Column safetys on 2 post lift?

[volaredon]

I put up a post here on GJ like 2 weeks ago, about how "important" the swing arm safetys are on a lift, I still don't see the big deal/need for them...
But when it comes to the other safetys, the ones that keep the car from crashing down should a cylinder or cable fail, I definitely want those working.

I have a 2 post Weaver AFH 90, that I am about to put up within my garage; at current I am "going thru it" as I have rebuilt the cylinders, dumped the fluid out of the reservoir, replacing the bearings on the carriages, and such before I put it up, basically just doing alot of maintenance on it, to head off any problems once it's up. (I gotta clean out the "obstacle course" to make room for it yet as well, LOL.)
It has the individual safetys on each post, a little cable with a "finger-loop" on each post that has to be pulled out, so that the lift can be lowered.
At work, 3 of our 4 lifts (all 4 are ALM brand, 2 post, symmetric style) have a button that activates some small air cylinders to retract the safetys for lowering/ but it's a "single point" safety release as opposed to having to release 2 seperate safetys like mine has. How "hard" would it be, to retrofit my own lift, to have some sort of a single point release?
In my old shop we had Rotary assymetric ones (mid '90s models) that had a cable/pulley setup on the outside of the posts with a single lever that had to be held while lowering but it, too, was a single point safety release.
1 of our ALM's at work has the same style safety release as my lift at home does... but work can spend the money, to deal with the lift there....

 

[firebox40dash5]

I'd rather have the finger loops most of the time. Yeah, you have to walk around the car to get one if you can't walk under it, but you don't have to stand there holding 2 levers with 2 hands the whole time the car's going down.

To answer your question more directly, I have no idea how, or if, you could have one lever or button do both locks. AFAIK, the kind you have has the lock release mechanism on the lift carriage on each side. The kind with cables and pulleys (what I got at work) has the lock mechanism on the verticals... the locks are stationary, the notches travel with the lift carriages. So obviously, you couldn't make yours work with something purely mechanical, you'd need electric/pneumatic/hydraulic power to pop lhe lock pulls that travel with the lift carriages.

 

[NHBandit]

At an auto body shop I worked at a few years ago one of the mechanics had one of the lift arms slip out from under the rocker panel of a car he was working on due to snow & ice on the car making things a bit slippery. So to answer your question about why the swing arm safeties are a good thing it's because taking a car back off the lift & putting it outside is much easier with the wheels facing down than with the car resting on it's side.... Ask me how I know.

 

[volaredon]

ok starting to get some good feedback, great.
On the arm swing locks they seem back-asswards to me. When all the way down, the arms can swing where ever. When all the way down/no car on the lift, you're more likely to trip on an arm as you walk across the shop as it swings, yet as I stated above, once the car's weight is on it I don't see the arms moving much if at all...

and on the lowering safetys, yeah I was looking at the idea of some sort of air cylinders/electric plunger type deal. with electric I could push a button, retract them, and set up some sort of deadman switch where as soon as the lift was lowered all the way to the ground, the safetys would de energize and set themselves up to lock in again, as the lift was raised again the next time.
I realize there is no "retrofit kit" for something like this, it would all have to be made up as I went. I have a few ideas for how to go about this, but I want other GJ members' input and ideas on how to set it up. I mainly want to see if what I'm thinking will "work" or if there myght be an easier way.

 

[firebox40dash5]

Lift a Wrangler, and tell me how you feel about the arm locks. I've got an old Rotary (the kind with the flip-up "adapters") that I use for them, because the newer ones are an even bigger pain to get under them right than the Rotary. That **** is sketchy, enough that I don't like anytime I have to put a bunch or torque on something by hand. I don't know that the arms would/could actually kick out, but I like knowing there's at least something keeping the arms from wiggling all over under those things.

Your lock releases are the kind you just have to pull once, and then they auto-reset when you go back up past a lock point, right? You could use a single-action electric or pneumatic actuator that retracts automatically, and make it work just the same as doing it by hand.

 

[volaredon]

I'd rather have the finger loops most of the time. Yeah, you have to walk around the car to get one if you can't walk under it, but you don't have to stand there holding 2 levers with 2 hands the whole time the car's going down.

yeah, I agree, that's something else that I DON'T want to have to do. the ones we have at work have air cylinders, one hand has to be on the button holding the cylinders retracted and the other on the lowering lever--all the way down
the last 2 shops I worked at, had Rotary's, that had the mechanical cable and pulleys, setup like you mention where you had to hold a lever, all the way down
whether an air button or a lever, having to hold 2 things as the car comes down is some what of a PITA. I'd like the best of both worlds if possible; single hand lowering and single point release *if* that be possible and not too complicated or expensive, to set up

 

[volaredon]

Lift a Wrangler, and tell me how you feel about the arm locks. I've got an old Rotary (the kind with the flip-up "adapters") that I use for them, because the newer ones are an even bigger pain to get under them right than the Rotary. That **** is sketchy, enough that I don't like anytime I have to put a bunch or torque on something by hand. I don't know that the arms would/could actually kick out, but I like knowing there's at least something keeping the arms from wiggling all over under those things.

Your lock releases are the kind you just have to pull once, and then they auto-reset when you go back up past a lock point, right? You could use a single-action electric or pneumatic actuator that retracts automatically, and make it work just the same as doing it by hand.

Funny you mention them, I actually own a '97 Wrangler, and is one of the vehicles that I will be regularly putting onto the lift, oil changes will be more frequent now than ever, now that I am driving it 90 miles a day for my new job. I just replaced a ****** and a clutch on a neighbors' '95 Wrangler this past weekend laying on my back, since the lift is not yet up. and each of my 2 brothers own a Wrangler, and once they find out I have a lift in my garage, you know how that works..... they are short wheel base, yeah; but they are a flat frame...

and the last section of your post is what I am after... yeah it is a "pull once, and auto reset" when ever the lift goes up and there is one on each post.

 

[volaredon]

any more ideas for a single point release that dosen't have to be held the whole way down?