Hey Guys - I'm mostly a lurker on here but thought I would give my experience with purchasing a new lift since that always seems to be a hot topic.
Like many, I spent months scouring the web trying to decide which way to go : 2 post vs 4, China vs US, where the best deal, etc, etc.
I ended up going with a 4 post Bendpak - HD 9XW w/ castor kit - bought it thru Best Buy Automotive equip. I went that route because of the ability to move it to different bays and the ease of getting a vehicle on /off the lift vs the 2 post. I chose Bendpak because after all the reading I have done, they really do seem to be highest quality of the Chinese made lifts and appear to have a very good reputation for customer service. Its hard to find anything negative about Bendpak on the net.
The cost is only slightly higher than most of the other imports although once you start to add on some of the options the difference can become pretty substantial. That's why the only option I added was the castor set. I am going to poboy it and make my own jack trays and try out one of those airbag jacks......although I think I will spring for the US made version of that item since reading of some of the issues guys have had with the cheap ones.
Anyways, Best Buy was easy to deal with - called up , placed the order, asked when to expect shipping/delivery. The guy said 5-7 business days. He sent me tracking info the next day and it was actually in town (Houston) in 3 days. I used a 16 ft open trailer to go pick it up at the freight terminal.
I was a little concerned about shipping damage upon seeing the condition of some of the packaging, especially the box which contained the pump and reservoir as it was almost falling out of the wrapping at at that point. I looked it over though and couldn't find any damage so I signed off on it and took it home.
I unloaded it by myself using an engine hoist and furniture dollies with the only real difficulty being how to handle the 16 foot runways. The fact that the runways are loaded upside down was also the biggest challenge in assembling the lift but I got it done while taking my time over several days.
The other challenge to doing the assembly was the instructions - which are pretty poor. Not only are some of the critical steps not really spelled out clearly, but the illustrations are not much help. Luckily there are several helpful videos on Youtube which made things alot clearer. I'm an A&P mech by profession and it is actually a pretty simple mechanism consisting of a hydraulic pump operating one cylinder connected to 4 cables across pulleys and it all looks so obvious once it is together but it can be a little puzzling the first time you are trying to piece it all together properly.
One observation which is a little disconcerting is that once the lift is in use, the vehicle is raised, then lowered on to the safety stops - it is actually being totally supported by just the 4 lock ladders, which are appx 3/16 steel and are hanging by a 1/2 in bolt welded to the end of each. Obviously, the engineering has been done and I'm sure there is a large safety factor with regards to the tensile strength of the parts in question but I hope those are good welds! And if by some chance one of the welds did fail, then the weight would be supported by the cables so it is probably safer than it first appears - anyways, just an observation on my part.
A couple of complaints re: some of the hardware. The fasteners are all metric sized - more or less. The problem was that several of the bolts/nuts were a very sloppy fit to the appropriate wrench or socket - enough that I wasn't sure if they really were metric or SAE. In the end, I decided they really were metric but generally required using a six point socket as a 12 point was in danger of rounding them off. Not a big deal I guess, but just annoying. One other thing that did kind of piss me off was when I went to grease the shafts for the sheaves after I had run the cables. It seems the zerk fittings are some kind of odd size that is smaller than any that I have ever come across so a standard grease gun won't work. I even removed a couple with plans to just screw in some standard fittings but naturally the hole that they thread into is smaller too. If I hadn't already run the cables, I would have just removed the sheaves and drilled and tapped them for standard zerks but in the end I used various other adapters and was able to get them all to accept grease although it took longer and was much messier than need be.
One other annoyance I ran into during assembly was with the airlines for the lock release. Bendpak still includes compression fittings with the small brass ferules for the airlines. It is extremely easy to mess these up if you are not careful to hold the line straight out of the fitting while tightening the compression nut. The ferrule will get cocked and then start to pinch off the plastic line and be ruined. They really ought to switch to the push to connect style fittings which make life much easier and I'm sure couldn't really cost much if any more.
Anyways, other than the items mentioned, it seems like a pretty nice piece of equipment. It works great so far. I don't plan on bolting it down. I know there is debate about how safe these things are when used free standing and while there is no question it is safer when securely bolted I am satisfied that it is safe as is but definitely requires some extra care and common sense.
One other quick note to add. I have already used the casters to move it around the shop. I have seen threads where some guys had difficulty in moving theirs around but i was able to move it quite easily without a car on it. Can't comment on it yet with a car onboard but I could see where it might be considerably more difficult.
