What is the right size 4 post lift

[rcpilot1]

I have a 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab cummins and need to kknow what size lift I should get. I called several sellers and got different answers so now I am confused. They told me 7,000 up to 10,000. Which would the safest. And if you have a favroite please list it.

Thanks

 

[pattenp]

Simple answer is, 10,000 lb.

 

[Mr Bingo]

For that size truck, 10k.

 

[torquepower85]

I have a 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab cummins and need to kknow what size lift I should get. I called several sellers and got different answers so now I am confused. They told me 7,000 up to 10,000. Which would the safest. And if you have a favroite please list it.

Thanks

Looks like the curb weight is somewhere around 6000 lbs. You'd probably be fine with a 7000-lb lift, if you get an ALI certified lift. I believe they're tested well past their rated capacity.

As far as favorite, I think BendPaks are really nice. Plus they have great customer service, which you'll see here on the forum from time to time.

here's all the BendPak four post lifts and a couple other choices.

 

[rcpilot1]

Thanks for the replies, good info.

Does anyone know anything about Complete Hydrolics SL 10,000 CSP XLT. It comes with some nice extras and is moveable.

 

[crabjoe]

I have a 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab cummins and need to kknow what size lift I should get. I called several sellers and got different answers so now I am confused. They told me 7,000 up to 10,000. Which would the safest. And if you have a favroite please list it.

Thanks

Don't do 7000lbs. A friend of mine has a pole barn he shares with his brother and they each have a lift. He has a 9000lbs lift, his brother has a 7000lbs lift. His brother's lift won't pick up his Ram 3500 dually, where his will.

He's the president of a local Dodge diesel club and allows the members to use the lift. None of us, even with SRW Rams, want to touch his brother's lift. We just don't trust it.

BTW, his brother went with the 7000lbs lift because he most works on Jeeps and he was able to save some $$ on it. Now he wishes he'd gotten the bigger lift.

Oh one other thing.. I no longer own the Ram ('04 2500 quad cab w/Cummins), but last time I put it on a truck scale, with a full tank of fuel, it weighed in around 8000lbs.

Good Luck!

 

[rcpilot1]

Thanks for the inof. I am looking at a 10,000 lb lift. I always like to go big and safety first.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

I bought a 12k, because you never know what you will bring home, or at least I dont. I do have a F450 Dually (16k GVW), so I do have a reason, although Im not sure what it weighs wet and empty (probably around 9k ?).

 

[Bill Anderson]

I like the features, included items, and price of that lift. Would be great if anyone had any firsthand experience. RC, let me know if you get it and how it works for you. I was looking at the Greg Smith 8k lb. EXT lift, but this will lift 2k lbs more, more height and more length. For ~$400 more.

 

[rcpilot1]

That's what I was thinking. Hopefully someone has this lift and can tell us more. Looks like I will order it and if I do I will start a thread on it with some pictures.

 

[torquepower85]

Seems like an ok lift. I would check up on ALI certification though, it's the only thing that scares me about these lifts - they don't seem to be tested by a nationally recognized testing facility. Think this article will help if at all interested in the safest possible lift: https://www.gesusa.com/Articles.asp?ID=291 cheers! Good luck with whatever you choose! Looking forward to pics/thread

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

In a nut shell, when looking at 4 posts, the good ones, use leaf chains, the el-cheapo's use cables.

Also, a 4 post without rack jacks, its like a car with out gas.

Its basically good for LOFs, and parking, and little more. Otherwise, I prefer a 4 post over a 2 post, but I do not work on front wheel drives.. if your working on FWDs, a 4 post is probably not what your looking, at least if you dropping the ******.

Lots of new car franchises have folded in the recent past and still are, Im going to another sale in 2 weeks, high quality American made used lifts are all over the place for sale. I paid $1500 for my 2001 12k Challenger alignment lift with 2 pneumatic rack jacks..at auction, its a $14k lift new... deals to be had. Why buy a ************* ?, for a fraction of the price you can have the best used.

