thinking of buying a lift?

[sread]

Just an FYI for anybody shopping for a lift - My 4 year old Bendpak HD9XW 4 post lift has started leaking from the hydraulic cylinder around the piston whenever you raise or lower it. The warranty on the hydraulics is 2 years. No big deal - should be a fairly easy item to repair as a hydraulic ram is a pretty simple device. Wrong - They no longer sell seal kits and so far I haven't found anybody else that does either. This is not an isolated incident either as a Google search reveals others in the same predicament...but they will gladly sell you a new hyd ram for $600. What a deal!
Anyways, just something to keep in mind when you are trying to decide which lift to choose.

[Papa]

Not making excuses for poor quality parts, but my operator manual recommends raising and lowering the lift through it's full range at least once per week. I suspect this is to keep the seals from drying out. I know I don't do this, and suspect most others don't either. Maybe a simple habit to get into to prevent a failure.

[David Hodgkins]

Shoot. I'm going to go check my lift today. I have the same life, and haven't used it in over 6 months!@

[sread]

Yeah I understand the need for excercising it periodically -- especially with the 4 post as the piston rod is fully exposed when in the lowered position, and while it is somewhat disappointing to have a seal failure at this age , what really irks me is the lack of support or availability of a simple seal kit. They just said take it to a hydraulics shop and see if they can repair it.

[Mark Eaton]

that is disappointing

[Just puttering]

quick thought.... while it would be good for them to have a seal kit, they would probably charge more than getting one yourself (it would be nice if they at least gave you a generic part number) !? How (or who) are you checking for the seal kit? If you found a seal kit would you go ahead and fix it yourself? If not, the take it to a hydraulic shop to fix comment would make sense.

I would pull it apart and take the seal to a Hyd shop or bearing and seal store to let them look it up. It may have a number imprinted on it which may help. They can find a seal by checking its dimensions if it has no number!

Also, be sure and look around before you give $600 for a new one !! ??

????? Is that seal just an o-ring, if it is, a quick run the auto parts store and you are fixed!!! ???????

[sread]

I searched for a seal kit by using Google searching for" Bendpak hydraulic cylinder seal kit". This results in links to Bendpak as well as various vendors that specialize in hydraulic cylinder repair services and parts. Even though a few vendors show to have seal kits for Bendpak lifts, when you actually go to the site and try to order said seal kits, they invariably end up as" N/A or discontinued ". When I contacted Bendpak directly, I was told seal kits are no longer available and was given the part number for a new cylinder (which is about 8 ft long and weighs appx 110 lbs) BTW. The search results also lead to links of others making the same inquiries with pretty much the same results.
If i did find a seal kit, I would absolutely go ahead and fix it myself. I have replaced seals and rebuilt numerous similar devices such as motorcycle forks, shocks, aircraft control actuators, landing gear, marine steering actuators, etc. They all work in similar fashion using similar principles - some type of piston moving back and forth in a cylinder filled with some type of viscous fluid. Unfortunately, the seals typically consist of more than just an o-ring, although not much more - usually including some type of teflon backer rings along with some variation of single or double lip seal.
So what should be a easy job to complete for a cost of maybe $20 in my own shop is now a process which will take several days including 2 trips to haul and then retrieve said cylinder from the hydraulic shop at a yet to be determined cost. When I dropped it off, the kid behind the counter said he didn't know how much it would cost but that it would be ready in 2 or 3 days. Guess I'll find out then.

[The Halligan]

Any recommendations out there for smaller lifts or floor lifts? Is Bendpak a good brand? Other recommended brands?

[cob427sc]

I would try contacting a hydraulic repair facility. I have had numerous cylinders repaired/rebuilt from various construction equipment, some of which was extremely old and no longer parts available. They even made pieces to fit. I would imagine in any large city there would be a firm that does this work.

[railing]

Any recommendations out there for smaller lifts or floor lifts? Is Bendpak a good brand? Other recommended brands?

There are lots of ways to answer this. Questions like:

What height do you have available?
How thick is your concrete for mounting?
What weight requirements do you have?
How high do you want to raise the vehicle, as in do you want to walk under it without needing to bend over?
Do you want a 2 post lift, 4 post lift, scissor frame lift? 2 post are good for generally everything, especially if there is a need to take load off the suspension, a 4 post lift will elevate via the wheels, so removing tires requires another device to lift the vehicle while on the lift, but if the wheels are down it's more stable than a 2 post. Scissor frame lifts are good to do wheel/suspension/brake work and to get the car up roughly 24"
What's the budget?
What's your intended use, just to build a car or are you going to continue doing maintenance?
Do you have dedicated space available for a permanent lift?

Of course that's just the general questions to get you in a zone to pick. I have a friend who's wife works for a lift company, and I've had lots of friends work for Challenger lifts in Louisville (which isn't here any long). I've worked under about 12 different brands of lifts, from in ground, to short 2 posts, to 12,000 pound lifts, to lifts capable of lifting diesel pusher motorhomes.

I have 10' ceilings in my garage, this limits me to lifts that have a Max lifting height of 72'. I drive a 3/4 ton pickup, that weight 6200 pounds. Its 7' tall so I can't lift it more than 2' anyway, but that would give me the ability to change tires and have the underpan of the truck 36-42" off the ground....

Now with that said I have basically 2 options. I could do something like a Danmar Max-Jax, which has a 6000# limit, but is removable (undo some bolts on the floor and move it out of the way. This is good for an 8' ceiling and up. I probably shouldn't lift my truck with it, but could to rotate tires and wouldn't lift it higher than an inch of the ground... My other option is a lift with a clearance height of 110-115". These are what I'm watching and hunting for a decent price, 9000# capacity, and wide enough for my truck and I can also work on a FFR car with ease.

Cost is $1500-6000 for a 9000# lift that will fit under a 10' ceiling, without installation or possibly needing to modify the concrete in the floor. And if you want ALI certification.

Danmar Max-Jax run around $2000-2400 depending on a need or desire for ALI certification.

Small scissor lifts are 600- the original poster:

My buddy said try here for seals : http://herculesus.com/

He said that they could probably help you figure out what seals you need

[Papa]

There are also companies out there that just do repairs and maintenance on lifts. I had a local lift maintenance company deliver and install mine and they send me a reminder each year to set up a "tune up" maintenance visit. You might try finding one in your area that can do a repair.