New BendPak XPR-AC installed

[Nugent1021]

Hey, I finally pulled the trigger on a Bendpak XPR-AC lift. I'll post my new garage build and pictures separately.

I was trying to decide between the Challenger E10, Rotary SPOA10, and Bendpak XPR-10ACX. The Challenger and the Bendpak were similarly priced and the Rotary was about $200 more. I spoke with Buck Henry at Shop Equipment Supply in Havana Florida (850-539-3395). Buck's guys have about 20 years of experience in the North Florida area and he said there wasn't much difference between all of the lifts I asked about. He sells multiple brands (Challenger, Bendpak, etc), but as I spoke with him it sounded like he sold the Bendpak lifts most often. Since Jeff (here on Garage Journal) was helpful during my search and Buck seemed most familiar with Bendpak, I decided to go with the XPR-10ACX. Unfortunately, when Buck came out to my house to look at my garage he said my contractor didn't allow enough room for the XPR-10ACX so I had to get the narrower XPR-10AC. Frustrating, since I gave the contractor the actual lift plans to make sure there was enough room. At least I could get the XPR-10AC, I guess. Soon after Buck came out to evaluate my garage, my contractor started blocking the door to the lift bay.

So, about a month later I was able to get the lift ordered. Buck showed up July 8th and it started pouring rain about 15 minutes before he got to my place.

 

[Nugent1021]

My garage door was too small to get the trailer in, but the rain stopped soon enough.



The guys were able to unload the posts and put them into position without damaging any of the walls in the lift bay. They spent a lot of time lining them up and measuring before they started drilling.

 

[Nugent1021]

Once they had the posts anchored they ran the cables, hydraulics, and put the arms on.









These guys worked constantly for about 4 hours or so, but they were very thorough. The final install looked like this:



Which left getting the 30amp 220v ran by the electricians. Unfortunately, that had to wait until Tuesday due to misunderstandings with the electricians. Actually, my contractor didn't pay the bill to the electricians so I had to pay for the 220v (that was in my contractor contract) myself. They did a great job, though.

 

[e-tek]

Welcome to the lift club!!! You are gonna LOVE having it. I had mine up and down 10 times today doing some brake and suspension work on my Challenger - what a treat! Great job on the space - looks like it fit right in.

The electrical looks odd from my POV. Did they just run a wire up to a junction box, then to the lift? Is the 220V wiring not INSIDE the wall? If that's the 220V wiring we see, why isn't it secured?? But maybe it's just the photo...

 

[Nugent1021]

So, here are some pictures of the lift in action. I had some brake work to do on the SUV and since the vehicle weighs 6600 lbs, it was a good test for the lift.



And here's a picture of the garage from the outside.

 

[Nugent1021]

Final thoughts? The lift is great. Structurally, it seems a lot thicker and heavier than the Rotary lifts up at the Auto Super Service Center down the street. That's just based on appearance, I'm sure Rotary makes a good lift. It lifts all my vehicles with ease, no hessitations, no problems. This is a quality lift. I think the wider one would have been nice (for ease getting in and out), but it definitely wouldn't have fit in my garage. The narrow one is plenty wide enough since I'm not a big guy at 5.9 165lbs. I guess larger guys might have some troubles banging the doors against the posts or arms.

The $450 for installation was worth every penny in my opinion. Those guys worked hard and really knew what they were doing. Having the local expertise is invaluable if I have any troubles down the road. I have a feeling that won't be often, though, as this thing is built really well. I found a used lift for a great deal (Jeff at Bendpak even said it was hard to pass up), but I decided I wanted the peace of mind of new with warranty with my sons running around. I'm sure I made the right decision now.

 

[Nugent1021]

Hey E-tek, thanks for the comments. The subpanel for the electrical is on the house side of the garage and the lift bay is the furtherest bay from the house. There's conduit in the ceiling to where it comes to the junction box, where the safety switch is tied into the 220 wires. They used carflex from the lift motor to the junction box. They probably should have tied down the safety switch wire and the carflex to the lift?

