An Interesting Lesson

[Ed and Sandra]

Perhaps some of you will enjoy a little light hearted humor at our expense and also appreciate the lesson involved. We made a post a few weeks ago sharing the results of our garage project http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5432 and the write-up and pictures referenced the Bend-Pak car lift we had installed.

Today we were visiting some local car dealerships “just looking” and doing some research in anticipation of eventually replacing our old Mountaineer with some sort of truck as an everyday knock around type vehicle for Ed to use. As things would have it, at the Ford dealership we instantly became enamoured with a 2007 4x4 Limited Sport Trac with all the options except the navigation system.

Being mindful of the height limitations of our new car lift upon which the Cadillac XLR normally resides, before purchasing the Sport Trac we took it to the house and actually parked it beneath the raised lift. It was a snug but OK fit with about 1” clearance between the top rails of the vehicle and the bottom of the lift. So, with that out of the way we returned to the dealership and proceeded to make the purchase.

We had a rather rude surprise when we arrived back at the house with our new acquisition and discovered it would no longer fit in the bay beneath the lift. What made the difference? The XLR was now parked on the lift whereas there was nothing on it before and its weight was just enough to depress the rear most bottom edge of the lift about 1 ½”.

Oh well – live and learn. It would seem the Sport Trac will be residing in an adjacent bay on its own and the electric garden truck now has the place of honor beneath the XLR.

Best regards,
Ed and Sandra

 

[BoostAddiction]

It's interesting that your lift does this.

I have a Rotary 2-post assymetrical, not the drive-on style you have. When I store cars on mine (it has the race car on it right now while it gets fixed from a Bad Wreck), the stored car drops onto locks embedded into the columns. The height is constant, within a few thousandths I suppose, without regard to the amount of weight, if any, on the lift arms as they don't deflect in any measurable way as far as I can tell.

I hadn't thought that the drive-on style lifts would have such a measurable change with a load on them. I wonder if you couldn't find out where the deflection in your lift was happening and correct for it by welding in reinforcements. I'd surely think about that, given that you just made a new truck purchase.

Good luck and let us know what you do, if anything.

-Will

 

[milly]

That is quite odd. One of my buddies has a drive on storage lift and it has the same height loaded or unloaded. We checked the height at his old house because of some height issues with another car that would be stored under it.

 

[supercharged]

dang, that suxs...

double check the spelling on that lift. it should say "bend pak" they might have slipped you a "bend Bak" instead.. NF

 

[Rickster]

My previous vehicle was a Sport Trac. I found it to be very comfortable to drive. It just "fit" very well with the two arm rests - large arm rest on the right and the flat ledge on the door panel - always made for a comfortable seating position. Is there room to install some steel spacer plates at the bottom of the lift posts, or is that not recommended? Could also check out some smaller tires

 

[Ed and Sandra]

That is quite odd. One of my buddies has a drive on storage lift and it has the same height loaded or unloaded. We checked the height at his old house because of some height issues with another car that would be stored under it.

Retrospectively, it's not surprising we're getting that degree of deflection at the very back edge of the lift. Take a look at the middle diagram below which is a side view:

As you can see the length of the bed from the lift columns to the rear is appreciably greater than from the columns to the front edge. This causes a distinct "bias" to the rear in terms of loading even though engine weight at the front results in some offsetting counterbalance. Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding, the height of the bed as measured at the lift columns does not change regardless of whether the lift is loaded or unloaded.

Also keep in mind this type of drive-on lift places the rear pickup weight further back, i.e. at the rear wheels rather than would be the case with movable arm frame lifts.

It's really not a problem for us. In fact the new Sport Trac fits quite nicely on top with the XLR beneath it. We just thought it was somewhat funny that we did the "testing" and later learned our method was flawed!

Best regards,
Ed and Sandra

 

[HighOctane]

Wow that's surprising, how much does the XLR weigh? If enough Load is on the lift it must I guess it drops down a bit, but having that happen is pretty crazy.

 

[Egan]

I had an '01 Sporttrac and really enjoyed it until I needed more bed and cab space. Do they still come with the racks on the top? If so, you could remove them (they're only rated for <100 lbs anyway) and that would solve your problem.

But if you do decide to keep it on the top rack, make sure you get some oil drip pans for you lift.

 

[Gregdoo]

Interesting story for sure. I'm glad it wasn't me, as I probably would have just brought the new truck home and knowing I had tested the fit, would have just driven into the lift bay and proceeded to mangle the roof! A good reminder to measure twice and cut once as carpenters used to say.

 

[ranger_dood]

let some air out of the sporttrac tires, you'll be fine

 

[wilbilt]

I'm trying to remember...did you cut out your flooring before installing the lift, or did you mount it on top?

If mounted on top of resilient flooring, there might be enough "give" to allow such deflection.

Another possbility would be to rack the car farther forward on the lift, and shift some of the weight bias in that direction.

I had several co-workers that seemed unable to grasp the concept of weight and balance as it applies to vehicles on lifts. I can recall a couple of vehicles getting "dumped", and the aftermath was never pretty.

I dumped one myself, but it wasn't my fault...honest...

Will
Garageless in NorCal