To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

BendPak (or other?) 4 post lift selection

G

garagelogician

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Messages
453
Location
Blaine, MN
Hey guys,

After considering all the other options (MaxJax, portable scissor, in-floor scissor)...I've settled on getting a 4 post lift (probably BendPak) for my 3 car garage. My garage is on the small side, 19'-6" deep (18'-5" in the 3rd stall) and 27' wide. Ceiling is 10'-6", and I have standard 16' and 8' doors with standard drop tracks. My first task will be getting high-lift tracks installed for both doors and a Liftmaster Elite Series 8500 for the 16' door.

The plan is to keep the lift in the 3rd stall when not in use (or for small jobs), and I will pull it over to the middle stall for bigger jobs. When its not in use, it would be very nice to have the lift be high enough that I can walk underneath it without ducking, so I'm focusing on models that have at least an 82" rise.

My wife and I only have a couple of smaller cars right now, but I'm planning to purchase a used BMW X5 35D in the next few months. Track width spec on those is 65", but depending on tire/wheel size, the outside dimension at the tires could be up to 76.2" or so. Most vehicles that I would have on my lift would not be any bigger than this, but it would be nice to be able to put a light truck or Chevy Tahoe-sized vehicle on it if the need arises.

With my garage size, I'd really like to look at the narrower lifts, such as the Bendpak HD-7P or HD-9STX (I really wish they made a short 9000lb with extended lift...like a 9000lb version of the 7P). Is that even a remote possibility with the X5 or other light truck? Do guys commonly have tires extend an inch or two on either side of the runways?

I was also exploring the possibility of getting dual bridge jacks to get all 4 wheels off at the same time for tire rotations and such...but I see that BendPak lists different minimum wheelbase dimensions at certain percentages of weight capacity (image attached). Are those hard numbers that must be followed? Using the X5 as an example, it has a 115.5" wheelbase, weighs about 5000 lbs and the jack points are about 65.5" inches apart from front to back. If we use that chart, I couldn't jack up all 4 wheels from the lift points while on the lift. Even jacking up one end would be pushing it on the 9000 lb lift, because if you assume that the jack points are evenly offset from the wheels, that would put it at about 90" between the one set of jack points and the other axle.

Thoughts?
 

Attachments

  • lift dims.jpg
    lift dims.jpg
    154.6 KB · Views: 94
Last edited:
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
L

lakeroadster

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2015
Messages
5,166
Location
Central Colorado
Last edited:
8

86turbodsl

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
6,556
Location
Michigan
You do realize 9 tons is 18,000 lbs right? Isn't that a little overkill for an X5?

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
 
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
If I were you, I would buy Rotary or Challenger.
 
Last edited:
W

WhiffySpark

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
6,252
It's not going to matter. We have a rotary we use all day air over hydr I think are the bridge jacks. It'll pick up fine. We generally lift off control arms
 
C

chain

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Canonsburg, PA
I did lots of research on lifts and finally decided to go with a Bendpak HD-9XW. Should be here and installed in a week or two. With all of the research I did before I finally decided what to go with, I have a hard time believing you can go wrong with Bendpak.
 
N

ndm

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
242
I want the HD9xw myself.

This is America. People ***** and moan about everything. The leave bad reviews of everything. Of all the Bendpak products I have seen everywhere I go, I have seen a great deal of happy customers. One day I hope to be one of those happy customers.

The cell phone company I use pissed me off all the time, the cable company downright angers me, my car manufacturer pissed me off almost everytime I go there........fact remains, I still buy cell service because it is IMO the best service, I still pay for what I believe is awesome cable service and I still love the **** out of my vehicle because it is awesome.

My point, get the bendpak. If you can afford the Rotary or the challenger or if they work better in your situation.....get one of those.

Rant done
 
C

chain

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Canonsburg, PA
Pretty much how I feel. I don't care what you look up, you can find bad reviews. People are much quicker to gripe when they are mad than they are to send praise when things go well.
 
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
People are much quicker to gripe when they are mad?

Ok....

