http://autolift.org/members.html
Sorry about the bad link...I did that once before..You would think I'd remember it!
My personal experience is that there are several companies out there that have gone "belly-up" and come back again under a different name. There's an area of Ft. Worth Texas that has several lift manufacturers...and they go in and out of business more frequently than I change underwear...
Last time I checked there were about 75 "Above Ground Lift Manufacturers" in the U.S. Most are small "mom & pop" type operations or make lifts as a sideline to their standard core business. (Ie. Manitowac Lifts in WI makes a good quality lift, but their primary business is steel fabrication). Some others, ie. Tuxedo Lifts, Eagle Lifts, Direct Lifts, etc. are strictly importers of Chinese manufactured lifts.
The "commercial grade" manufacturers, (Rotary Lift, Forward, Challenger Lift, Western Lift, Mohawk Lift, etc) are all a little of both. Rotary, Forward and Challenger have Chinese import lines that do not compete with their "core" businesses, Western is mostly an importer now and Mohawk has an import line from Canada and Europe.
Forgetting for a minute that a lift that fails has the potential to kill you, who has the potential to A.) Design the best lift B.) Manufacture it correctly 99% of the time and C.) Insure that any repair parts or warranty parts can be sent out in a timely manner? My pick is one of the commercial grade manufacturers.
Now throw the unlikely, but very distinct possibility that a lift fails and injures / kills / maims you....and you or your significant other end up in a lawsuit...Who is most likely to have deep enough pockets to deal with it and stay in business? Mom & pop fold up shop and open up under a different name. The import "manufacturer" doesn't have manufacturer's liability insurance....The commercial companies carry huge liability policies (cost of doing business in the good old USA for a big corporation).
Finally....the ALI is set up to insure that the companies selling the products have the products Certified by a 3rd party. They don't test one lift and say it's good to go...There are mandatory quality control inspections carried out at the factories to insure that the products being shipped are the same quality as the products that have been tested. In fact, there a sizable lawsuit going on now due to a company stealing ALI/ETL labels from one product and pasting them on another that had not been certified.
I could write volumes on the **** that goes on in the lift industry.....But if you get down to bare bones, it really comes down to who is going to be around next year to help fix the product you bought.
Now that I've finished ranting and raving....I'm NOT going to tell ya' to buy from me!
www.standardus.com
