Cheap 2 post lift Vs Bend Pack XPR10XC

[RichHawk]

Staring a thread to do actual side by side comparison of two different installed 2 Post lifts.
The First two contenders are:
1) My American Automotive TP9A (manufactured by Qingdao Jinhua as a TPF1132-1)
2) The BendPak XPR10XC owned by Ign

See my original thread on my cheap lift:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80530

Feel free to chime in ONLY if you have a 2 post lift that you own or that you have installed. Spec reading off of the Internet is nice, but as I found out the hard way, not always accurate. Please limit the armchair quarterbacking of what you think you would do in the future. I would like this be be a factual thread of what two different types of two post lifts get you, based on actual installed lifts, measurements of the key components, and operational differences, so you the reader can make your own decision before you buy.

Richard

 

[Ign]

Copy. Working on this. Pics within 24 hours. Thinking baseplate thickness, baseplate footprint, dims on columns and wall thickness of columns, ditto for carriages where possible.

Maybe OD of cylinder slider (the chrome piece).

Will also look at aspects of arms but again not sure if my Xtra wide model will have beefier arms. Isn't there a Bendpak guy on the board? Just wanna know if the standard width arms use lesser material.

 

[HookWorse]

It'll be tough to get a good side by side. If you're looking for technical specs, there are better people to give advice. If you're looking for real world opinions, my Bend Pak MX 10C (built in 03, number has been superseded since then) has been solid as a rock. Put a 1 ton 4x4 truck on it, and it still doesn't flex it.

 

[I can fix anything]

Bend pac or nothin for me.

 

[revlover]

A lot of good close-up pix here...

http://www.astudyinliftdesign.com/two-post-lift-comparison.html

 

[LSVLance]

A lot of good close-up pix here...

http://www.astudyinliftdesign.com/two-post-lift-comparison.html

By looking at those closeups, the Bendpak is built very similar to my Atlas from Greg Smith Equipment. They very well could be built in the same plant.

 

[csargents1546]

I cant say much about bend pak, but I know that at my work we use rotary lifts and we push them beyond what they are designed to do and have not had any problems yet.

 

[hvychve]

I priced and compared many lifts before purchasing, I compared two , The rotary and bend pack, the rotary was way more money, I think around $5k by the time I purchased truck adapters and extended height , compared to the bendpack xpr10acx , there was a 2007 dually four door diesel four by four that raised to full height with ease, the price was good , compared to the rotary, it had thicker columns , wider feet, free truck adapters and I also got the one with a foot wider path, the only thing I dont like to much is the locks on the legs, when fully down position , the cams dont quite disengage and I have to pull up on pins to release them from engagement to allow me to swing out or in the arms, not always , I suppose I will have to fabricate or customise something to work better, but all in all its a good lift, rotary too high priced for what I was using it for.

 

[OldCarGuy]

Here’s a link to my Two-post lift compilation and comparison between a Bendpak, Ben Pearson, and Mohawk… All thre have 10,000 pound capacities. I have the Bendpak XPR 10 ACX and Mohawk System I in my home garages. While the Ben Pearson 10000 SA is at a friend’s shop in Cleveland...

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19456



.

 

[FRANKIEWHIPIT]

I have a Bend Pak MX10AC that I bought new in '04 & installed myself, decent quality. I Compared it to a Rotary which seemed like nothing more, for a lot more money. Installation was easy, the hardest part (for my install) was figuring out how far from the door forward to mount it. The Hydraulic hose that goes from cylinder to cyl. is a cheap plastic piece, which I replaced with a Gates 2 wire braided hose. Other then the rubber lift pads deteriorating, (The new replacement ones **** also) it has performed flawlessly!
I use it everyday, 1-3 cars a day after work, without any Grief.
Having 3 Mohawk Lifts at work, There is a huge difference in Engineering & Quality, You definitely get what you pay for!

