So I was going to write this before, but then I stopped wanting to give Bendpak the benefit of the doubt.
I'm no longer at that point and want to let others know before they purchase the "new" MaxJax that they might want to hold off for a while.
The first issue was them contacting me for additional money for shipping even though their order form shows "free shipping in the contiguous United States."
Not that I mind paying for a liftgate, but I've never had this weirdness with someone asking me to pay more money after the fact.
So that was the first annoyance but fine.
The second... they shipped the MaxJax and their "third party supplier" according to them "messed" up with the flow divider.
Basically they unit wouldn't work with the provided instructions and hose so they sent out a "bulletin" to let people know that they have to flip the flow divider 180 degrees and then "hang" it from some zip ties so that the now "too short" hose would be long enough to plumb into the other side of the flow divider.
Well I didn't really want to zip tie the damn thing... I also didn't want to have to remove all the hoses AFTER I ran transmission fluid through it because that stuff wreaks.
So I waited for the "replacement" hose.
And I waited.
And waited.
Finally two weeks after I got the lift I got the hose.
Yay!
Now let me reverse here for one moment. The manual that they provide... well they didn't even bother to re-print it for the new lift. It still references "Danmar" and there are quite a few steps that are either completely different, or just not there at all.
I wound up having to take the cart apart after because the hooks that were supposed to be installed on the cart for the hoses, are no longer used and a "box" is used for the hoses.
Why they did this is beyond me. The box is hardly big enough to fit the hoses... would have been better to just have the hooks... and it sure as heck would have been better to have an updated manual.
SO
Back to hooking everything up now that I have all the parts.
Plumbed the new line, put the 7 quarts of transmission fluid in the pump.
Lifted the thing up a bit to bleed the cylinders. Bled the cylinders. Greased the channels at the top... then following the manual again... lifted to it's highest point and then greased the lower parts of the channels.
Well... then things started going wrong. LOL... as if they hadn't already.
The lift would not "lift" off of the locks.
I shook it... jostled it... no joy.
Called tech support. The first thing they asked me was "Did you buy this from Danmar?"
Pretty sure they wanted to tell me to go pound sand from the start.
"No I bought it from BendPak."
She gives me a number and transfers me.
Now at this point I've got a lift up to the highest point... it's starting to rain and I have a convertible without a top outside.
Yeah today sucked.
So tech support tells me that I should add more fluid. So I do... nothing. He listens to the motor... "Sounds normal, should be lifting."
It isn't lifting. So the "fix" was to take my floor jack and a 2x4 and lift the damn thing off the locks so I could lower it.
That worked... it lowered... great.
Then he says, "I'll email you and follow up in case you have any more problems."
Well... the lift went down and it now won't go back up. Motor runs... makes noise... no lifting.
So I'm guessing the motor is dead?
Went to the computer... no email.
BACK on the phone again wait for another 10 minutes... get, I believe, the same girl and then she asks, "What's wrong with it?"
"It won't lift."
"Can you take a picture?"
"Of what????"
"I'm going to resend the email from tech support and you can follow up with them."
Yeah the email that I'm pretty sure was never sent.
So I get the email... and now I wait.
The question is, do I tell them to just pick up this POS and just forget about getting a lift? (Ceiling is too low for anything else)
OR do I gamble that the next pump MIGHT work.
Thank God I didn't have a car on the damn thing... I don't know if I would have been able to get it down in that case.
SO yeah... maybe don't buy one, at least not just yet.
I'm no longer at that point and want to let others know before they purchase the "new" MaxJax that they might want to hold off for a while.
The first issue was them contacting me for additional money for shipping even though their order form shows "free shipping in the contiguous United States."
Not that I mind paying for a liftgate, but I've never had this weirdness with someone asking me to pay more money after the fact.
So that was the first annoyance but fine.
The second... they shipped the MaxJax and their "third party supplier" according to them "messed" up with the flow divider.
Basically they unit wouldn't work with the provided instructions and hose so they sent out a "bulletin" to let people know that they have to flip the flow divider 180 degrees and then "hang" it from some zip ties so that the now "too short" hose would be long enough to plumb into the other side of the flow divider.
Well I didn't really want to zip tie the damn thing... I also didn't want to have to remove all the hoses AFTER I ran transmission fluid through it because that stuff wreaks.
So I waited for the "replacement" hose.
And I waited.
And waited.
Finally two weeks after I got the lift I got the hose.
Yay!
Now let me reverse here for one moment. The manual that they provide... well they didn't even bother to re-print it for the new lift. It still references "Danmar" and there are quite a few steps that are either completely different, or just not there at all.
I wound up having to take the cart apart after because the hooks that were supposed to be installed on the cart for the hoses, are no longer used and a "box" is used for the hoses.
Why they did this is beyond me. The box is hardly big enough to fit the hoses... would have been better to just have the hooks... and it sure as heck would have been better to have an updated manual.
SO
Back to hooking everything up now that I have all the parts.
Plumbed the new line, put the 7 quarts of transmission fluid in the pump.
Lifted the thing up a bit to bleed the cylinders. Bled the cylinders. Greased the channels at the top... then following the manual again... lifted to it's highest point and then greased the lower parts of the channels.
Well... then things started going wrong. LOL... as if they hadn't already.
The lift would not "lift" off of the locks.
I shook it... jostled it... no joy.
Called tech support. The first thing they asked me was "Did you buy this from Danmar?"
Pretty sure they wanted to tell me to go pound sand from the start.
"No I bought it from BendPak."
She gives me a number and transfers me.
Now at this point I've got a lift up to the highest point... it's starting to rain and I have a convertible without a top outside.
Yeah today sucked.
So tech support tells me that I should add more fluid. So I do... nothing. He listens to the motor... "Sounds normal, should be lifting."
It isn't lifting. So the "fix" was to take my floor jack and a 2x4 and lift the damn thing off the locks so I could lower it.
That worked... it lowered... great.
Then he says, "I'll email you and follow up in case you have any more problems."
Well... the lift went down and it now won't go back up. Motor runs... makes noise... no lifting.
So I'm guessing the motor is dead?
Went to the computer... no email.
BACK on the phone again wait for another 10 minutes... get, I believe, the same girl and then she asks, "What's wrong with it?"
"It won't lift."
"Can you take a picture?"
"Of what????"
"I'm going to resend the email from tech support and you can follow up with them."
Yeah the email that I'm pretty sure was never sent.
So I get the email... and now I wait.
The question is, do I tell them to just pick up this POS and just forget about getting a lift? (Ceiling is too low for anything else)
OR do I gamble that the next pump MIGHT work.
Thank God I didn't have a car on the damn thing... I don't know if I would have been able to get it down in that case.
SO yeah... maybe don't buy one, at least not just yet.