adb1240

Hi,

As a former Corvette owner / enthusiast, I figured I'd share these pictures of my recent near-catastrophe involving an AUTOLIFTERS (now defunct, but nearly identical in design to the popular BackyardBuddy -- with very similar design flaws) four-post lift.

For those of you with the BB, or any four-post lift in general, you probably know that a lot of manufacturers of these low-end (read: not Rotary, Western, or other dealer-grade equipment) hoists for home use don't urge you to bolt your hoist to the floor. BB actually claims this is due to their hoist's superior construction and "stability". However, every Rotary we've ever put in our dealerships has been bolted down, and they're double the heft of any of the home units. It never hurts to over-engineer for safety.

Background: my father-in-law purchased and installed this Autolifters 4-post 8 or 9 years ago. It's a common design, with a single cylinder operating a network of aircraft cables via pulleys. It's actually a fairly good design. Nearly identical to (again, just because it's a common and well-regarded product) BB, the safety latches are notched into the post itself -- not a bad idea for strength reasons.

I experienced almost the exact same failure as a guy on here posted a couple of years ago: a pulley related to the right front cable (the longest cable in the unit) came off of its axle, releasing all tension on the cable. SINCE THE POSTS WERE NOT BOLTED DOWN -- PER THE MANUFACTURER'S GUIDANCE -- the right front post leaned severely to the right as that corner of the runway fell. This enabled the safety latches to completely bypass their notches. The latches were perfectly adjusted, and the lift was dead level. However, the weight of a BMW E46 simply twisted it so far out of shape that the latches couldn't catch.

HAD THE POSTS BEEN BOLTED TO THE GROUND, as they should be, the right front post would have remained vertical, causing the runway to "wedge" itself in place. The car would have been left in a vastly less precarious position.

Moral of the story: disregard any boasts of "stability" by your lift manufacturer. These things need to be anchored to the ground for your safety. Sure, installing four anchors into the concrete at each corner will probably double the installation time, but why cut corners when you're lifting the heaviest thing you own up over your head? Though I always lower lifts onto their latches when working on vehicles, this one was in the process of raising the vehicle. Had the pulley come off while the lift was at full height, six feet in the air, the results would have been absolutely disasterous.

Rear view of the car on the collapsed hoist:


View from behind and underneath, with the cable wound up in a ball:


Close-up view of the cable:


Right-side view. Note the extreme angle at which the RF post is leaning over. It is indeed a testament to the reasonably high quality of construction that the thing did not topple completely, but had the posts been bolted in, this would have been a lot less messy. Also, the LF post is now bent on a 15 degree angle, presumably destroying the lift.



Here's one of the left side - note that the left rear wheel of the E46 is completely off of the rack.



Finally -- this could have been prevented with some simple preventive maintenance/inspection. It appears that the pulley axle at the rear of the left runway simply came loose, enabling the pulley to wiggle itself off. The car is now off the rack safely, so when we do a post-mortem I'll take pictures and further analyze the failure. It also seems the use of some Loctite Sleeve Retainer at installation time might have prevented this whole fiasco.

0EG@EnglandGreen

Pics no worky. Good write up though

adb1240

My bad.. I tried to link them from my OFOTO account, and they worked on my computer -- probably because I was signed in. I moved them to my web server and updated the IMG tags. They should work now?

Andrew

HIRISC

YIKES

Glad nobody was hurt.

It reads that there are two issues - instability caused by the lift not being bolted to the floor AND, perhaps most importantly, a possible maintenance oversight that may be determined to be root-cause??

Is that about right?

Seems like there are a lot of these lifts in service - and a bunch more of far lesser build-quality.. How common is this type of 'failure'?

Be safe,
Chris

adb1240

You hit the two issues right on the head, and in the correct order of importance. The design of the failed pulley axle is indeed problematic, as is the factory recommendation of not bolting the post pads down. It would seem logical to me that a pulley axle (basically a giant shoulder bolt) would be installed with some sort of thread locking compound (I like Loctite green sleeve retainer for heavy duty applications such as this), or, even better, some sort of mechanical positive retention system -- a jam nut, safety wire, or a cotter pin. Hindsight is always 20/20, but a little engineering goes a long way.

