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4 post lift on the cheap?

F

fleabag

Banned
In my autoshop in highschool, my teacher told me that we couldn't replace the lifts because they're $10K a piece.. However I stumbled upon this:http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...at3960&topnav= when looking for tires for my mom's car and now I'm wondering what would be the reason why one couldn't use this in an automotive shop? This lift looks nearly identical to the lift it would replace so I don't really understand. It looks portable as well.
 
You don't have a lot of access to the underside of the car with those. That upper level usually consists of two ramps that the car is driven on and off of with an open area in the middle running lengthwise. I have a friend with a similar one and you might be able to change the oil in a car with it, but that is about all. They're really designed for storage.
 
boomerang said:
You don't have a lot of access to the underside of the car with those. That upper level usually consists of two ramps that the car is driven on and off of with an open area in the middle running lengthwise. I have a friend with a similar one and you might be able to change the oil in a car with it, but that is about all. They're really designed for storage.
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Hence the "parking and storage" in the description, right? 😛

Lifts aren't that expensive if all you need is something basic. http://www.directlift.com/HR8000-Two-Post-Lift-P51C8.aspx
 
It doesn't take the load off the suspension so you can't really do any work on the car that requires the suspension to come apart.

Also, I would be very wary of working underneath a cheap lift as I work on a car.

DivideBYZero said:
What tyres did you end up getting for your Mom?
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Does it really matter as long as they're inflated to sidewall?
 
Bignate603 said:
It doesn't take the load off the suspension so you can't really do any work on the car that requires the suspension to come apart.

Also, I would be very wary of working underneath a cheap lift as I work on a car.
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Yeah, and I'm pretty sure a high school would much rather not have a lift at all, than save a few bucks and have a minor get seriously injured or killed as a result. That's why high school kids don't get to do the purchasing!
 
Unless you hate your mother, I don't know why you would want to buy tires at Costco/Pep Boys/ Sams or anywhere else that only sells the shitty Chinese tires.

Unless you're doing experiments with inflating to sidewall and fully expect blowouts, I would look elsewhere.
 
Cepak said:
If you want a lift in which you can work on your car, try this one.

http://ezcarlift.com/

I found one on Craigslist for $900, but when I showed up to buy it, the guy had already sold it to someone else.
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It's rated to 4400 lbs. That's not enough margin for my taste (Lincoln Town Car, tipping the scales around 4000 lbs dry).

Those sub-2000 dollar two posters look nice. Might be one in my future if once I finish up my degree and have a garage to install it in.
 
LordMorpheus said:
It's rated to 4400 lbs. That's not enough margin for my taste (Lincoln Town Car, tipping the scales around 4000 lbs dry).

Those sub-2000 dollar two posters look nice. Might be one in my future if once I finish up my degree and have a garage to install it in.
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How many besides LordMorpheus drive Lincoln Town Cars? For a vehicle 3700 lbs (most cars) or less, it would work fine. Besides, you can take it apart, put it in your trunk, and go over to your buddies house and work on his car as well.
 
ayabe said:
Unless you hate your mother, I don't know why you would want to buy tires at Costco/Pep Boys/ Sams or anywhere else that only sells the shitty Chinese tires.

Unless you're doing experiments with inflating to sidewall and fully expect blowouts, I would look elsewhere.
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Costco sells Michelin and Goodyear tires? I dunno what you're talking about
 
Cepak said:
How many besides LordMorpheus drive Lincoln Town Cars? For a vehicle 3700 lbs (most cars) or less, it would work fine. Besides, you can take it apart, put it in your trunk, and go over to your buddies house and work on his car as well.
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Why would you want to use something at 90% of max spec with an average vehicle sitting on it? If redline is 6000 RPMs, do you run your vehicle constantly at 5500?

Unless it's actually good to 5000 lbs and only guaranteed to 4000 for liability reasons, I wouldn't want to use that thing at all.
 
BoberFett said:
Why would you want to use something at 90% of max spec with an average vehicle sitting on it? If redline is 6000 RPMs, do you run your vehicle constantly at 5500?

