Lift Failure....

[Winmon]

Found this posted over at YellowBullet.com...The poster did not seem to know the story behind it, i.e. how it happened..
Anyone have anymore info on it??

Here is a link to the thread...

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190397

 

[E.rodz]

doooo!! I hate that when that happens!

 

[e-tek]

I know EXACLTY what happened....

Damned Chevy JUMPED to it's DEATH!!!!

RIP.

 

[Keep]

I know that the owner of said Camaro was probably pretty damn pissed when the shop called "Ummm sorry but we dumped your car on its passenger side"

 

[mrb]

wow. that made me throw up in my mouth a little.

ive never used one of these lifts, but isnt there some sort of safety against something like this from happening? Looks like a lift manufacturer is about to change its color scheme...

 

[DHCrocks]

damn Craftsman jacks are good for nothing.

 

[rsanter]

its fixable
at least the picture dosent show someone squished under the car

bob

 

[Dmaxman]

Thats a Hofmann screw style lift. The lifting nut had to have failed....its designed to only go down when worn out and lock up when trying to go up. This lift was probably never maintained. It takes 30 seconds to measure the lift nut wear.

We have 2 of that style at our shop that work flawless....with proper care. Funny reading the posts from that website link with guys calling it junk...chinese ****....saying its hydraulic failure or cables. If they don't know why not just shut up.

 

[Mr_fixit]

Looks ok to me. That's they way you lift up chevys. That's a new Craftsman lift.

 

[Motown 454]

It made me sick and its not even mine.

 

[RLRRLRLL]

that even makes this ford guy cringe...that had to be one beautiful car.

 

[TheShrine]

Looks ok to me. That's they way you lift up chevys. That's a new Craftsman lift.

damn Craftsman jacks are good for nothing.

Is it me or is the name on the lift Craftsmen not Craftsman?

 

[ovilla]

That's a really nice looking parts car now!

 

[tonydanzah]

was a craftsman brand lift that was build in china

 

[crashbumper]

It'll buff out.

 

[Kevin54]

It'll buff out.

I think I would have been more sick than mad that it happened. The Camaro has had some serious work done to it in the restoration.

 

[mad57]

Seriously... at least no one was killed. Cars can be fixed. I just hope he had it insured!!! Would hate to have that happen to my cars.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'd guess that was just a Craftsman sticker somebody put on the lift.

Like said above, I'm a ford guy but that does make you sick. I'd imagine that somebody is pissed and upset, but happy that nobody got hurt.

 

[hoarder1212]

I have an Atlas lift that looks very similar to that one. On my lift the safety locks kick in after about 3 inches of lifting. If you have to lower the vehicle a little for some reason, you must release the safety locks. They will stay released until you lift another 3 inches or so. It is very easy to just lower it to the height you need and not reset the locks. If a cable,chain or hydraulic failure happened after you had done this I could see this happening very easily. My safety locks are very similar to the way an extension ladder works.

 

[Winmon]

I have an Atlas lift that looks very similar to that one. On my lift the safety locks kick in after about 3 inches of lifting. If you have to lower the vehicle a little for some reason, you must release the safety locks. They will stay released until you lift another 3 inches or so. It is very easy to just lower it to the height you need and not reset the locks. If a cable,chain or hydraulic failure happened after you had done this I could see this happening very easily. My safety locks are very similar to the way an extension ladder works.

I have a Rotary and mine works the same way. What I usually do is lift it to about where I need it, then lower it down to the next "stop" or "lock" position.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

At least he got the underside of the car painted while it was on its side.


That is the only positive thing to say, otherwise I am sick that I opened this thread.

 

[Winmon]

Here's a interesting YouTube clip on a lift test...

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Articles.asp?ID=146

 

[tatra]

what make of lift is that in the video that failed?.............

 

[Winmon]

They did not say, just that there are some American distributors selling Chinese made lifts, and over-rating their lifting capacities.

 

[nate379]

Had I not been paying attention, I would have done the same a few years back.

The lift I was using has air powered lock releases. Pop the locks, and drop the car down. Now I wouldn't drop it at Mach 5, but still I was getting paid by how much work I did so I didn't dilly dally.

Well the lock on the side opposite of the controls clicked in about a foot down and the other side did not and kept going down. It would have flipped the car just like in that pic had I not been quick at the controls.