 

[Nutty 5.0]

We did ours similarly with BX anchored with clips to secure it to the lift. You should attach them to the lift so they can get caught and potentially ripped out = shocking someone. Looks awesome and you'll wonder how you did without. I can see you doing a 4 poster in another bay in the future. Ask me how I know!

 

[porschedude996TT]

Looks Great, I'm looking at the ACX like you were planning one buying. What did you pay for the AC and what was the shipping? I live very close to their warehouse and the will do a "Will-Call" pickup. When the stood the collums up, did they just stand them up by hand and they were stable enough to adjust and drill through into the concrete?

 

[e-tek]

I was looking at the second to last pic in the third series. What is that second wire? I can see the main one from lift motor to Junction box, but then there's the other up high....
Definitely they should have tied the wire (nice and straight!) to the post, until the box, then straight acros with just a little slack to allow for post movement.
Good to see you're already using it! Awesome shop.

 

[chadman]

How deep is your garage? How many feet from the front wall is your lift? Just wondering because I'm about to install mine soon. Thanks

 

[FatFndr]

I just installed a Bend Pak HD-9ST 4 poster (didn't care to tear up my garage floor to put in additional concrete for the 2 poster). It's GREAT, you'll love it, I only wonder why it took me so long to buy one, just getting to old to lay on a concrete floor anymore. They shipped it to me free (I'm in Ohio) from California. I only found their tech support to be a little weak, but they were eager to please. Congratulations, nice lift.

 

[Nugent1021]

Hey, my lift was a bit more than I wanted to spend - about $3550 installed. The installation was about $450. I checked around and could have gotten the same lift from Metro Lifts (in Alabama, they were really cool on the phone but couldn't find a good installer in my area) for $2615 (minimum retail price I think). I could have ordered a Dannmar for about $2100, but the best installer they could find was in Jacksonville (250 miles away) and they wanted $850 to install. I guess I could have asked Buck Henry if he'd install a Dannmar, but for resale value I really wanted a certified lift and a lift that was known (i.e. someone could google it and contact the company and they would respond). We don't plan on moving, but you never know the future. I probably could have gotten a Challenger, which is similar to the xpr-10ac (not as wide as the xpr-10ac).

As far as standing them up, it definitely took both the guys to do it, then they "walked" the posts to exactly where they wanted to drill them into the concrete. They did measurements first and marked everything off with a sharpie on the floor.

The measurements of my garage are 51' x 26'. I designed the garage and my contractor made it. However, for the lift ceiling he didn't bring the rafters up high enough so they weren't able to put the lift in as deep as they wanted - so I have to watch the back of the vehicles so they don't hit the garage door (when the garage door is open and I car is raised). I'd have to measure, but it's probably currently 2 feet off-center (deeper into the garage) and I'd probably prefer it to be about 2-3 feet deeper into the garage. I still have at least 4 or 5 feet in front of the vehicles.

As far as designing the garage, 26' deep is nice and I'd probably do that depth or maybe 2 feet more if I had to do it again.

Regarding the wire, they definitely should have tightened it up with a finished look, but at least they put it in conduit (which is probably why they didn't care to tie it down). Ended up costing me $365 for the wiring, which was high. I think it should have been closer to $250-$300.

Does anyone know if they make a lawn-tractor attachment for this? My in-laws would like to put their John Deere riding mower up.

 

[Defender Chassis]

The Challenger and the Bendpak were similarly priced and the Rotary was about $200 more.

I would have spent the $200 and kept the money in the USA.

 

[e-tek]

I think your shop is awesome and like has been said - you are gonna LOVE it. The funny thing is, it has taken me a while to realize how many ways it's useful! This week I had to pull the engine back out of my Challenger. I was kinda dreading it, but with the lift it's so easy. Up for this, down for that. Up again, down again. Never have to even bend down!! Took 60 minutes to pull it out! I even found that the cherry pickers legs fit under the lift and it still goes up high enough! That way the car can stay on for engine swaps! (I'm sure many of you already knew that!) Easy-peasy, Lemon-squeezy!!