Unless it's actually good to 5000 lbs and only guaranteed to 4000 for liability reasons, I wouldn't want to use that thing at all.
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I've talked to the owner Boytcho Manev since I was seriously thinking about buying one and I had the same concerns. He said it will easily lift a 5400 lbs. vehicle, and in testing they lifted even heavier vehicles, but for liability reasons they will only guarantee the ez car lift for up to 4400 lbs. It is giving them a safety margin of more than 1000 lbs. Call and talk to him if you want more info. I've just been cruizing Craigslist trying to pick one up cheap.

On my vehicles that I would lift, that would give me a 32% and 53% safety margins.
 
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Gotcha, that's pretty cool then. I figured it might be something like that, but you never know because a lot of marketing shysters out there like to brag about numbers that are absolute maximums under ideal conditions.

Still, it would be nice to actually be able to lift a vehicle high enough to stand under for doing work, and also use it to store a car during winter. Somehow after being a one car family in a house with a one car garage, then buying a place with a large three car garage, I have suddenly found myself owning four cars. Fortunately I have a large, extra tall garage so I may get a full size lift one of these days.
 
BoberFett said:
Still, it would be nice to actually be able to lift a vehicle high enough to stand under for doing work, and also use it to store a car during winter.
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I agree, that would be nice. But my garage ceiling is only 9 ft., so I don't even think the posts of a 2 or 4 post lift will be short enough to stand up in my garage. That is why I like the ez car lift. I just don't like the price. If it were around $700 to $800 cheaper new, I'd probably buy one.
 
Throckmorton said:
Are there any 4 post lifts with the arms you put under the framerails? Those 2 post ones look dangerous
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I don't know why two post lifts would be a problem. The mechanic I use has 3 two-post lifts and they have no reservations about hoisting a multi-million-dollar Ferrari 512 (the 1970's racing car, not the two road cars that share the 512 designation) with it or even storing a vintage racer elevated on the two-post lift.

ZV
 
Zenmervolt said:
I don't know why two post lifts would be a problem. The mechanic I use has 3 two-post lifts and they have no reservations about hoisting a multi-million-dollar Ferrari 512 (the 1970's racing car, not the two road cars that share the 512 designation) with it or even storing a vintage racer elevated on the two-post lift.

ZV
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My question would be how stable it is longitudinally. Is it going to tip over and jam the nose into the ground if you don't have the car balanced correctly? I'm not materials engineer, maybe a few hundred pounds in either wrong direction isn't even going to be noticed by the anchor bolts, I just like the feeling of more than two legs when standing underneath a two ton object. 🙂
 
BoberFett said:
My question would be how stable it is longitudinally. Is it going to tip over and jam the nose into the ground if you don't have the car balanced correctly? I'm not materials engineer, maybe a few hundred pounds in either wrong direction isn't even going to be noticed by the anchor bolts, I just like the feeling of more than two legs when standing underneath a two ton object. 🙂
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I'm pretty sure that you'd have to be pretty spectacularly mis-aligned for there to be issues. I mean, this company doesn't seem to have issues with cars being pretty far off center.

ZV
 
My landlord has a 2 post lift. I think it's rated at 4 tons. Cost about 3,500 and will lift a vehicle high enough I can walk under it without bending over.

If it is installed right you won't worry about it tipping over. If you do a half assed job then it's going over.
 
ayabe said:
Unless you hate your mother, I don't know why you would want to buy tires at Costco/Pep Boys/ Sams or anywhere else that only sells the shitty Chinese tires.

Unless you're doing experiments with inflating to sidewall and fully expect blowouts, I would look elsewhere.
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I didn't realize Michelin were considered to be "shitty chinese tires".... I have not purchased any tires yet as I'm looking for a sale as these tires don't need to be performance and would like them to last a while.
 
$2,500 for a *good* 4 post drive on for home use. Pneumatic or electric/hydraulic main lift with hydraulic hand jacks that slide in between to lift the chassis and pick the wheels up. Some require an external air compressor for the main lift. They start getting pricey with pneumatic automatic safety locks and release systems and such.

At the least you definately want an automatic push button main lift and at minimum one hand powered sliding center jack. Drive on is good for doing quite a bit of suspension work that requires the suspension be loaded/neutral (sway bars, alignment, sub frame connectors, etc).
 
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