A good friend of mine has a POS 2 post, its an off shore model, from day one, the ram is bent or oblong and leaks like a sieve. The company folded, while he was trying to get it warrantied. He removed the cylinder and sent it out to a cylinder shop, they could not remedy it, told him it was out of round and he needed new. He re-installed, and just keeps feeding it more fluid as it leaks out, and trys to use the lift as little as possible.

The other lift he has, is my old Mohawk 2 post from 1987. Its has been running it in commercial service its whole life and has yet to need a repair... He is using it in his Indy shop. When I got out of the business, I sold it to him.

Id look for a used good American made lift. Ive assembled two "off shores" from Greg Smith for others. Not going to knock the lifts, but you get exactly what you pay for. They both work, but the differences are drastic compared to the quality American lifts. If you have never been exposed to a well built lift, than you have no idea what you bought.

 

[JSK]

In a nut shell, when looking at 4 posts, the good ones, use leaf chains, the el-cheapo's use cables.

The other lift he has, is my old Mohawk 2 post from 1987. Its has been running it in commercial service its whole life and has yet to need a repair... He is using it in his Indy shop. When I got out of the business, I sold it to him.

Id look for a used good American made lift. Ive assembled two "off shores" from Greg Smith for others. Not going to knock the lifts, but you get exactly what you pay for. They both work, but the differences are drastic compared to the quality American lifts. If you have never been exposed to a well built lift, than you have no idea what you bought.

Not to be argumentative, but there are reasons modern lift companies use cable instead of chain. Although chain to many seems strong and robust, there are acute characteristics of chain that when compared to cable is not as favorable.

• First and foremost is a chains tendency to simply fatigue and break with little or no warning of the pending failure. Even though lift companies surely warn that service and inspection is critical, often times their cautions are ignored. Sure, if you micro-inspected the chains periodically you might be able to prevent the inevitable, but chain inspection is often ignored and often impossible unless the chains are completely removed. If you’ve been in the auto repair business working with older chain lifts for as long as I think you have, I suspect you may have witnessed the frightening circumstance when a chain lets go. Not to say that cables are perfect, but there are clear evident signs when a cable is fatigued; in the event of a failure, modern slack-cable devices are instant and very effective.

• Secondly, when it comes to slack-safety locks or suspension failure back-up devices, a chains rigid characteristic (hard to bend one way and heavy) makes it difficult to not only design a slack-chain safety device but to get it to work effectively under ALL conditions. Most old time chain lifts were indeed built like tanks, but lacked modern safety margins and standards. Simply throwing a lot of steel at something doesn’t always make it better.

When it comes to two-posts, Mohawk’s name often gets tossed in the “chain” class. Again, to many, this might seem to be a more durable and thusly a safer alternative to “cable” two-posts, when in doubt that is far from the truth. Mohawk and a handful of other “American” lifts using technology from the 70’s and 80’s do lift (load is elevated and suspended from) with chain – however most “cable” two-post lifts are direct-drive - no chain or cable to worry about; suspension components inclined to fatigue and fail omitted with Direct-Drive technology.

 

[revlover]

Gotta love the lift threads. This was brought up before in the Pirate 4 x 4 forum I think. A lot of discussion about heavy lifts and why the varying lifting capacities. 10,000 pounds? Really? They started at 7!!!

My .02 cents....Repair shops use commercial models and capacities while we weekenders tend to gravitate more towards hobby or DIY brands, models, and styles. It’d be nice if all DIY lifts were priced less but that’s not always the case. I guess a hobby/DIY lifts claim to fame is space conscious design i.e. smaller floor plans, lower runways and other design characteristics better suited for hot-rod, muscle and sports cars.

Early pioneers in the DIY four post market were AutoLifters, Stinger and Backyard Buddy. They pretty much had the home-hobby market to themselves until commercial guys like Bendpak and Rotary figured it out. Auto-Lifters is no longer - Stinger and Backyard Buddy may not be too far behind. Deeper pockets and a lot more resources meant the less-financed guys could no longer compete - capitalism’s relentless pursuit of a poorer buying public.