 

[Ign]

Bendpak columns

Ok, 24 hours or over a week.......same difference

starting w the columns:

columns are 9 1/4 long by 10 1/2 wide with a w.t. of 3/16
opening in column for carriage is about 4 15/16

 

[Ign]

Bendpak baseplates

baseplates are 17 long x 19 wide

note the gussets - might be significant in a comparison

thickness is about 5/8" but I did not get a pic of that - you'll just have to trust me (or not)

 

[Ign]

Bendpak carriage

I didn't get much as far as specs for the carriage which is housed in the columns because it's difficult to get to. I do have some info tho:

the carriage gusset is about 25 1/4 x .200 (roughly 3/16) thick

the carriage body where the arm pivot pins mount was about .703 thick even tho the pic shows .712 (hard to operate calipers w my left hand and snap pic w my right). Soooo........... .703, let's call it .6875 before paint = 11/16

I'll also include a pic of overall carriage/arm interface

 

[Ign]

Bendpak arms

the arm pivot pins are 1 1/2

the main arms are 4 3/4" square. I did not measure the telescoping pcs

the arm gusset are, let's say, 3/8" before paint

the arm pivot pin mount came out at .799........so pic a metric value that makes you happy before paint or call it 13/16" nominal

the end of the arms for the pad adapters is 1 1/4 thick

That's all I've got

 

[Ign]

A lot of good close-up pix here...

http://www.astudyinliftdesign.com/two-post-lift-comparison.html

I thought my connection was a bit happier today so I tried to call up that link. It still only got the first maybe 10 pics before it timed out, but what I saw of the columns makes the Rotary look pretty light in comparison to a Bendpak. I like how they put each column assy on a scale!

One more thing.............there is one instance when Bendpak does a two piece column: if you order the "-168" option as I did. This of course is 14' and adds 2' additional overhead clearance. However even when Bendpak does this "two piece column" the upper 2' slides OVER the column and then remains the same size. Pic attached.

 

[vhol5]

So the post dies there?

 

[mrobins297aaa]

I've had 2 bend pak lifts and have installed them both.
below is a pic of my MX10C I bought and installed in 2005. I never had any problems with it. I loved the nice wide stance enough room to open the doors even on my F150.
What i also liked was it has a nice tall carriage which makes for a more stable lift when you have something up on it. If there was anything remotely that I could say I didn't like about it was it had to be about 30" above the floor for the locks to engage. which is probably normal for this type of lift.
when i sold this house in March this year the lift stayed with the house.

This is a pic of my XPR-10CX that I just installed about a month ago. Its basically the same lift it has the same exact foot print. The only difference I can see is the lifting arms. Which consist of shorter arms on the front of the lift. At first glance I don't think I'm going to like the new arms as much as I liked the old ones. we'll see as I have not used the lift very much yet. The pads are so much lower, which on the surface sounds like a good idea. But since they are lower than the arm itself it can cause a problem.
already my son and I were lifting his cougar and because the seam under the rocker panel is rusted we had to extend the arms under the car to reach the frame. when we started to lift the car the larger part of the lifting arm was making contact with the rocker panel before the pad was actually touching the frame because the pads are so low........my MX10 did not have this problem because the pads stuck up higher than the highest part of the lifting arm........clear as mud?......lol

 

[mrobins297aaa]

These are my thoughts on the install of myXPR-10CX. It did go very well but there were a few items that I thought were kinda cheezey.

that cover on the overhead trip switch should be bolted on, the screws striped out right away on that so all I could think of was that cover coming off and falling on a car so i took it off also the arm on the trip switch is not long enough it barely touches the trip bar.
The bolts that hold the keepers in for the cable pulleys are kinda crappy there some small metric self tapper that as soon as you put it in or back it out it feels like its stripped or going to snap off.

The fittings that screw into the cylinders at the bottom on both sides need to be longer (look at ign second post first pic on the left) i have a habit of over tighten things and if you screw those fittings in to far the carriage will hit them when it comes down mine were just barely rubbing so a made a small notch in the carriage at the bottom to provide some clearance.

and lastly I had problems extending the arms on two of the lifting arms, one I had to take a sludge hammer to drive it apart, it obviously had some welding slag in there that was making it tough (probably some of that china quality control)

these are all minor things and probably if you haven't installed one of these lifts you won't know what I'm talking about.
I do like the lift very much.