Pay attention:

- I had to do 3 rounds (yes Three) of spray painting of the entire lift due to severe paint damage. What I mean by damage is several feet of bare metal showing which started to RUST. Before you blame the carrier, please listen. 90% of the paint damage was on the insides of the pieces, i.e. they were underneath the runways, on the sides, insides of the cross members, etc. The package was intact when I received it. The plastic wrap was pretty much brand new. What does that tell me? This happened in production when they were moving these pieces. Now regarding the painting, can you imagine how difficult it was for me to spray paint something this size in a closed garage? The health issues involved and the smell? And the fact that I had to do this THREE times, THREE weekends. All the prep around my garage to cover things so they dont get painted blue? Not cool.

- The cables I got were of wrong size. For instance, on one of the columns, the ladder was 1 1/4" off the baseplate, yet even after 3" of cable threads, that side still wouldnt be adjusted. Logically speaking, the cables and ladders should provide equivalent adjustments, i.e., if you move a ladder up or down X inches, you need to be able to adjust the cables by X inches as well. Mine were so bad that they had to send me new cables.

- My power unit was leaking oil (not hydraulic fluid but the actual yellow oil), it had to be replaced.

- I had a number of missing parts (nuts, bolts, stickers).

- The RJ45 I got was off level on each axis (front to back and left to right), it was off severely, i.e. when it lifted my car, my car's driver and passenger side was off by 1/2".

- The RJ45 had rust everywhere and when I mean everywhere, I mean every corner of it.

- The RJ45 had a catastrophic hydraulic line failure (hydraulic oil pouring out all over the place) and simultaneously the entire jack failing and the car landing on my head. I didnt die thanks to HD9's safety locks and that I could quickly get out of the way but this was a very scary moment.

- Now prior to all of this, I had quickjack, which was absolutely horrible. By horrible, I mean one unit would collapse and the other wouldnt due to bad welds. One unit would take 10 seconds more than the other unit to go up. It goes on and on. One side was so bad that when the unit would go up or down, it would shake itself to death.

I have tried out $6000 worth of Bendpak equipment across 4 month period. Every single one of them has had major (and I mean seriously major) issues with it.

I think those of you who claim to have no issues with their products are either:

1- Simply lucky

Or

2- You just dont know where to look and I'm sorry to say this but are ignorant.

These issues I am outlining above are not small issues. Every one of them is I would consider major safety issues due to production problems. It's one thing if these happen once in a while, but a number of them happening on 3 distinct products? That is simply not acceptable.
 
Last edited:
C

chain

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Canonsburg, PA
Yeah that *****. Note that I am not saying that I don't believe people have received bad product, you obviously did. I was just noting that people are quicker to go post on the net when they are not happy as opposed to when they are.

Hopefully I end up with a good product but until it gets here I can just hope. I can say the purchase went on a credit card and if I have issues, either Bendpak will make it right or I will use the cards consumer protection and get them to reverse the charge.
 
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
chain said:
Yeah that *****. Note that I am not saying that I don't believe people have received bad product, you obviously did. I was just noting that people are quicker to go post on the net when they are not happy as opposed to when they are.

Hopefully I end up with a good product but until it gets here I can just hope. I can say the purchase went on a credit card and if I have issues, either Bendpak will make it right or I will use the cards consumer protection and get them to reverse the charge.
Click to expand...

There is no consumer protection with this stuff. As in, yes there is, but if you want to get your money back, as per the federal regulations and consumer protection laws, you need to "return" the product. Good luck doing that when the product weighs 2000 lbs and it costs literally $1000 (residential quote is this high, I checked) to ship it back.

Bendpak is smart, they probably know all of this or they wouldnt have allowed this level of disastrous QC to last this long.

Also, I didn't get a bad "product". I got 3 (THREE) bad products, purchased 1-2 months apart each. They were all distinct products. I used to try to convince myself by saying it was just bad luck until the RJ45 had that major failure and 4000 lbs landed on my head. You had to be there. Yes now they are sending a replacement to me, but it shouldnt have happened. Not at that price point.
 
C

chain

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Canonsburg, PA
I agree. There are many cheaper options to be had and you shouldn't have those kinds of issues with a supposedly good brand.

On that note, I'm hoping for the best.
 
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
c39er said:
I bought a BP HD 14 and 2 RJ-7 jacks ...no issues after 6 years.
Click to expand...

I think the key to that is you bought them 6 years ago. It has been mentioned numerous times here that over the course of several years the product quality went down the hill due to cost cutting. You are more than welcome to come check out my lift.

