Recent content by utahrock

Thanks for the encouragement. I'd love to be able to make a production run. If we can make them fit some popular lifts, maybe we'll be able to. I've written to Jeff but haven't heard back, yet. Hopefully I will and I can look at a BendPak and try it out.

I'll do it - thanks. I need to look at a BendPak lift. We are in Utah. If anyone has a lift located from Salt Lake to Ogden and they'd be willing to let me take a look please contact me.

There is not much sideways force on the forks compared to how thick and wide they are. The force is roughly in the middle of the forks so there is much less leverage than if it was at the ends. Nevertheless I did the strength analysis assuming the force was out near the ends. There is some...

Yes, it is very conservative and I am sure it would go higher safely. I guess I was so conservative because I can't find any vehicles I want to lift with the adaptors that weigh more than 5,000 lbs. anyway. I sized them to fit perfectly on car tires (specifically sports car tires) and...

The original arms were longer than on most lifts, so even now that they are cut shorter I can still easily reach the lift points on my Avalanche and the several four-door cars that I've tried.

Re: Full-droop storage That's only on the rear. The front wheels are a little over 600 lbs. each. Still, you're right, a 993 turbo is not a light car...

The arms don't used hardened steel. They appear to be just regular rectangular welded tube. They get their strength and stiffness by just using thick walls. So they were very easy to cut with a bandsaw and easy to weld end plates on.

Good question on aluminum fatigue. I've been designing rock climbing and technical rescue equipment for a long time (see my homepage if you're interested) and most of it is aluminum because weight is important. The right alloy in the right use doesn't suffer from worries about fatigue. In...

I bought my car last spring and during its life it had apparently been jacked up with non-Porsche jacks and some of the jack points were bent a little. I could still use them, but the pegs don't fit very well. So I decided to use the polyurethane and they don't allow any movement.

Thanks for the comments. I did consider using a method to tie the ends of the forks together. But it is not necessary. The top and bottom plate have recesses machined into them that the forks fit into, so they are held with those recesses plus the bolts and it is very strong. Regarding...

Well, of course you can't. But I just say that to avoid confusing the Great Unwashed Masses who can't conceive of a car that takes 10 quarts of expensive synthetic and has two oil filters and four drain plugs (I have a turbo and each turbo has it's own drain plug in addition to the one on the...

Some people say that suspension components can be damaged by hanging for a long time since they weren't designed for that. I think it probably depends on the car. I like the adaptors so much that I usually use them. If I need to take off only certain wheels, for example on my 911 the right...

I turned the pads on a lathe. I used 12L14 steel because its very easy to machine. I just bought a chunk at mcmaster.com. Any other questions, just ask.

I saw the Mohawk adaptors and it would have been easier to just buy them, but I couldn't quite do it. I think mine are better - they are light and easy to install and remove and they fit the tires of my cars so the tires have maximum support by resting on a flat surface and not on an edge...

I used a bandsaw to cut the arms. I held the arms at a 45 degree angle and slowly fed the blade down until it was fully in the cut. I was afraid the blade might bow out but it worked great. If it did bow I was just going to grind it flat, but that wasn't necessary.