I have a Genie GL-8 at work. I LOVE it! We got ours used for around $400. It was well "loved", but some cleaning and grease, and it's all good. We had to replace a few missing spring pins, but parts are available, and reasonably priced. I wiped the aluminum sliding surfaces on the mast with teflon extra dry bicycle chain lube, and it runs much smoother (less chattering as it slides down now).
I made a plywood platform for the forks (which I often find myself using as an adjustable height work surface), and can easily raise a co-worker with the crank.
Just a note, the crank's mechanical advantage changes when you reach the halfway point and the center starts to lift. Above that point, you need to push the crank twice as hard, and it lifts twice as fast. The GL-5 is basically the same lift, but without that inner section, so it doesn't go as high, and doesn't change speeds. I know someone with a GL-5, and to reach higher things, he flips his forks over, but when you do that, you cannot lower the platform below knee level. I don't have that issue with the GL-8.
We've taken this apart to load into a co-worker's minivan, and it's been in the back of my Subaru Legacy. With two people, it's a piece of cake to toss onto a truck.
ONE IMPORTANT WORD OF CAUTION HERE (from personal experience) when transporting it horizontally! Bring a bungee cord, and tie the carriage down. Once you tip it and there is no gravity holding the carriage down, the cable can lose tension. That can allow the cable to jump off the pulleys and jam up next to them, or cross over on the drum (both REALLY bad things, as that can start the cable to fray).
Unloaded, I routinely roll it up and down a few stairs like a hand truck. It's heavy, but manageable. I often use it to raise computer equipment well over 100 lbs to position for racking, and to shelve several hundred pounds of equipment at a time. We also use it to raise and lower battery trays weighing upwards of 350lbs.
One not suggested, not totally safe, alternative use of this...
We had a 10HP motor that needed to be mounted to a very awkward position, where it hung from a bracket along the wall, and we had access from one side only. I pounded out the pins on the rods that keep the forks from falling off (we replaced these with hairpin clips), and we shifted the forks so that they were on the inside of the carriage, like you can slide them together on an actual fork lift (which we couldn't put on this floor). I then removed the legs, and re-inserted them in from behind, and stood on them to act as the counter-weight. With a strap, we were able to hoist the motor into position with ease.
