AUTOLIFTER 3 Post Car Lift????????

[Youngfd]

Has anyone ever seen a 3 POST car lift by AUTOLIFTER? Sorry for the poor pictures, but I was in shock just checking this out. Lift is not bolted to floor, Bronco is balancing on a couple wooden blocks on one end and on the differential on the other end. Bronco has been on the lift like this for over 5 years!! And a Cadilac stored below it. Is this lift missing some attachments? or ????????????

 

[SmackinHondas]

Need better pictures to make an absolute determination, but I can foresee that I wouldn't want to work on/around a 3 legged lift. I'm guessing they damaged the 4th leg or had to remove it to fit the lift into a certain size space - perhaps in a previous garage?

Either way, really stupid decision to put all that money into a Bronco (looks like everything underneath is new powder-coating, and body paint job) but risk your life over a few grand for a new lift or probably less to fix it.

 

[Old Man Roger]

How the hell would they drive it on?

 

[racecougar]

Bradbury once sold a 3-post lift as well. You won't find me under one!

 

[Old Man Roger]

Bradbury once sold a 3-post lift as well. You won't find me under one!

This thing looks like it has 1 post at the front and 2 at the rear? The Bradbury looks kind of like the single post type lifts, but with 3 posts.

 

[racecougar]

Both pick up the vehicle via the frame rather than ramps. The Bradbury model was more like a 4-post that was missing one leg, whereas this Autolifter places the legs in a tripod arrangement. Both are way too sketchy for my tastes.

 

[Youngfd]

It is an accident waiting to happen. I should have taken better pics.

 

[Old Man Roger]

It is an accident waiting to happen. I should have taken better pics.

I would love to see it from a wider angle. Still can't figure out how you drive onto it.

 

[firebirdparts]

I've never heard of such a thing as a 3 post lift. I actually googled 'autolifter' and I am not finding anything. [update] However, when I googled their phone number, I found it was build by Autolifters in Wichita, KS. I have one of the last lifts they built in my shop. They ran full page ads in Hemmings and were once pretty familiar. Closed up shop about 20 years ago. they priced their lifts to try to keep the Chinese lifts out of the market, and they ran out of money.

A 3 post lift kinda needs arms on the single end. it seems like it should have arms sticking out under the 9 inch rear end there. There are a lot of vehicles you simply couldn't pick up like that.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I've never heard of such a thing as a 3 post lift. I actually googled 'autolifter' and I am not finding anything.

I found a few results, it looks like Autolifter isn't the manufacturer. I think it's a lift dealer that sell all different brands of lifts.

 

[firebirdparts]

That seems remarkably disadvantaged, doesn't it? Can you think of anything more impossible than a lift with a spine down the middle of the vehicle? Better than no lift, but that's pretty awful.

 

[racecougar]

I would love to see it from a wider angle. Still can't figure out how you drive onto it.

You'd back onto it from the two-post end.

 

[Old Man Roger]

You'd back onto it from the two-post end.

So you would have to drive over a 3 or 4 inch tall beam, plus the beam that runs down the middle?

 

[racecougar]

So you would have to drive over a 3 or 4 inch tall beam, plus the beam that runs down the middle?

There are ramps to get the rear tires over the front beam.

 

[Old Man Roger]

There are ramps to get the rear tires over the front beam.

But then what? Do you need another set of ramps to run all the way to the back? And then you have to rig up some kind of block to actually use the lift?

 

[racecougar]

But then what? Do you need another set of ramps to run all the way to the back? And then you have to rig up some kind of block to actually use the lift?

You just back up to position the vehicle over the lift. No. Yes, place the front pads as shown in the photos above.

 

[Old Man Roger]

No way in hell I'm standing under that..lol

 

[irondoctor]

Autolifter was a company in Newton Kansas that built 2 post and 4 post lifts. They built a hand full of 3 post lifts, but they never went into full production.

 

[firebirdparts]

Right. I have one of their two posts. there is an “s” on the company name. “Autolifters of America inc.”