Maintenance is indeed the most important issue. This isn't my lift (I have a Western Hoist 9000 pound two-post), but I use it periodically. Simply checking the pulley axles routinely would likely have revealed the problem early enough to conduct proper repairs / preventive maintenance. One interesting item to note, which I didn't capture in these pictures, is that the 3/8" steel plate through which the pulley axle is attached, is bent in a V. I wasn't able to safely get underneath to look at the upper mounting, but I don't know yet if the upper mount failed or if the axle simply came unscrewed.

I did find the sleeve that goes between the two pulleys that share the axle at the other end of the garage. It wasn't in terribly bad shape (the guy that had a 4-post fail identically on the C3 board a few years ago found his mangled), but there was some wear. It is possible that the pulley seized to the axle and actually caused it to come unscrewed. We'll know in a couple of days.

0EG@EnglandGreen

That is a nasty surprise to see in your garage

I'm just glad it didn't slid off and hit your beautiful hot rod

56chevy

IMHO, there will be many, many more of these stories to come, based on all the chinese lifts that are being sold here in the US.

I am "quite surprised" to see an Autolifters failure, I must admit.
It is the first that I have EVER heard of.

I have many friends that have the backyard buddy, and they constantly rave about the safety and the quality construction of the BYB.

I think it is unfair to BYB to bring them into this conversation.

craig04c5

Just curious, how did they get that car down?

C5 Curmudgeon

I don't.

MUKAK

probably with a 5 ton crane.

what a mess

jrose7004

That's scarey!

56chevy

adb1240

Sorry, but I just find it very interesting that you are slamming Backyard buddy, and that lift did not collapse !!

Similar, does not mean - identical.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/similar

I have nothing to do with Backyard buddy, OR Autolifters, BUT, the story is that the autolifters collapsed, NOT the BYB.

Am I wrong here??

I just know that if I were the owner of BYB, I would be one P O'd SOB at you, my friend.

hotwheels57

I researched the heck out of several four post lift manufacturers about six to seven years ago when I wanted a four post lift for my home shop. In a previous home shop I used a commercial grade FORWARD MANUFACTURING 9,000# two post lift which I found very versatile...but I hated getting down on the knees to adjust the asymetric arms.
When I got all of the materials from the six or seven companies, I compared them. I finally settled on a US made SUPERLIFT which is a copy of EAGLE EQUIPMENT SS7000 series.
AT THAT TIME, neither BACKYARD BUDDY nor AUTOLIFTERS were being independently tested as were the other manufacturers products. I thought that was critical. I don't know if either manufacturer decided to do the testing.
The materials that each were manfactured from was IN MY OPINION, based on several days of comparison, inferior to the other manufacturers.
I did know plenty of guys who owned both types of lifts and never had any issues, but the owners of the AUTOLIFTERS products wondered where they stood when the company went TU.
I'll be ordering an EAGLE EQUIPMENT SS7000XLT or BEND PAK HD9 next month. The HD9 is particularly interesting as it uses compressed air as a secondary locking feature (it requires an air compressor).
Both are US made, but EAGLE is selling less expensive off shore manufactured lifts. The company told me the price of steel necessitated them designing a lift manufactured off shore to their specs/motors, to stay competitive in the market.

John Shiels

[QUOTE=56chevy]IMHO, there will be many, many more of these stories to come, based on all the chinese lifts that are being sold here in the US.

J Z06

Pretty scary! Luckily no one was hurt or killed. It isn't the first time I'd seen this sort of thing.

viper8u2

adb1240

That is an absolutely moronic response. The point is not that either product is faulty -- I clearly indicated that both the AUTOLIFTERS and the BYB are decent designs. However, the BYB, which seems to be the most popular home lift out there, clearly states on their website NOT to bolt their lift to the floor. Not anchoring the hoist is absolutely asking for disaster. Period. No matter who built the lift.

Dugmole

You are a troll. Every post that you have is lift related.

BAN His As*

HIRISC

56chevy
CF Senior Member
Member Since: Jan 2000
Location: tulsa, ok usa

KWIKLIFT, INC.
805 S. 11th• Broken Arrow, OK 74012
Toll Free: 1-800-961-LIFT (5438)
E-mail: sales@kwiklift.com • Local: 918-258-8492

Perhaps it's a coincidence

striper

I have researched almost all available lifts to decide on my own purchase and I have discovered one difference between BYB and all the other brands. The BYB posts are of a completely different and much stronger design. Also the quality of their components are also of higher quality than all others, which are all basically the same Chinese products made by one manufacturer and sold under different brand names. Caveat Emptor. I have a deposit on a BYB.