R6T7

I'm planning to install two lifts in my garage - and have narrowed the list down to Stinger, Revolution, Bend Pak, and Backyard Buddy. I would really appreciate any positive or negative experiences with these brands.

Thanks,

Bob

stall

Personally I love my Backyard buddy. I've had it now for 8 years and its been trouble free. I looked at the others and frankly think they are just not as safe. I like trhe idea of a fully enclosed post with very positive locks.

Good Luck

DansYellow66

I have an Autolifters, which is a virtual twin to the Backyard Buddy, except I think BB has improved on Autolifters (now out of business) in an area or two like offering powder coating. I'm an engineer and I bought this thing on the basis of the structural design and safety. No problems at all to date.

Dan

vintagecorvette

I have a 9000lb BendPak. It is great. It is very solid and well constructed. It was easy to set up. I plan to buy another in the near future. oWEN

grizzlyalan

Autolifters was reopened by it's former employees and is now under the name All American Lifts www.allamericanlifts.com Quality built and MADE IN THE U.S.A. Prices are not to far off from the competition.

Randy G.

I am considering one but we have this little issue here in So Cal called the San Andreas Fault. Do any of these companies have seismic stats on their lifts? I would guess a 9,000 pound lift with a little C1 on it should be able to withstand about 6.8 shaker, but who knows for sure. If it fell over, it would take out 3 cars in my garage.

stingrayl76

Grizzlyalan,

This link will work better
http://www.allamericanlifts.com/

Trophy Blue

I have the backyard buddy now for little over one year and I use it alot. The only problem that I have is my PIA neighbors coming over to change their oil and leaving me with containers of used oil in my garage!! I will get them back some day I swear!!

NedP1

The above ground lift production is quickly moving to China. We are working on a deal with them now.

There is nothing wrong with the Chinese lift. It's nearly an exact replaca of the asymetrical lift made by everyone else. Some are 10,000. I put in a 10.000 lb about four months ago. They love it.

I believe Ben-Pack and Mowhawk are still made here, but look to pay about $500 more. They would have US hydraulics.

Five years ago Chinese hydraulics were to be avoided, but they have improved and my partner tell me they are now equal to US.

Sometimes the Chinese have supplied the powder coated lift less hydraulics. The company then would put in the US hydraulics and the lift would have been made in the US.

As far as I know everyone powder coats now.

Now if you just need powercoating we are up and running on that line.

firstgear

Whose powder coating equipment are you using?

grizzlyalan

Thanks stingrayl76 guess my fingers got ahead of my brain:o

stingrayl76

Your welcome
Stuff happens.

GUSTO14

I walked around Corvettes at Carlisle for a couple of years comparing the lifts of many of the major companies. Most of them were very impressive and all seemed to have distinct advantages. I was very impressed with the Double Park lift and when comparing those on display at the different shows, for my purposes, they seemed the better value. I used to spend time in Wichita every year and since Double Park is located there, I visited their plant. I'm not sure they were accustomed to individual customers showing up out of the blue to check out their product, but they went out of their way to answer all of my questions and take me through the manufacturing process. This was the clincher for me... http://www.doublepark.net/

It's now been more than 4 years and I have been exceptionally pleased with my lift and it looks almost new. Their powder coating process must be good, as I have only managed to scratch it with much difficulty. I use my lift pretty hard, and dropping tools (and other heavy objects...) on it is a pretty common occurrence

A few friends have bought less expensive lifts and in less than a year they look much older (than mine) as they start to rust very quickly in our humid climate. A lift is in my opinion one place where you get what you pay for.

Good luck... GUSTO

w1ctc

I could go on a rant about this, but whats the use.

Vette66AirCoupe

I've had a backyard buddy for a couple of years now and it's performed flawlessly. Another thing to consider is what accesories, if any, you will buy. I bought drip pans but that's it. You can skip the oil drain accesory if you already have the typical floor pan that you used while you were crawling on your belly like a reptile. Just put the floor pan up on the drip pan and you're in business. It's much easier to store a floor pan than to find a place to store the accesory that rolls on the floor with the telescoping funnel. After all, if space wasn't at a premium in your garage you wouldn't be buying a double stack.

batman1414

Have had my Autolifter for 2 years (no problems) If I build another garage I will be installing their larger one
Auto lifter is now ALLAMERICANLIFTS

kyosho

I also have an autolifters lift and have been very happy with it. I would recommend it to anyone. Virtually everything on it (including the pump) is Made in USA.

JohnZ

I also have a Double-Park lift (www.doublepark.net), bought about five years ago; top-quality materials, very nicely made and finished, has probably been up and down 200 times since I've had it, no problems.

firstgear

I have Eagle lifts....two of them.....here is the bigger one, it is not only good for storing and stacking cars, but it is good for body lifts, here it is one of the many time I used it to take off, put back on, take off, etc my '60 body....


And of course it is good for pulling motors or putting motors in...


and finally they are of course good for stacking cars....how to turn 2 spots into 4 spots....


You can't go wrong with any of them if you ask me.....however the number one rule to make sure that you don't dump a car, and they can be dumped is to make sure that ALL 4 locks are in place. I actually let the lift down on the 4 locks and if one corner keeps going, I put it back up and make sure that the 4 corners are indeed locked in place.

These things are not totally fool proof, I would suggest only trained and careful people put cars up, store them and take them down. Only I move the cars on the lifts at our home, I let no one else do that.

good luck, Herb

Vette66AirCoupe

however the number one rule to make sure that you don't dump a car, and they can be dumped is to make sure that ALL 4 locks are in place. I actually let the lift down on the 4 locks and if one corner keeps going, I put it back up and make sure that the 4 corners are indeed locked in place.<<<<<

Excellent advice! If I may chime in with some additional observations regarding the use of my 4 poster, the number one reason that you may miss a lock (that is, that when taking the pressure off the hydraulic cylinder to let the lift rest on the mechanical locks, one or more of the locks does not engage) is that you don't have the locks adjusted evenly. This is critical. You want all 4 locks, one on each post, to engage at the same time. As you raise the car the locks click as they pass each step. You never want to leave your car up supported only by the hydraulics so you're always going to go past where you want the car to rest and then drop it down until it settles on the locks. The number two reason you may miss a lock is that even when they are adjusted well one may lag the others just a hair which makes it critical to go a bit past the point where you hear the locks engage (they make a loud click as they are spring loaded) on the last stop that you wish to lower the car onto. I can tell you from experience that you can have 3 locks engaged and think everything is fine only to have a heart attack when the whole structure shakes with you Vette on top because one leg is allowing the ramp to continue to go down while the other 3 are locked! Fortunately, my reflex action when this occured was to hit the power and raise the car back up. After that incident I realized my locks needed to be adjusted, an easy procedure, and I take the 10 seconds it takes to visually assure myself that all 4 locks are engaged before I lower the car onto the locks.