Whoever shop I spoke to and mentioned this experience, they told me two things: "not surprised" and "thats why we have rotary". Including the Ford, BMW, and Porsche dealers as well as two independent gas station mechanics, no one had anything but Rotary.

But then again, for me it wouldnt have mattered due to my ceiling height. Rotary just wouldnt fit, so even if Rotary was half price I would still have to buy bendpak.

I'll tell you one other issue I m having now and you ll see how crazy this stuff is:

I used a 8 feet and a 6 feet level for confirming these.

- All columns are level in all 4 directions.
- The lift is fully square.
- When the lift is on the locks, its level on all 4 directions.
- When the lift is in motion, again, its level on all 4 directions.

All good right?

Nope. When the lift starts reaching the 10th lock or so, "the locks" stop being level. As in if I put the lift on the 10th or 11th lock vs all other locks prior, suddenly the lift stops being level. As a result, when it passes those lock heights, everything goes out of sync and lift starts jumping/binding around when it goes up and down. For the first 10 locks, you can hear locks engage at the same time literally you cannot tell them apart. Perfect syncro. Come 11th lock, they engage one at a time, all 4 of them.

How bad is that? Think about it for a second before you respond:)
 
Last edited:
W

WhiffySpark

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
6,252
DerStig said:
There is no consumer protection with this stuff. As in, yes there is, but if you want to get your money back, as per the federal regulations and consumer protection laws, you need to "return" the product. Good luck doing that when the product weighs 2000 lbs and it costs literally $1000 (residential quote is this high, I checked) to ship it back.

Bendpak is smart, they probably know all of this or they wouldnt have allowed this level of disastrous QC to last this long.

Also, I didn't get a bad "product". I got 3 (THREE) bad products, purchased 1-2 months apart each. They were all distinct products. I used to try to convince myself by saying it was just bad luck until the RJ45 had that major failure and 4000 lbs landed on my head. You had to be there. Yes now they are sending a replacement to me, but it shouldnt have happened. Not at that price point.
Click to expand...

Did you buy this stuff straight from
Bendpak or a distributor? I'm just curious you've had terrible luck
 
W

WhiffySpark

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
6,252
Even our rotary doesn't engage in sync. You go past the locks and let it back down. Every 4 post I've used is like that
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
Without any load on the lift, the locks should be in sync. With the vehicle its normal for them not to be. The issue I m describing is without the load and even with the load it wouldnt have mattered.

I dont think you read my post. The lift is "level" resting on the locks between locks 1-10. Locks 11-14, lift becomes not level when resting on the locks (off by about 3/8" side to side and front to back). Its crooked. Its not so much that i m worried about locks not engaging simultaneously. Because of this crookedness, when lift moves between those locks, its jumping/in a bind. Either my columns are twisted at the top (as in they are not straight) or the locking ladders are not equal (i.e not cut properly). There is also big variation in terms of the top caps. I.e the cable and ladder holes are not perfectly lined up because that piece is not equally cut/doesnt sit square.

I bought everything directly from bendpak.

It would be luck if it were 1-2 things. When its literally 10-12 things ans 3 different products, I dont think its luck anymore. I m pretty sure this entire damn thing is faulty and if someone were measure every piece properly they would see huge variations.

This weekend I need to spend time replacing the motor. I also need to pack RJ45 as the new one is coming. The amount of time I will spend taking the motor off, disconnect everything, transfer hydraulic fluid, put the new one will be several hours. On top of that packing the RJ45. Its not like you are returning the extension cord you got from amazon in a box. That thing weighs 300 lbs and its not particularly easy sealing a wooden crate. Why do I need to go through this after having spent $4000 and literally now several dozen man hours? Its ridiculous.

Even the baseplates themselves are not straight. When you look at them they look like /-\ from the back.
 
Last edited:
OP
G

garagelogician

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Messages
453
Location
Blaine, MN
Can we get back on track? Do you guys have any input about width of vehicle (tires slightly overhanging the runways) or weight considerations?
 
Z

Z2V

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
418
Location
Cedar Park (Austin) Texas
If you have tires hanging off the runways you will probably knock your mirrors off getting the vehicle on the lift. Given the space you have available get the biggest lift you can.
Good to get back on track!
 
OP
G

garagelogician

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Messages
453
Location
Blaine, MN
Z2V said:
If you have tires hanging off the runways you will probably knock your mirrors off getting the vehicle on the lift. Given the space you have available get the biggest lift you can.
Good to get back on track!
Click to expand...