Even though Bendpak may be able to out produce and make a better product, the market is saturated with cheaper discounters who offer super-low prices. And that’s when the consumer needs to figure it out. Usually if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Lifts that are ETL certified need to be designed, built and tested to official ANSI/ETL standards; lifts that are not, don’t. Companies with no concern for ANSI/ETL certification can pretty much rate their lifts to whatever capacity they feel will help them sell more. But who checks their math? If a lift carries an ETL badge it would have to be designed with mandated safety factors built-in; all checked, verified and tested by a NRTL. So if you’re Complete Lift or one of the other knock-off, non-certified companies and don’t have to worry about nit-picky standards, make a label revision - change the 7, 8 or 9 to a number 10. Presto, a new lift model (capacity) is born.

Don’t think for a minute that a rated capacity label on a non-certified crane, forklift or car lift means a hill ‘o beans because it doesn’t. Of course, if the seller of that DURO-10 lift has a “calc” package stamped and endorsed by a Professional Engineer to back up their claim, then by all means, consider it true; just don’t get your hopes up though.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

Not to be argumentative, but there are reasons modern lift companies use cable instead of chain. Although chain to many seems strong and robust, there are acute characteristics of chain that when compared to cable is not as favorable.

• First and foremost is a chains tendency to simply fatigue and break with little or no warning of the pending failure. Even though lift companies surely warn that service and inspection is critical, often times their cautions are ignored. Sure, if you micro-inspected the chains periodically you might be able to prevent the inevitable, but chain inspection is often ignored and often impossible unless the chains are completely removed. If you’ve been in the auto repair business working with older chain lifts for as long as I think you have, I suspect you may have witnessed the frightening circumstance when a chain lets go. Not to say that cables are perfect, but there are clear evident signs when a cable is fatigued; in the event of a failure, modern slack-cable devices are instant and very effective.

• Secondly, when it comes to slack-safety locks or suspension failure back-up devices, a chains rigid characteristic (hard to bend one way and heavy) makes it difficult to not only design a slack-chain safety device but to get it to work effectively under ALL conditions. Most old time chain lifts were indeed built like tanks, but lacked modern safety margins and standards. Simply throwing a lot of steel at something doesn’t always make it better.

When it comes to two-posts, Mohawk’s name often gets tossed in the “chain” class. Again, to many, this might seem to be a more durable and thusly a safer alternative to “cable” two-posts, when in doubt that is far from the truth. Mohawk and a handful of other “American” lifts using technology from the 70’s and 80’s do lift (load is elevated and suspended from) with chain – however most “cable” two-post lifts are direct-drive - no chain or cable to worry about; suspension components inclined to fatigue and fail omitted with Direct-Drive technology.

That may all be well and good, its just been my observation while working in many shops, the el-cheapo off shore lifts have all been cable, and the American made "tank" lifts have all had chain. Just a common denominator. That said, I will take the inferior leaf chain lift over the off shore lift any day.

Thanks for pointing that out to educate me, and the rest of the readers of this thread .

 

[JSK]

................you get exactly what you pay for. They both work, but the differences are drastic compared to the quality --------------- lifts. If you have never been exposed to a well built lift, than you have no idea what you bought.

Knuckles....we can for sure raise our glasses to that!

 

[ghnl]

I bought a Direct Lift Pro-Park 9 Plus because it is wide enough & long enough to lift my F250 Ext cab diesel and also narrow enough to fit my MG. Some of the other models would be good for one vehicle but not the other.

 

[rcpilot1]

Well I pulled the trigger today on this lift. It is suppose to be here in about three weeks. I will try and take as many pictures as I can and start a threat about it. Can't wait to get it and get started.

http://www.completehydraulic.com/lifts-4-post-sl10000xl.html

 

[sc105b]

rc you gotta pm...