Tilting Car Lift Review.

[artdjones]

The lift arrived in 2 boxes yesterday, weighing 75 kilos between them.

Box 1 contains the lift almost fully assembled except for the lifting plates and their pivot pins.

Box 2 contains the plates, the crank handle on the ground and all the other stuff on the table.

Here's the lift fully assembled, but at the narrowest setting, which would be suitable for something like a prewar car 

This is the lifting/lowering arrangement. The gearbox has a hexagonal recess which accepts the hex you see that has a narrow section in the middle designed to shear before the mechanism is damaged by forcing it in the event of a jam. Then the u/j is next, followed by the end of the crank handle. However it would be way quicker to drive it with an electric drill.  The gearbox then drives the identical item opposite opposite via a long hex section under the metal cover screwed to the gearbox at both ends.

The gearbox in closeup. The quality looks pretty decent.

That's the lift flattened out. As you can see, it only sticks up a few inches from the ground, and there's a castor under each corner to enable it to be rolled under the car. 

The additional parts supplied are to extend the width of the lift. That's done by removing the double row of bolts down the middle , splitting the lift, and inserting either short or long extensions between, and bolting it back together. The short extensions would cater for 60s or 70s classics, and the long ones for modern cars.

It's best to flip the lift and rest it on the sill supports, which gives good clearance for getting the joining bolts out.

One side of the lift with the extension pieces inserted and loosely bolted up, waiting for the other half to be dropped on. Medium and long gearbox to gearbox hex drives are provided along with matching covers.

And here we have it totally assembled. It weighs a fair bit, but can be moved with a sack truck. It has two extra castors at 90 degrees, so can be easily moved on concrete.

That's as far as I got today, as it's rained all day, almost the first rain this month. Also, I needed to get a chuck with SDS adaptor for my most powerful drill. It's not quite as powerful as recommended for the lift (1000w). But it's a very torquey drill. I don't think I would want to use the manual crank much, as it's very low geared.

[SiC]

Is this the automec one?

[artdjones]

3 minutes ago, SiC said:

Is this the automec one?

It's branded Red Star, and came from a company in Newry, in Northern Ireland. That's because I didn't want any courier or customs complications. It looks like the one you mention, but there are some detail differences. This one is rated at 2 tonnes, whereas a lot of others are 1500kg.

https://apsautoparts.co.uk/product/portable-adjustable-tilting-mini-car-lift-jack-2-ton/

That's a link to this one, they do deliver to UK, for £606.

Autolift do one rated at 3000kg which includes an axle stand of the correct height. But it's £1250 UK price, which seems steep, as the Irish price is almost the same in euros, €1270.

[dozeydustman]

I was impressed by the one @Stanky has when he offered the use of it when I had the R50. Made light work of accessing the underside of the car for metal brake line replacement and I was more confident working under the car than a series of wobbly axle stands. Not sure what brand it is/was but he did say he could whack the C-class estate he had on there no problems.

I would like one but with a single width garage I’m not sure how easy it would be to get it under the car.

[95 quid Peugeot]

I had one of those before I went all posh with a 2 post.

Excellent piece of kit. Only observation....I did struggle a bit winding it up with a car with a heavy essex engine 

[artdjones]

So far, so good. That's not full height, that would be when all the bright metal on the base has disappeared into the blue tube. Obviously not ideal on a gravel drive, but the concrete pad I'm having laid won't be done until next month, and I couldn't wait until then.@Stankywas right when he said that there's no point trying to get all four wheels off the ground unless there's some specific need to do that. And it's certainly better for stability to move the supports  to allow one pair of the car's wheels to rest on the ground, as well as gaining extra height at the other end.  As the Mégane was up there I decided to put in a new l/h driveshaft I had for it, which didn't turn out to be the best decision, as the old shaft is absolutely welded into the drive flange. The hub is  resting in the vice now soaking in penetrating fluid ready for another go in the morning, but I'm not very hopeful. So tomorrow I'll probably be going to Cork for a s/h hub. As regards the lift there was very easy access to remove the under tray and drain the transmission fluid, and I felt very safe under there.  There's some extra width to be gained if the supports are slid out further, so I'd say that the setup could be used for anything from an Austin 7 Ruby to quite a large car.

My 750w Makita drill raised the car fine , but as I don't want to abuse it I'll probably buy a 1050w Amazon special for normal use. 

One other point is that the lift is very easy to move with a sack truck, even over gravel.

So far, 8-9/10 (I didn't really find anything wrong, but nothing's perfect. Let's see how it goes.) A definite recommendation so far.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks for the info. My drive is slate chippings of a similar size to your gravel, good to know it can be used on such a surface.