For the narrow lift, the drive thru clearance of 76.5" (down at the gussets) is going to be the determining factor here I think, as the width between columns is 89.75" so mirrors folded in should easily clear that.

I guess I'm kind of answering my own question, but it seems like a small tire overhang shouldn't be a big deal.
 
OP
G

garagelogician

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Messages
453
Location
Blaine, MN
c39er said:
As above^^^^^^ right on the money... I too have a Rotary
Click to expand...

That really isn't helpful in my case. A Rotary would be too big for my space, and it appears that they need to be bolted down. I want to be able to move this thing between bays as needed.
 
B

Bobf

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
308
Location
Poway, CA
I bought a 8K (FD8K) Chinese lift sold under various names. I'm about 45 mi from the warehouse in Temecula, CA so I borrowed a car trailer and went and picked it up. Less than 2k$ with casters, jack tray and flimsy drip pans plus $50 to load it. Put it together myself with help from my HF cherry picker. So far no problems with it, it is in the driveway as I will have to tip it to get it in either garage as the door frames are only 90".
 
J

James E

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2010
Messages
16,507
Location
Raleigh, NC
OP, to address the wheelbase considerations and your lift points, keep in mind that if you get rolling jacks, you also have to take into account the wheelbase of the rolling jacks.

Mine have a wheelbase of about 12-18 inches, so if the jack is under the car and engaging the car's jackpoints, the load at each axle is actually spread out across two points that are about 18" apart. The point is that when you jack up your BMW, the weight of that vehicle is not concentrated directly under the jack points.

I'd say it's worth a call to BP to find out.

Also, keep in mind that the rolling jacks take up ALOT of space between the rails of the lift. I originally intended to get two rolling jacks, but after installing one, it ate up so much open space between the rails that I decided not to get a second one. Once they're installed, they are impractical to uninstall. They weigh over 300 lbs each.

HTH, James.
 
OP
G

garagelogician

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Messages
453
Location
Blaine, MN
James E said:
OP, to address the wheelbase considerations and your lift points, keep in mind that if you get rolling jacks, you also have to take into account the wheelbase of the rolling jacks.

Mine have a wheelbase of about 12-18 inches, so if the jack is under the car and engaging the car's jackpoints, the load at each axle is actually spread out across two points that are about 18" apart. The point is that when you jack up your BMW, the weight of that vehicle is not concentrated directly under the jack points.

I'd say it's worth a call to BP to find out.

Also, keep in mind that the rolling jacks take up ALOT of space between the rails of the lift. I originally intended to get two rolling jacks, but after installing one, it ate up so much open space between the rails that I decided not to get a second one. Once they're installed, they are impractical to uninstall. They weigh over 300 lbs each.

HTH, James.
Click to expand...

Good points...I hadn't considered the wheelbase of the bridge jack. Thanks!
 
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
I have a 5 series and a standard HD9, not the small one and I can tell you with my tires when I center the lift, there is barely 2" on each side of runway.
 
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
c39er said:
As above^^^^^^ right on the money... I too have a Rotary
Click to expand...

Please read my post, I know the 4 post lift never has the locks engage at the same time with the car. My problem is different. WITHOUT any cars, for the first 10 locks, everything is synchronized then locks 11-14 they go severely out of sync. Its a completely different issue.

I put an 8 ft level on the runways, for the first 10 locks everything is perfectly level. When I reach the 11-14 locks, the same level, same place, suddenly goes out of level.

Nice eh?
 
W

WhiffySpark

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
6,252
Yeah either your posts are warped or somehow not exactly level. I would be demanding it fixed. That's too much money to let slide
 
OP
G

garagelogician

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2016
Messages
453
Location
Blaine, MN
lakeroadster said:
Maybe this lift would be another option for you?
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352515
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation and link, I will definitely take a closer look at these. Seeing that F-150 on that 75" wide track definitely helps me with my decision on what width to be looking at.

The lack of an ALI certification bothers me a bit, but it is really just due to the lack of air safety locks?

Customer service sounds great as long as they stay in business.

Edit: Just realized they are located just up the road from me, that is a definite plus.
 
Last edited:
D

DerStig

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
441
Dont get a lift without air safety locks or without secondary safeties.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
Top Bottom