After 3 years of shopping and soul searching to figure out what kind of lift I really want, and after an exasperating few months dealing with customs, shipping quotes, and a manufacturer in China, the end is near! Here's my story:
Like all auto junkies I first thought I wanted a 2-post lift like this:
Shopping around, I found they can be had relatively cheap (under $2000). But a few things kept nagging me -- I don't really use a lift very often, and I really didn't want the hassle of those big poles taking up space all the time. Plus, I was uncertain about my concrete strength and didn't know if I could trust it.
So I settled on getting a mid-rise scissor lift, especially after seeing the one Adam had. Mid-rise scissors look like this:
I was going to put it in the floor like this, which met my goal of having no exposed posts and full access of my garage when not in use.
They can be had relatively cheap, at $1000-$3000 depending on how high they go. There are some obvious and not so obvious disadvantages. First, of course, the lift obscures undercarriage access. Bad for tranny fluid changes, exhaust work, etc. Plus they are a little flimsy -- due to the narrow carriage width the frame can flex a little. But 90% of what I do is tire, brake, and suspension work so I wasn't too worried. The deal-breaker for me was that I would have to make a top cover for it to have a flat floor when not used. To use the lift, I'd have to drag the cover off, raise the lift, move the 4 arms into position, and raise. Honestly not a whole lot easier than jackstands at that point. So I procrastinated, until...
I went to Adam's shop and saw the full-rise scissor lift they just got:
The picture doesn't do this thing justice. Wish I had a photo showing the clear underside access. When I first saw it I asked myself, "why haven't I thought about these before"? Full-rise, clear center except for one tube across the floor, no headspace issues. It's pretty neat. The only complaint I had was that the frame itself was really, really long -- like 14' long including the ramps. To put something like this in the floor was going to mean a big hole. Plus, with the long frame, there are pads and mechanicals right under the wheels. And the best price I could find was $3600. Ouch. And I still wanted something with a smaller footprint, so off to Google search I went.
There really aren't many scissor lift manufacturers. I found this:
More compact, but a tall frame, and not very popular. $7000 list price. Saw one highly abused used one on ebay which went for $2500. No thanks.
Then I found this:
It's a Bend-Pak SP-7, the earlier version of the SP-7x that Adam has, smaller footprint due to the "double-X" but still lifts 7000# to six feet high. Found some prices of $3300-3500. After some calling around though, I found out that BendPak had discontinued the model because of some durability and safety problems. Plus, investigation of the photos shows that there IS a cross-brace between the lift pads, which restricts underside access. Pass.
More searching and I found a winner:
It's a full-rise lift, 7000# capacity. It's set up for on-floor use, no installation or concrete work required but it can be put in the ground. The diamond-plated pads are about 18"x4 1/2 feet long. Requires shop air and 240V power. Lifts to 6'6" in 45 seconds. Sold.
Problem is NO ONE SELLS IT in the US! So I found my perfect lift and I can't get one. Well that's not an acceptable answer. Started a thorough investigation of the company and it's US business relationships. Turns out all of Greg Smith's tire changers are made by this company. Talked to Greg Smith and found out that they have evaluated this company's "ATLAS" lifts and liked the units but decided not to sell the scissors since "they aren't popular in the US". Well, duh, cause no one sells them.
Meanwhile I happened to find this gem on the innernet. It's the same lift as above but with the ramps removed for an in-floor install:
Turns out there is ONE of these lifts in the US and the owner installed it EXACTLY how I was planning to. I found him and called him and talked to him for 1/2 hour about it. It was the demo unit that Greg Smith had gotten, decided not to sell, and sold as this one-off. The guy hadn't lifted a car with it yet though, and aside from some problems with Greg Smith he could vouch for the unit's quality and operation.
The 2-post lift is OBSOLETE for home users! No headspace problems, heck, I won't even raise it to full height most of the time, I plan to just scoot around on a wheeled stool.
Found out that these lifts are VERY popular in Europe, but for some reason not in the US. The company in China sells about 60 of these lifts per month there. Time to talk to someone there. I started emailing the company directly and set up a pretty good discourse with the company owner. I let him know that I might be able to drum up some business if he would sell direct to me and he agreed, basically setting me up as a distributor.
That was the easy part. Then I would spend 6 weeks learning about ocean freight, import customs, and how to get something that weighs 1900lb shipped halfway around the world. Let me tell you shipping something that big that far is NOT cheap. I had shipping quotes up into the 4 figures. Finally found a good shipper, set up a pickup date for me to get the thing directly from dock in Raleigh. Figured out how to do an international wire transfer, sent them my money, and waited 10 days for it to be built.
It was picked up yesterday in Liaoning and will soon, literally, be on the slow boat from China for a 35-day trek to Raleigh.
I'll be sure to post a bunch of photos about the rest of the story and the install. If it works out as I hope it will, well, I'm now a distributor and I'd be happy to sell these to anyone interested. I'm going to wait to see how customs / shipping / tarriffs charges shake out but I think I could sell these for about $3000 picked up in Raleigh for anyone interested.
_________________
Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1
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