[Shop-talk] DannMar MaxJax ?

[Eric J Russell]

Ask yourself what sort of work you'll be wanting to do on your car. If mostly
wheels off/brake work then I think a scissor lift will meet your needs. But if
you need to get to the underside of the vehicle I think the scissor lift will
be frustrating.

Do you have room for a four post lift? Even if you don't have the ceiling
height to park a second vehicle underneath, you'll find it very useful for
lifting a car to working height. A rolling seat could be used if you can't
lift the car high enough to walk under (I have 11'8" ceiling in the garage).
All four post lifts I've looked at come with or have available a 'jacking
bridge' that spans the ramps to allow you place a jack under the car to lift
it & remove the wheels. The posts do not need to be bolted down and can even
be moved with castor kits (again either included or extra-cost options). The
7,000 - 9,000 lb capacity lifts I looked at do not require anything special as
far as the concrete floor. To avoid having a garage door opener hanging down
above the lift I used a jack-shaft door opener (mounts to the wall above/to
the side of the door's header).

I'm not trying to talk you out of a scissor lift - I just see them as having
limitations - more a single purpose tool. For example I just finished
replacing the steering rack, tie rod ends & castor rod bushings in our Alfa
Romeo GTV6. In the olden days (pre-lift) I'd have been lying on my back with
the car on ramps/jack stands. Every time I needed a different tool I'd have to
slide out from under the car, struggle to get up (this getting old sucks) then
get back down and slide under the car again. With the car up on the lift &
front wheels removed I was working at a comfortable height and could simply
walk over to the tool box for tools as needed. I do not think that job would
have been do-able with the car on a scissor lift as I needed full access to
the underside back to about 2 feet behind the front axle & the exhaust system
had to be removed, too.



As for sources for any type of lift, look for a local distributor and make
sure to include shipping fees to know the actual total investment. If shipped
to a residential address you may have to pay extra. If shipped to a business
address it might be less. If you can pick it up yourself from a local
distributor you might be able save a lot. I bought my lift from a distributor
in Raleigh - about 30 miles away. I also had a choice of another company's
products from a distributor in Greensboro (about 30 miles in the other
direction). The company I bought from worked with me to get a good price. They
had the model lift I wanted at their warehouse in Florida. If I was willing to
wait a couple of weeks until they had a truck bringing product from there to
Raleigh I would not have to pay additional shipping costs. I then picked up
the lift from their Raleigh location and avoided further shipping fees.

Eric Russell
Mebane, NC
http://home.mebtel.net/~ejrussell
----- Original Message -----

> Any strong opinions/advice/recommendations on scissors lifts?   I am
> reviewing the archives here and on GarageJournal, but am now back at the
> beginning of the selection process...

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of lifted 01.jpg]