 

[ps junkslinger]

pics of all your garages make me want to add on. I have wanted a lift forever... Congrats..

 

[Nugent1021]

This is the time to do an addition and get that lift, IMHO. Make sure you get everything in writing from the contractor and don't avoid the building inspector. I realize most people know and say that, but times are really tough recently and the contractors will turn on you on a dime. I underestimated how low my contractor would go when business was down (or non-existent).

I did a HELOC through Regions Bank, but they were such a pain and they weren't posting payments in a timely fashion. I found a 0 APR/0 transfer fee Mastercard card from Bank of America. Call 1-800-932-2775 and ask for offer code FAATCY. Make sure they confirm there's no fee for cash advances/balance transfers and 0% APR for 12 months. They approved mine on the phone. Pretty awesome, I paid off the HELOC and have 12 months no interest to pay off the credit card.

 

[ghlkal]

Nice setup and choice of lift Nugent1021

Does anyone know if they make a lawn-tractor attachment for this? My in-laws would like to put their John Deere riding mower up.

Good question ... I'd like to know the answer also.

 

[SteveU]

Here's a link to the one Mohawk offers for their lifts, maybe you could make one similar yourself or have one made up if they don't offer one.

http://www.mohawklifts.com/library/manuals/turfpack.pdf

Another idea is to have something like this made up for the size tires on your mower

http://www.mohawklifts.com/consumer/tire.php

 

[genroxbro]

New BendPak XPR AC installed

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[Nugent1021]

those mohawk attachments are pretty cool, gives me some ideas.

 

[ghlkal]

Here's a link to the one Mohawk offers for their lifts,

Thanks SteveU ... good ideas.

 

[mslisaj]

I just had my XPR-10ACX installed last month and it really works great. I paid $550 for the installation but the installer picked it up at the loading dock that was 200 miles from my shop. It took these guys about 3.5 hours to do as I had the electrical all in and it was just a matter of plugging the lift in. The biggest car I have is a 66 Chrysler New Yorker and it picked it up without a problem. I knew it would but it actually surprised me to pick this car up like this. Amazingly solid and easy to use. Definitely sets my shop apart from my friends. This is a fine product and I couldn't say more about it.

 

[Nugent1021]

Just an update on the lawn mower attachment for a lift, Greg Smith appears to make one. It seems a bit expensive at $895.

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-Lawn-Mower-Adapter-p/atlas-lma.htm

 

[tyrell2004]

Bendpak makes a turf lift as well and I think you can get the turf style arms as an option too. no idea on$

http://www.bendpak.com/bendpak-products/specialty-lifts/XPR-7TRF.aspx

 

[saabman]

EDIT: Oops attached this post to the wrong thread

Lisa, et al

I think we have the force discussion all wrong. After talking to a Mech Eng buddy he has turned my thinking around. Basically when a car is raised on the lift the opposing arms form a rigid horizontal element (with the car in the middle). As long as everything remains rigidly aligned the force transmitted to the columns is 100% (or nearly so) down. The primary force on the floor anchors is SHEAR (the bottom of the column wants to kick out or rotate) not TENSION. Which is good news as concrete floors are real good with sheer force. Along these lines it is false thinking that a bottom plate lift is inferior to top bar at keeping the columns from toppling inward. In fact if the top bar sees compression force it would likely buckle IMHO. The actual length of the arms also has no bearing on the force tranmitted down, that is simply the weight of the car. Nor does it matter if the lift is center of mass balanced or not. I draw an analogy to the truss roof on most houses (or garages). The roof puts a dowward force on the support walls, it does not splay the walls outward. It does strike me that when do a non center of mass balance lift, the floor anchors (in tension) do work to keep the lift from falling fore and aft.

Chris