No Lift Arm Safety Restraints

[bmarshall1]

Hello - getting the collective wisdom the the GJ on this. I have a used BP LAS-7 lift that has no arm restraints, nor does it seem to ever have had any or even any attachment points. I believe I have read that some older lifts do not have these. Am I living life dangerously by not having these, or does anyone know of a way to retrofit? I have been pouring over the internet and have not really found any restraints that would be able to be adapted, any thoughts?

 

[sanddan]

Arm restraints? Never heard of them for a car lift. Do you have a pic?

 

[sberry]

Mohawk has them.

 

[bmarshall1]

Arm restraints? Never heard of them for a car lift. Do you have a pic?

Arm Restraints AKA Safety Locks (they lock the arms in place while lifting). No Pix as there are none on the lift

 

[bmarshall1]

Mohawk has them.

Thanks, I'll try Mohawk.

 

[snyder]

When did the arm safety's come about? I never saw them in any shop I ever worked at.

 

[brownbagg]

my bendpak arm restrait been broken since day one, all four of them,its a 2005 model, once the load on them you dont need them

 

[bmarshall1]

my bendpak arm restrait been broken since day one, all four of them,its a 2005 model, once the load on them you dont need them

I just assumed all lifts had them, per the internet not all lifts had them, maybe they are a part of the safety standards now days. Maybe I am over thinking this but I would certainly like to be as safe as possible.

 

[Shadowdog500]

My Mohawk has them. I believe most if not all car lifts have them. They are automatic so some people don’t even know they are there. They restrict the ability of the lift arms to swing left and right once the carriage is more than a few inches in the air. Here is a Greg smith link that describes their arm restraint system. https://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Automatic-Arm-Restraints-Overhead

They can be a pain when lifting tall trucks because you can’t adjust the arms if they are more than an inch or two above he floor. I can see Someone working on big 4x4s all day defeating them for that reason. I made blocker blocks out of pieces of scrap wood to help adjust the pads for tall 4x4 trucks. I put the blocker blocks in to keep the restraints from engaging, then I raise the lift until the pads are about an inch below the frame. Then I adjust the pads, Then raise the lift enough for the pads to contact the lift point, then check for proper pad placement, then remove the blocker blocks to engage the arm restraint system.

 

[matt_i]

My thought is if you were lifting the same vehicle over and over the arm placement is standardized. Then it could be the addition of a pin which drops into two holed-tabs. You'd weld the tabs on.

The generic style I'm familiar with as posted are nothing more than gear teeth. There's a straight piece of gear (rack) that engages with the arc portion.

 

[Shadowdog500]

My thought is if you were lifting the same vehicle over and over the arm placement is standardized. Then it could be the addition of a pin which drops into two holed-tabs. You'd weld the tabs on.

The generic style I'm familiar with as posted are nothing more than gear teeth. There's a straight piece of gear (rack) that engages with the arc portion.

The vehicle would have to be placed in the same exact position every time to make something like this pin idea work. I have several short wheelbase cars that have to be placed in the exact same spot every time for the pads to align with the lift points. It is a pain in the **** and I’ve resorted to using pump up wheel dolleys to position those two cars perfectly. I would never want to do this for every car when a simple automatic system would allow you to just pull the car up and move the pads to any position and lock in that position automatically before the tires even leave the ground.

 

[Dragfluid]

Gotta love engineering for a non issue. Most hoists never had them. Now it's gospel. The one's that do are a PITA when you're trying to place a pad and have your body bent in some unbelievable position. And quite frankly, I'm very skeptical of those tiny gear teeth holding anything. If a pad is carelessly place and that arm wants to kick out, it's going to go.

 

[finn]

I would think they may be part of the ALI certification requirement.

Old lifts may have not have had them, but old cars didn’t have air bags , and people used to smoke cigarettes. We learn as time marches on.

Part of the Darwinian process, I guess.

 

[bmarshall1]

According to Bendpak 'The ANSI/ALI ALCTV-2017 (standard) lateral load-holding requirement for these components is 150 pounds with the arms fully extended. When a vehicle is falling at velocity due to improper loading or positioning on the lift, the arms will be leveraged under extreme load, a load sure to exceed the nationally mandated standard of 150 pounds.'

To me they seem to be MUCH stronger than to hold only 150 lbs. They are saying the average man may be able to give them a hard sideways push and either dislodge or break the mechanism if built to the minimum standards?

They look to be MUCH stronger than that. But still, they are an added level of safety, not a part of my Plan "A" for safety.

 

[bobj49f2]

I have an older Manitowoc lift that has the arm restraints. I use them all of the time, just figure it keeps the vehicle in place, they must have built them for a reason.

They're fairly simple and I think if you want to install them on a lift that didn't have them it wouldn't hard to install some using turn buckles. My have a latch that clamps on the threads of the threaded rod side.

View media item 101491

 

[firebirdparts]

Arm restraints? Never heard of them for a car lift. Do you have a pic?

You're not thinking about what he's asking. All car lifts need arm locks to prevent the arm swinging. Lots of car drops, maybe most of them, if you look on youtube, involve an arm swinging out.

 

[finn]

According to Bendpak 'The ANSI/ALI ALCTV-2017 (standard) lateral load-holding requirement for these components is 150 pounds with the arms fully extended. When a vehicle is falling at velocity due to improper loading or positioning on the lift, the arms will be leveraged under extreme load, a load sure to exceed the nationally mandated standard of 150 pounds.'

To me they seem to be MUCH stronger than to hold only 150 lbs. They are saying the average man may be able to give them a hard sideways push and either dislodge or break the mechanism if built to the minimum standards?

They look to be MUCH stronger than that. But still, they are an added level of safety, not a part of my Plan "A" for safety.

A falling car will exert more than 150 lbs of force, for sure, but a stable arm won’t let the car start falling in the first place. With stabilized arms, there won’t be over 150 lbs of kinetic energy. Sort of chicken and egg here. You need motion to generate kinetic energy. No motion- no kinetic energy.

 

[brownbagg]

when is a car going to drop