Car Lift - Options

[Tom Frankland (T3OMF)]

Hi Guys 

 

The Westfield passed its MOT today at Forest of Dean Tyre's with the well know @JulianE who does most of the Westfield MOT in the area 😁

 

Anyway, I'm now thinking of buying one of those car lifts, not a 2 post lift, but one of those portable/small garage ones (hope that makes sense)

 

Any recommendation?? 

 

Cheers 

 

Everyone love a photo 

 

[Smudge62]

 

garage-equipment-group 

 

Great bit of kit, no compressor required and can be used at any height. It can even be moved outside if you have a nice flat drive and not enough height in you garage, I was lucky full height is about 50mm less that my RSJ beam

 

[Matt_S]

Are you lifting the car off the chassis?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Nice, but that last solution doesn’t look cheap!

[KugaWestie]

I am really pleased with mine, it’s amazing how much use it gets

[Smudge62]

Yes it uses 4 solid rubber blocks placed at the outer edge of the chassis

[Stuart]

It's currently £1585 + VAT

[Sparkymart]

2 hours ago, Smudge62 said:

 

garage-equipment-group 

 

Great bit of kit, no compressor required and can be used at any height. It can even be moved outside if you have a nice flat drive and not enough height in you garage, I was lucky full height is about 50mm less that my RSJ beam

 

I was looking at one of these but wanted something a bit more portable so I then looked at the quickjacks 

But was unsure it would work under the westy with the tapered front end so I ended up with these

I'm really happy with them but it comes down to what you want and for me how big my garage is, hence why I wanted something a bit more portable so I could easily set them up on the drive giving me more room to work around the car 

 

[Steve Smith - Joint Hampshire & IOW AO]

Martin. Who makes the ones you have and how much do they cost. Thanks.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I like the Quick Jak but two things bother me, one being the price differential in Europe vs the US price. The real worry, and also with your nice four ramp devices, is lateral stability - probably less so with your ones as they look wider at the base. I can imagine that some work, especially on suspension, can involve a fair bit of pulling and pushing. If this cause the lifts to rock side to side, you might not be far from a disaster.

 

I bought adjustable ramps from a chap who showed them at Stoneleigh one year. They were only about £200 but he has stopped making them for reasons unconnected with the design, but because he lost his premises. Other similar ones are on eBay - these are mine:

 

 

[Sparkymart]

4 hours ago, Steve Smith - AO Hampshire And Isle Of Wight said:

Martin. Who makes the ones you have and how much do they cost. Thanks.

They are made by CJ Autos I get them on a show special price and I think it was £1000 all in for the for of them 

[Sparkymart]

1 hour ago, Man On The Clapham Omnibus said:

The real worry, and also with your nice four ramp devices, is lateral stability

I would much sooner be working under the car on either style of ramps than on axle stands if I was doing a lot of pushing and pulling 

[Kit Car Electronics]

1 hour ago, Martin Rice (Sparkymart) - Cornwall AO said:

I would much sooner be working under the car on either style of ramps than on axle stands if I was doing a lot of pushing and pulling 

 

Me too, I absolutely hate axle stands

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Absolutely, if going under the car for any serious grunt type work, where will be pushing and pulling on it, I either use ramps, or if that's not possible, for suspension work etc, while the primary supports will be axle stands, I'll always have the wheels or something under there too, as a back up "life saver"; I've seen too many cars rocked on or wobble about on axle stands, to the point of near tipping, if the issue hadn't been spotted and the car pulled back.

 

With very light weight cars like a Westfield, it's not that hard to pretty much lift them off a stand.

 

As an aside to that, unless because of access it's physically impossible, I always, always, follow a lesson my dad taught me working on cars, (and that was applied more generally in university engineering lab induction sessions).

 

- When applying force to any lever type tool, whether it's a spanner, socket wrench, breaker bar, even a torque wrench, brace yourself for balance, and always push down, never try and lift. If you push down, you're much, much less likely to lift anything off it's support - like axle stands, but also, equally importantly, if the tool slips off, for any reason, it will fly away from you.

 

Whereas if you pull up, you naturally, for better leverage, tend to hunch forward over the tool, and if anything slips, gives, or breaks, the tool and any debris, tend to be heading straight at you, and often heading straight for your face!

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I quite agree about axle stands; they're only fit for use as a safety back-stop. The Quick Jak ramps are quite narrow and tall though. Having all four wheels off the ground also means that the two grounded wheels as with normal ramps or even axle stands, if braked and chocked, add some stability.

Two post lifts are a popular option and one that I considered but they also have potential problems unless they are very soundly mounted to a decent thickness of concrete. Concrete of a type that domestic garages rarely have. See the consequences if not...