In the end, I would I would say I am satisfied with my choice. There are a few things they could improve on but overall I'd give it a thumbs up.
Like many, I spent months scouring the web trying to decide which way to go : 2 post vs 4, China vs US, where the best deal, etc, etc.
I ended up going with a 4 post Bendpak - HD 9XW w/ castor kit - bought it thru Best Buy Automotive equip. I went that route because of the ability to move it to different bays and the ease of getting a vehicle on /off the lift vs the 2 post. I chose Bendpak because after all the reading I have done, they really do seem to be highest quality of the Chinese made lifts and appear to have a very good reputation for customer service. Its hard to find anything negative about Bendpak on the net.
The cost is only slightly higher than most of the other imports although once you start to add on some of the options the difference can become pretty substantial. That's why the only option I added was the castor set. I am going to poboy it and make my own jack trays and try out one of those airbag jacks......although I think I will spring for the US made version of that item since reading of some of the issues guys have had with the cheap ones.
Anyways, Best Buy was easy to deal with - called up , placed the order, asked when to expect shipping/delivery. The guy said 5-7 business days. He sent me tracking info the next day and it was actually in town (Houston) in 3 days. I used a 16 ft open trailer to go pick it up at the freight terminal.
I was a little concerned about shipping damage upon seeing the condition of some of the packaging, especially the box which contained the pump and reservoir as it was almost falling out of the wrapping at at that point. I looked it over though and couldn't find any damage so I signed off on it and took it home.
I unloaded it by myself using an engine hoist and furniture dollies with the only real difficulty being how to handle the 16 foot runways. The fact that the runways are loaded upside down was also the biggest challenge in assembling the lift but I got it done while taking my time over several days.
The other challenge to doing the assembly was the instructions - which are pretty poor. Not only are some of the critical steps not really spelled out clearly, but the illustrations are not much help. Luckily there are several helpful videos on Youtube which made things alot clearer. I'm an A&P mech by profession and it is actually a pretty simple mechanism consisting of a hydraulic pump operating one cylinder connected to 4 cables across pulleys and it all looks so obvious once it is together but it can be a little puzzling the first time you are trying to piece it all together properly.
One observation which is a little disconcerting is that once the lift is in use, the vehicle is raised, then lowered on to the safety stops - it is actually being totally supported by just the 4 lock ladders, which are appx 3/16 steel and are hanging by a 1/2 in bolt welded to the end of each. Obviously, the engineering has been done and I'm sure there is a large safety factor with regards to the tensile strength of the parts in question but I hope those are good welds! And if by some chance one of the welds did fail, then the weight would be supported by the cables so it is probably safer than it first appears - anyways, just an observation on my part.
A couple of complaints re: some of the hardware. The fasteners are all metric sized - more or less. The problem was that several of the bolts/nuts were a very sloppy fit to the appropriate wrench or socket - enough that I wasn't sure if they really were metric or SAE. In the end, I decided they really were metric but generally required using a six point socket as a 12 point was in danger of rounding them off. Not a big deal I guess, but just annoying. One other thing that did kind of piss me off was when I went to grease the shafts for the sheaves after I had run the cables. It seems the zerk fittings are some kind of odd size that is smaller than any that I have ever come across so a standard grease gun won't work. I even removed a couple with plans to just screw in some standard fittings but naturally the hole that they thread into is smaller too. If I hadn't already run the cables, I would have just removed the sheaves and drilled and tapped them for standard zerks but in the end I used various other adapters and was able to get them all to accept grease although it took longer and was much messier than need be.
One other annoyance I ran into during assembly was with the airlines for the lock release. Bendpak still includes compression fittings with the small brass ferules for the airlines. It is extremely easy to mess these up if you are not careful to hold the line straight out of the fitting while tightening the compression nut. The ferrule will get cocked and then start to pinch off the plastic line and be ruined. They really ought to switch to the push to connect style fittings which make life much easier and I'm sure couldn't really cost much if any more.
Anyways, other than the items mentioned, it seems like a pretty nice piece of equipment. It works great so far. I don't plan on bolting it down. I know there is debate about how safe these things are when used free standing and while there is no question it is safer when securely bolted I am satisfied that it is safe as is but definitely requires some extra care and common sense.
One other quick note to add. I have already used the casters to move it around the shop. I have seen threads where some guys had difficulty in moving theirs around but i was able to move it quite easily without a car on it. Can't comment on it yet with a car onboard but I could see where it might be considerably more difficult.
In the end, I would I would say I am satisfied with my choice. There are a few things they could improve on but overall I'd give it a thumbs up.