 

[tatra]

yea, i realize they didn't mention the name, just wondering if anyone here can id the lift in question........... be nice to know the make of the one that dumped the camaro too............some said craftsman ?.........and in the spec sheets on these ifts, do they list the metric lift capability and then highlight the exagerated capacity?.........seems like they safegaurd themselves by the limitations of the hydraulic prv engineered into the system?.........

 

[s_morrison57]

What a shame, if some one did that to my car I'd want some blood

 

[61scout80]

damn Craftsman jacks are good for nothing.

Looks ok to me. That's they way you lift up chevys. That's a new Craftsman lift.

What makes you think it was craftsman over all the other random stickers on it?

 

[Winmon]

I have never heard of Craftsman selling lifts so I Goggled "Craftsman Lift" and "Craftsman Hoist" and got nothing except garage door openers..It did happen in Canada. Maybe Sears of Canada sells them??

 

[Jay H 237]

I have never heard of Craftsman selling lifts so I Goggled "Craftsman Lift" and "Craftsman Hoist" and got nothing except garage door openers..It did happen in Canada. Maybe Sears of Canada sells them??

I doubt it, I think it's just something the owner stuck on there. I don't know of Cman ever making a lift, floor jacks and jack stands are as far as they go.

 

[Dmaxman]

Hofmann duo lift that dumped the Camaro.....not craftsman and not chinese made. They are more popular in the UK i believe. Wonder if Moose see them often?

 

[Ironcrow]

Here's a interesting YouTube clip on a lift test...

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Articles.asp?ID=146

What kind of lift is that youtube? Not only did the arms bend, I'd like to learn more about the details of the columns bending together. Did the anchors pull up? Columns bend at their base?

I know there are all kinds of lifts in use without failure, but you'll never see a two post lift without a brace between the columns in use in any garage I own.

My Benwil has spring loaded catches. You can't forget to re-engage; you'd have to actively hold the release lever to drop the lift. For a loss of load failure (drop the car on it's side) the hydraulic cylinder would have to fail on one side, the equalizing/safety cable would break, WHILE the operator was holding the release lever...

 

[e-tek]

It's not just a lift - it's a ROTISSERIE!!!

 

[bmwpower]

It's not just a lift - it's a ROTISSERIE!!!

You know, you may be onto something there. I will split the profit with you.

 

[Toolhorder]

Looks just like a Rotary lift that's common in dealerships I've worked in. Many of them have a lock on each arm and if you forget one lock and unlock the other it will release one arm and leave the other locked with will dump one side of the vehicle on it's side just like that. Having used these kind of lifts forever I'm willing to bet money it was user error that caused this to happen.

 

[krooser]

I don't believe it's a Rotary...might be wrong... but I've never seen a Rotary built as flimsy as that lift. Look at the arms... very weak design.

 

[mrpowderkeg]

ok that does it I'll save up for a mohawk lift I was considering a cheaper one to get me by, I'd say that a well made lift lessens the chance that this ever happens to me the extra money buying a quality lift is well spent without the hassle of a costly car repair, or loss of life. Some things you just can't be cheap with.

 

[Longbob]

The lift in the video is a little misleading. It didn't fail at 10,000 pounds, it failed at 15,000 pounds. Granted, they said in the video that the industry standard is for a lift to function at 1.5 times the rated weight which sounds to me like a pretty good standard.

Another thing to note about the lift in the video. The hydraulic motor could not raise the 10,000 weight. They had to use another motor. Once they got it to raise, there was a lot of deflection of the rear arms. They had to go to extremes to get the lift to fail.

I have a 9,000 pound two post lift that I just installed and I am very cautious. This thread and that video certainly have my attention. I had already gotten two tall stands to put under the front and rear of my vehicle as and extra safety measure. They are probably not needed, but they give me extra piece of mind.

 

[tatra]

longbob, the demo was to see if the lift was safe as per the claims of 10k rating.........true the lift was over loaded but to a standard all lifts are tested to............if it's 10 k and won't handle the testing procedure, shouldn't be allowed to be sold..........as for the hyd, part, what would be keeping someone to think they could safely assume their 9,996 lb truck should be able to be handled and the individual eithe tweaks the hyds. or replaces with adequete capacity and experiences a failure over time due to fatigue...........i believe the person responsible for making the decisions for thses types of marketing ploys should be forced to stand under their product they are lying about by law.........truth in advertising..........

 

[50mercfan]

I've seen the cables fail like that. Looks like one side was locked in and the other side wasn't. You have to maintain lifts like everything else, They're not made of Cryptonite. Dosn't matter what brand it is.