  Our pickup arms extend 
pretty well (so far).  We've had our Chevy One Ton van on the hoist several 
times, and that's one lotta van.  We often use 'C Clamps' as a precautionary 
mechanical tie to help discourage any tipping.

The only issue we've had is sometimes the pickup points are not low enough to 
get under some cars (the Thunder Bolt in particular).  We have to lift one 
end a little when slipping the arms under.  We designed some alternative pick up 
points, and tried to get Autolifters to make them for us, but they wanted no 
part of making ANY alterations to their hoist.  I am sure what we had designed 
would have been just fine, and in fact we sure could have fabricated it 
ourselves, but to date we've not gotten around to it.

Bill Dentinger



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