Shopping for lift - decided on Bendpak - Jeff?

[climbabout]

New forum member here - live in southwestern CT - my wife and I are in the process of a minor garage cleanup and have been shopping for lifts. I think we have decided on the Bendpak HD9ST (2 of them). The garage that they are going in is a 2 car oversize - its about 26x28. I have 2 C2 corvettes and a 56 TBird to store along with the family car Audi A4. I have measured all the cars and they will fit comfortably on these lifts with room to spare. Ceiling height is 12'6" with a beam in the middle at about 10'8". I'm considering installing these myself. I'm very mechanically inclined - I regulary wrench on all the cars and have an extensive electrical backround. I see that Jeff from Bendpak regularly contributes here and that make me comfortable should the unexpected arise during assembly. Any words of wisdom from those of you who have undertaken similar projects would be appreciated.
Tim

 

[Cryptic1911]

They aren't hard to put together at all, just difficult to manage the heavy ramps if you don't have an engine hoist.

A few things to remember are to not follow the directions when it has you stand the posts up and drop the cross beams down in (from up on a ladder). That's a dumb way to do it.. lay the posts down, and slide the crossbeam in, and then stand the posts up (with the beam at the bottom).

Another thing is to use a ratchet strap to put some tension on the cable block on the end of the piston to one of the supports underneath the ramp so that the cables don't slip off the pullies while you are getting everything situated. Just pull them tight enough to have some tension to keep them inside the pullies, and once you hit the pump, the hydraulics will take over, and the ratchet strap will slack

I think assembling the lift yourself is the best way, that way you have a good understanding of how it all works

 

[climbabout]

Thanks - good tips - I should have enough manpower - I have 2 sons and some friends I can call on if I need to.
Tim

 

[Matt M PA]

Good advice there. I too installed my HD9 and besides saving a lot of money...I learned a lot.

I was lucky to have a bunch of friends stop by the night of the runway lifting, and one had a engine hoist. We also did lay the columns down and slide the crosspieces on as opposed to lifting them up and over.

The instructions that came with mine suggested torquing the bolts that hold that runways to the crosspieces, and two bolts broods before reaching the torque specified. I got. Some better bolts at Lowes. I think that has been updated since in the instructions.

One important note, when it's delivered, it's one big heavy package. I was lucky to have mine delivered to a friends place that has a rollback and forklift. They were able to remove it from the semi....then place it in their rollback. They placed it on car dollies so we could slide it off the rollback and into the garage.

 

[AndysMBgarage]

+1 for the car dollys.

They were essential when I set up my HD9ST

Also if you are getting a jacking beam ensure that the hoist is the model that suits the jacking beam you get.

They have had a couple of minor modifications over the past year that can cause a few delays in getting everything sorted.

 

[Cryptic1911]

oh yeah I forgot about the unloading of it from the trailer.. We used some 1000lb furniture dolly's (wood ones) from harbor freight that were like $8, and an enigne hoist to roll it down the incline. To lift the ramps after we unpacked everything in the garge, we just double wrapped a ratchet strap around the center of each ramp, hooked to the engine hoist, and had one person hold one end of the ramp for some balance. Me and my dad put ours together, so you won't need more than two people if you have a hoist.. if you don't, I'd pick one up cheap as it will make the job much much easier to deal with

For delivery, you'll want to have it delivered somewhere with a forklift and have them drop it on a rented trailer or something

 

[climbabout]

I'm lucky that I am able to have it delivered to work where we have a loading dock and forklift - I can then unpack it and bring it home in the company box truck which has a power tailgate.

 

[SMLDONZI]

I assembled 2 HD9STs about a year ago and it was very enjoyable. It sounds like you are at the perfect mechanical level to have at it. Bendpak's customer support was exceptional at quickly answering any questions. Alot of great tips are posted here already.

I rented a moving truck and picked them up at the freight depot where the were loaded with a forklift. A bunch of friends and I broke the packages down in the truck to transport the components inside the garage.

I borrowed a pallet jack from a buddy and that proved to be the perfect tool for aiding assembly--along with some scrap 2X4s cut up in about 1 foot long pieces for blocking.

Enjoy!

 

[NitroPress]

If you don't want to give up as much floor space as the HD-9s take, for some relatively small cars like yours, bug Jeff about the HD-7W instead. They put mine together as a custom order but I understand it's meant to be a standard model, and it takes up a lot less of your garage length. (Of course, if you plan to put limos or crew-cab pickups up there some day, never mind... )

PM me if you have any questions. I'm not too far away.

 

[climbabout]

Thanks for the offer nitro - also smldonzi - thanks for the idea about the pallet jack - I can borrow one from work for moving the runways around.
Tim

 

[JSK]

Lurking here to serve.

Thanks for the confidence in BendPak, and yes, I'm (we're) always here to help, whenever, whatever.

Jeff

 

[climbabout]

Jeff -
At the moment, waiting for my price quote from ASEDEALS her in CT. Will let you know how it works out. On a side note, I assume a tire inflator (the kind without the tank) would be insufficient to unlock the safety catches?
Tim

 

[ket-tek]

I installed my first one completely alone in about half a day, and the second one with two friends in a few hours. It's a daunting task to start, but once it's finished you realize there isn't really anything to it. Easy stuff, just big.

The part I found the hardest when doing it alone was that the way it is packaged one of the ramps is upside down and you have to flip it over. Once it's flipped over then the dollies or pallet jack are easily used to place them onto the crosstubes.

I had fun installing these, and if anyone else in VA gets an HD series I'm game to come help for free, well for some food at least ...

 

[NitroPress]

It doesn't take much to operate the air locks. I've used my 10 gallon air tank with 40-50 psi in it and even several operations didn't noticeably lower the pressure. It's important to note that the pressure is vented after you release the button and so there will be a steady decline in pressure from a small supply.

There are also the onboard air bottles, which didn't happen to work on my installation but should work fine on standard HD-9s.

 

[Kit]

New guy here...just posted my intro.

Finishing up a 24' x36' pole barn garage and putting one of Jeff's 10 AC lifts in. Installs tomorrow and anxious to see how it works.