I use 2 lift every day, one is a Mohawk, 25000 lb made in N.Y. the other is a Rotary, 12000 lb made in the USA also. I also have a 9000 lb rotary 4 post lift that the pulleys are wore out on,(not in use). The point is all lifts sold in the USA have to meet a certain spec, and they all have to be maintained, and inspected on a daily basis. Always remember it was not broken the last time I used it. Everything man made is going to fail at some point I have seen some of the less expensive lifts that I have felt safe under.,, I have also seen some of the good lifts that I would not get under for all the tea in China. Because nobody ever maintained them. I think the operator using the lift should know what they are doing, READ the instruction book, don`t just throw it on the bench, they have a lot of good info in them. Just do your home work and be safe. And for all of you that think the more you pay for a tool the better it is , some of us can`t afford the expensive stuff and have managed to get things done . Not everyone has deep pockets !!!
Here is what a guy I know that just got this lift has to say... I did a bunch of research on brands etc before I bought it. It seems really high quality. The brand is Direct Lift 7k 4-post and the other people I talked to with the same one had alot of good stuff to say about it. http://www.directlift.com/propark7.htm I picked it up in Temecula at Quality Tool and Equipment for $1495...by the time I paid tax/gas I have like $1750 in it or you can go this route...
i can honestly see that being done in lebanon, indiana. especially when i look out my back window..... i have some really redneck neighbors.
That's one BIG reason I did not buy a lift with welded blocks. Most of the better (more expensive) lifts use the ladder system. If the cable fails on the one I bought, the slack releases the SECOND safety latch. The welded block models that I've seen do not have the second latch, not to mention that the quality of the welds on some of the blocks were pretty bad on the ones I examined. That's why I say, do your homework. Go to the link I posted earlier, it shows the difference. Oh, and BTW, I got these safety features and I paid what your friend paid for his "cheap" one. I have a friend who paid twice as much as I did, and granted, there are some things that seem better on his, like the extra lip for a rolling jack,but they are NOT necessary for my use since I'm not willing to pay another $1000 for a rolling jack and don't need it if you use my aforementioned method. The only other real difference is that his aproach ramps "droop" when it is up in order to form wheel chocks. That's nice until you try to work around it and keep running into them. Mine stick straight out when up, I even added a little brace behind them to keep them from drooping at all.
but is that spec good enough? tools/machinery sold at a consumer level DO NOT meet the same safety standards as equipment sold for commercial use.
That's true, and very few, if any, of the cheaper lifts (including mine I think) are ANSI aproved, like the commercial lifts are. That's why it's VERY important to do the research and try to see the lift you're buying before purchasibg it. I wasn't able to do that, but did enough research to be very happy with my purchase, since if I had had to pay twice as much, I probably wouldn't have a lift at all.
The Jalopy Journal
