Mark and Susan Miller wrote:
> So. . . what should I buy, oh combined wisdom of the list?
I talk a lot about my list lately, so I wish I could give a long
answer here, but the lifts available around you will be different than
around me.
Since they are so heavy, shipping is a big consideration, so for me
the choice was easy since one company was close by and I liked the product.
So I didn't really shop around... but I'm happy with mine, a Hydra
Lift four post. It's a lot more solid than many I've seen. (the four
posts are steel I beams, rather than box sections made of thinner metal)
However, on the downside, mine has to be bolted to the floor, some
four posts just sit on the ground so you can install them faster and
move them a bit if plans change. I've heard of people rolling them out
into the driveway to pressure wash or sandblast the bottom of something.
To lower, it also requires the four locks to be opened manually,
rather than from a central handle with cables running through the unit.
However, this isn't a bad thing in a crowded garage, I've grown to
appreciate the manual check required on all four corners before lowering
the unit.
(ever seem what lowering a hoist onto a plastic toolbox can do? Not
pretty...)
If you have a lot of room though, you can buy a used lift from a
garage. A local distributor here had access to a few lifts, he sent me
to a couple of working garages to check out lifts that were about to
come out and be available.
However, the ex-commercial lifts are too wide to fit into one bay of
a typical garage, they take about 4-6 feet more. However, if you are
building a building from scratch, it might work, and there was good
money to be saved.
They are very solid, and sometimes have extra stuff like air-powered
safety latches, and accessories like drip or tool trays included.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
|