The only total failure of a lift that I have ever heard of (I am
sure there have been others) was a lift from Lifts Unlimited where a
new Vette came down on top of another Vette, had pictures somewhere
but I cant find them now. The model was the Perfect Park 7000.
All other lifts I have heard of failing were like someone else
already financial reasons and not structural.
Lifts Unlimited (who did not build their own lifts but HAD their
design built by Eagle at one time, don't know about now), kept it all
pretty quiet, they found the reason the lift failed and sent out a
nice xerox copy of a handwritten note with a drill bit and some bolts
and a steel plate and lousy drawings on where to drill the holes and
bolt the plate in place saying only it would fix a potential weakness
in the design and rest assured it was safe. Yes, that is the model I
own and I was so upset with that poorly written and drawn note with
no reason why I should do it that I went on the web and found it on a
forum (about 4 years ago) with links to a Vette forum that had
pictures. Even the owner of the failed lift at the time claimed he
was keeping the lift after the company fixed it and his Vettes.
Basically the problem was that if one of the pulley's froze onto
the bolt/pivot due to rust/corrosion/1,000 other reasons, it would
back out the bolt and the cables would let go. The stops would grab
it and it did with the one that failed but not until it came down a
few feet and buckled one column from the force. The damage was caused
by the one buckled leg, the other 3 legs kept the damage to a
minimum. The fix was a metal plate to hold the bolts in place so
they can't back out. If you are active like I am in the car world
you will know that it is nearly a religious experience to discuss the
strengths/weaknesses of the C-channel lifts vs. the square-section
posts, I think either are fine, I am sure the squares have weaknesses
that the C's don't and vice-versa.
Yes, I feel safe under my lift and my Dino is usually under the
Singer which resides on top, you can bet I would not park my Dino
under the thing if I had any doubts, nor would I get under there if I did.
Mike
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