icnsltmfg
09-20-2007, 08:41 AM
A few people have asked me to give a quick review of the Direct Lift Pro Jack 4500 that I purchased from Greg Smith to go with my Pro Park 9 lift. Since I am still working on the garage, I have only had some limited use of it so far.
Most 4 post lifts come with a bottle jack platform that slides in between the ramps. It is usually a big hunk of steel without wheels, so it is difficult to move around. They also require you to have some lifting point BETWEEN the ramps.
While I do not do the same heavy wrenching as many, I do enough brake jobs to justify getting the Pro Jack while I was able to pick up the lift at the warehouse.
The unit is VERY heavy and needed the engine hoist to get it off of the truck and onto the lift. The fist thing you will notice is the smoothness and lack of effort required to move this thing as it sits on steel wheels. It does have a lock to hold in place. The roller platform is also adjustable for width so it prob would fit on other lifts.
The lifting mech is quite good, and functions smoothly (yet I did have to tighten one of the hydro lines.) From full down to full lift is not too many pumps, yet has short enough strokes for precision lifting. There are no instructions that comes with the unit, and it took me a bit to figure out how to lower the unit. Even though you open the dump valve, there is a mech safety that must be disengaged. While not German engineered, the safety does do it's job.
The jack also has arms that pull out INDEPENDENTLY for length differences. They also include several lifting point extensions for almost any hight vehicle. I needed the versatility of a VERY low profile unit to fit under the Ferrari, yet one that is tall enough to lift up the Range Rover. The large lifting pads have a rubber pad, and the unit also has a place to store the extensions when not being used.
The only thing that was not great was the paint job, but it looks like there is enough paint on all areas to avoid rust, and a can of rustolium will work just fine.
Again for me, I was already down at the warehouse with a truck 3 hrs from home, and they gave me a great package deal so I picked it up and made my lift a much more effective tool for me.
Most 4 post lifts come with a bottle jack platform that slides in between the ramps. It is usually a big hunk of steel without wheels, so it is difficult to move around. They also require you to have some lifting point BETWEEN the ramps.
While I do not do the same heavy wrenching as many, I do enough brake jobs to justify getting the Pro Jack while I was able to pick up the lift at the warehouse.
The unit is VERY heavy and needed the engine hoist to get it off of the truck and onto the lift. The fist thing you will notice is the smoothness and lack of effort required to move this thing as it sits on steel wheels. It does have a lock to hold in place. The roller platform is also adjustable for width so it prob would fit on other lifts.
The lifting mech is quite good, and functions smoothly (yet I did have to tighten one of the hydro lines.) From full down to full lift is not too many pumps, yet has short enough strokes for precision lifting. There are no instructions that comes with the unit, and it took me a bit to figure out how to lower the unit. Even though you open the dump valve, there is a mech safety that must be disengaged. While not German engineered, the safety does do it's job.
The jack also has arms that pull out INDEPENDENTLY for length differences. They also include several lifting point extensions for almost any hight vehicle. I needed the versatility of a VERY low profile unit to fit under the Ferrari, yet one that is tall enough to lift up the Range Rover. The large lifting pads have a rubber pad, and the unit also has a place to store the extensions when not being used.
The only thing that was not great was the paint job, but it looks like there is enough paint on all areas to avoid rust, and a can of rustolium will work just fine.
Again for me, I was already down at the warehouse with a truck 3 hrs from home, and they gave me a great package deal so I picked it up and made my lift a much more effective tool for me.