Most versatile, "does it all" 2-post lift?

[nzjkb5]

I am right now in the planning stages of a 30’ wide x 32’ deep addition to our existing attached garage. I am trying to plan door and window locations, etc. and am planning for a lift. I will be working on everything from lowered Miatas and muscle cars to full-size 4WD trucks and Suburbans. No current plans for crew cab diesels, but who knows what the future holds?

I am currently looking at the BendPak XPR-10S-LP, Forward Lift I10, and the Derek Weaver W-PRO10, primarily because they all have lower lift pad heights and/or lower-profile arms and are in my price range. I don’t know how useful the lower lift pad heights and/or lower-profile arms actually are in real life. The BendPak gives up the three-stage front arms when you get the low-profile arms, which is a minus on that one I guess.

The person I spoke with at BendPak about the low-profile arms said that the vast majority of customers don’t get the low-profile arms, and I should be fine without them. But, I am not running a commercial garage, and I currently have two cars that will be lowered at some point (2010 Miata and 1967 Firebird), and plan on having more lowered vehicles in the future.

Anybody have real-world experience using these lifts with tiny cars, lowered cars and full size trucks? Should I be limiting myself to only looking at lifts with low-profile arms and low lift pad heights? Are there other lifts I should be looking at (besides the pricey Rotarys & Mohawks)? I read that some of the narrow-width lifts have issues with short wheelbase cars, so I eliminated them from consideration, but maybe I shouldn't have.

I see now that MBABGarage has posted questions about the Weaver lift, too, and mhejl has issues with the arms on a Worth lift with his Miatas...

 

[rnixon]

I have a Challenger CL10V3 Versalift , 3 stage arms front & rear.

The 4 1/4" is from the floor to the contact surface of the lift pad, when it's adjusted to it's lowest point

3 1/2" is from the floor to the top of the stub end of the 3rd. stage arm

4 7/8" is to the top of the 3rd. stage arm. That measure is 4 1/2 " back from the center of the lift pad.

Front measures are the same, easily clears the side pipes , handles my SWB F-150 and
W 126 Mercedes.

 

[clinebarger]

Rotary & Mohawk make some of the best lifts.....Rotary has the largest selection of add-on accessories .

For lowered vehicles.....I've always used pieces of wood, Like a 2x12 with 45° cut on the end. Pull the car up on the piece of wood will give you 1 1/2" of extra height. Or screw 2 of them together for 3 inches.

 

[Garett]

When I was in the market the Bendpak dealer said the same thing, do not get the lowpro arms due to their double telescoping vs the regular 3 piece telescoping arms. So to answer your question the low pro bendpak is less versatile than the normal xpr10s.

I like Rotary, they are used everywhere, very reliable. If it should break parts are available and chances are there are multiple repair guys familiar with it in your town. In my case the Rotary was a bit spendy for my house so i went with the Revolution RPT10. It's a rebadged Forward I10 lift. All 3 of these companies are owned by Dover.

So if you're looking at the Forward, check to see if the Revolution price compares. You can read all day long on this forum about certain brands of lifts leaking from day 1, coming all scuffed and scratched up, I never had any of these issues. In my area most shops with newer lift use mostly Rotary, some Forward and some Revolution, I see Challenger at some euro dealers but zero Bendpak. Stick to what works.

 

[MBABGarage]

FWIW, Derek Weaver is also a part of the same Dover group (VSG/Dover is the parent company) mentioned above. When you look up the Derek Weaver WPro10 on the ALI certification site, it is actually listed as a Rotary branded lift (thanks ncfireman1918).

If you have the funds, always go big name brand (Rotary, Challenger, Mohawk) as they will give you the most support and service options if you have issues. If you are on a budget, like I am, use your best educated decision.

I ended up placing the order for the DW WPro10 yesterday. I went with that one over the Atlas (the two that were in my price range) due to the confidence I have in the Rotary relationship. The certification helped as well.

 

[Bruce Amacker]

BendPak's got a lot of bad press lately for lack of support and not having parts in stock. I've had several brands of lifts, if money is no object get a Mohawk, if it's a hobby lift my Challenger E10 is 8-9 years old and works perfectly. It's a great value for $2800.

 

[rattle_snake]

Low profile arms are to clear the rocker of a vehicle. They do not have a lower pad height, necessarily, to get under a lowered car.

Most any 10k lift will do what you want fine.

There is a bunch of marketing BS regarding symmetrical, asymmetrical, semi-symmetrical, quazi-symmetrical, and so on. You can rotate the post or not.

 

[Falcon67]

I have a Weaver 9K floor plate model, base price unit. Has the asymmetric arms (3 telescoping front, 2 rear) with normal looking lift pads. Came with a variety of standoffs for the pads. I've had everything from a 2014 Fusion - low to the ground, no jack points - to a F-350 DRW on it. The only car that won't fit on it is the dragster and that it so low to the ground it won't clear the floor plate. To even get a jack under the nose, I had to buy the small HF aluminum racing jack, take the lift cup off and turn it down on the lathe.

 

[nzjkb5]

Thanks for the responses, guys! Bruce, I was not aware of any BendPak bad press, but I will keep that in mind. They were the first ones I looked at, based on acquaintances that had good experiences with them in the past. I think BendPak is what was in the last shop I worked for, too, but that was 15 years ago and I'm not sure.

Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards the Weaver/Forward/Revolution that all appear to be pretty much the same lift. I like the low pad height and the three-stage arms that can swing back like an assymetric lift when pulling in a short vehicle. I wish all the mfrs. would list the arm height as well as the minimum pad height. According to the diagram that BendPak sent to me, the Low-Pro arms have a 4" pad height, and the standard arms have a (lower!) 3.5" pad height, although that doesn't match the specs on their website. When you slide out the third stage of the arm on the standard arms, it is the same height (3.75") as the main body of their Low-Pro arms.

 

[cory58]

Love my Rotary. $4,500 installed by a great Rotary dealer. Made in America.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[GRivera]

Love my Rotary. $4,500 installed by a great Rotary dealer. Made in America.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

What model Rotary?

 

[kbeefy]

The only thing I have had issues with standard arms are newer corvettes and a couple hot rods. A couple pieces of 2x10 as described above solved the height issues.

I have 3 9k and 1 10k, If I buy another it would be the widest tallest 10-12k I could fit.

 

[duratechnotic]

Bend pack shows a comparison of a Rotary on their site. The Bendpak looks beefier than the Rotory. Am I missing something? I was leaning towards the Bendpak XPR10 AS. But I have to fit the width of the post to fit between the rafters in my shop. Which the XPR10 AS will fit.
I tried posting the link, but I need to more posts to do that.

: Bendpak a study in lift design. Basically comparing arms, post, etc.

Bendpak seems like a big enough company, that you would figure parts would always be available? I would prefer a lift designed and made in USA.

 

[bctexas]

Oops - partial double post - sorry

 

[bctexas]

I had a Bendpak XPR-10AXLS two post installed a few months ago. I went with that one because it will actually go high enough that my 6'4" bod can work under the car standing up straight. The pads are just under 3 3/4 inch off the floor at rest. The pads easily fit under both my lowered '86 MR2 and Birkin (Lotus Seven replica). This is the first lift I have owned so I cannot offer comparisons. But this is definitely one of those "how the hell did I ever get along without it" things. I just never had room for one before we built the shop....

 

[1MtnGoat]

Don't make it too complex. If the pad height is too high for your lift pads taper the front edge of 4 pcs. of 2x8 material, place in front of tires, drive up on and place arms then lift. reverse process to lower.

 

[SaltH2OHokie]

Don't make it too complex. If the pad height is too high for your lift pads taper the front edge of 4 pcs. of 2x8 material, place in front of tires, drive up on and place arms then lift. reverse process to lower.

Had a buddy tell me that. But you and he won't be around when my Corvette needs to be on lift and isn't running or driving. Those simple 2x's are tough to mount when you're pushing a car solo!

 

[Skyking1992]

I'm interested in any solutions for low cars. I have an older USA made Forward lift. My weekend autocross car is a C5 Z06 Corvette that sits very low. I have a set of "flat stopper" ramps from race ramps, but they slide on my epoxy floor. I end up jacking the car with my modified floor jack, then putting one arm under, lowering the jack, then repeat on the other side. There has to be a better way.

 

[porschedude996TT]

I’m thrilled with my in ground lift. I’ve had it for over 6 years. No over head stuff or posts to block any movement around shop. Pat #155 is where it starts. Best of all worlds in my opinion. What that’s worth

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17276&page=8

Manufacturer website:
https://ever-eternal.diytrade.com/s...56-0/In-ground_full_rise_scissor_lift_CE.html

 

[SaltH2OHokie]

I'm interested in any solutions for low cars. I have an older USA made Forward lift. My weekend autocross car is a C5 Z06 Corvette that sits very low. I have a set of "flat stopper" ramps from race ramps, but they slide on my epoxy floor. I end up jacking the car with my modified floor jack, then putting one arm under, lowering the jack, then repeat on the other side. There has to be a better way.

My C6 wouldn't clear lift arms on my buddy's lift when it dropped a lifter. When we pushed it back in the shop with the rebuilt short block in the bed of my truck, lift arms went under! I'm not saying it's the best option... But pulling the motor worked for me!

 

[nzjkb5]

Original poster here, our situation changed and we just moved to a new-to-us house that has an existing 30x40 shop. Yay!!! Unfortunately, the shop only has a 10' ceiling.

So, now I am looking at low-height 2-post lifts. I was thinking about a floor plate lift so I could get a vehicle as high as possible, but SaltH2OHokie above made me wonder about pushing a dead vehicle over the floor plate. I guess I could put a couple of anchor pots in the floor to get around that, though.

Is the floor plate in the way as often as it seems it will be? Using a transmission jack, or just tripping over it when I'm not looking down... ?

 

[zkdiesel]

Original poster here, our situation changed and we just moved to a new-to-us house that has an existing 30x40 shop. Yay!!! Unfortunately, the shop only has a 10' ceiling.

So, now I am looking at low-height 2-post lifts. I was thinking about a floor plate lift so I could get a vehicle as high as possible, but SaltH2OHokie above made me wonder about pushing a dead vehicle over the floor plate. I guess I could put a couple of anchor pots in the floor to get around that, though.

Is the floor plate in the way as often as it seems it will be? Using a transmission jack, or just tripping over it when I'm not looking down... ?

Moving vehicle over it is no big deal

Rear wheel drive trans jack work ***** with it but you can suffer through if it’s a 1 time thing....