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Re: Car Lifts

To: Mark and Susan Miller <marknsuz@pacbell.net>, shop-talk@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: Car Lifts
From: Trevor Boicey <tboicey@brit.ca>
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 00:58:47 -0500
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/






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