[artdjones]

9 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Thanks for the info. My drive is slate chippings of a similar size to your gravel, good to know it can be used on such a surface.

The only difficulty is that as the two ends of the lift move towards each other they do tend to scrape up a ridge of gravel in front of them, which needs clearing so as not to make too much work for the drill. 

[robt100]

Good to see it works well, any idea if you could slide it in from the front/rear rather than the side and adjust to suit/drive over it to put it in situ?

A bit like @dozeydustman I really only have a single width area to work in, which also has a huge kerb on one side that I wouldn't be able to get around to put this under the car from the side. But it'd sure beat putting holes in the drive using a trolley jack if it can be moved into place longitudinally rather than from the side😅

[dozeydustman]

@robt100 I possibly could use it in the garage access area but I have nearly come a cropper working on cars out there as one person who accesses the garageways drives in and out of there like he’s competing in the Formula 1. I am hoping I can widen my garage as it’s only a meter or so from the house. Make a direct access to it, though I’s lose a metre width of driveway.

[Stanky]

13 hours ago, robt100 said:

Good to see it works well, any idea if you could slide it in from the front/rear rather than the side and adjust to suit/drive over it to put it in situ?

A bit like @dozeydustman I really only have a single width area to work in, which also has a huge kerb on one side that I wouldn't be able to get around to put this under the car from the side. But it'd sure beat putting holes in the drive using a trolley jack if it can be moved into place longitudinally rather than from the side😅

If you got an adjustable-width one like @artdjones then you could possibly slide it in from the front/rear, but it'd be a sod to raise and lower. You really need side access to make the most of these I think.

They're not that heavy - liftable by a strong person solo, or easily moved by two people. They also have very sturdy wheels so you can pick up the gearbox end and roll it along as long as the ground is fairly solid. So you can use it outside easily enough as demo'ed above. In an ideal world you'd put it on concrete, but a large piece of wood or some carpet would allow the ram to retract easily enough on a looser surface like gravel or chippings.

Something else worth considering is a set of CJ autos drive-on hydraulic ramps:

https://cjautosheywood.co.uk/product/hydraulic-drive-on-car-ramps-900kg-with-detachable-safety-stop-bar-cr01d/

They're about the same price as the tilting lift but would be easier to work with in a single garage I'd think? You'd gain access to the centre of the car easier than with the tilting lift, but lose out on being able to do wheel-off work so it depends what you had in mind. changing an exhaust would be easier, but doing brake work would be impossible.

the third option which would definitely work and give you full flexibility would be quickjacks, but they're about £1250 a pair which is a lot of visits to local garages and paying someone else to fix whatever needs doing...

[Blake's Den]

I've got a CJ Autos one and I rate it very highly. It has been really useful for working my mini project.

[artdjones]

19 hours ago, robt100 said:

Good to see it works well, any idea if you could slide it in from the front/rear rather than the side and adjust to suit/drive over it to put it in situ?

A bit like @dozeydustman I really only have a single width area to work in, which also has a huge kerb on one side that I wouldn't be able to get around to put this under the car from the side. But it'd sure beat putting holes in the drive using a trolley jack if it can be moved into place longitudinally rather than from the side😅

Adjustment once it's under the car isn't really possible, unfortunately.

[TrabbieRonnie]

I have the Sealey version (it looks like yours but red), and I agree it is extremely useful (yours has a higher weight rating I notice).

My driveway surface is tar, but is also rubbish... very uneven and rough.  The ramp works well though, by placing a small sheet of steel plate under each moving end wheel, and two pieces of chipboard under the gearboxes...

Above was a test run, not long after I'd acquired the ramp.  Since then it has lifted a lot of the fleet, the RX8, Audi Coupe (very nose heavy), Mazda 323 and most recently the P4, probably the heaviest at just under the rated capacity of 1500kg.  Interestingly, I had to build the ramp to the widest spec for the Trabbi, whose sills are right at the edge of the body, and to its narrowest for the P4, to catch the more inboard chassis rails.  There is some lateral movement available on the pads themselves which helps too.

I managed to get very close to perfectly balanced this time, enabling the car to be tilted up and down at either end by hand.  It gives more height at each end by placing it so, and bleeding the brakes was much easier, even with the wheels on!

I now trust the machine totally in its ability to lift the weight (the axle stand was there to stop any uncommanded pivoting should the included safety pin fail, but there was next to no weight on it anyway), they are a bit heavy to drag around by yourself, but far less hassle than jacking and axle stands.  

I've always used the hand crank, difficult at first but gets easier as the car rises... but my ramp did come with a separate reduction gearbox that can be attached to make it easier on the drill.  Might be worth seeing if it's available as an accessory to yours?

Anyway, great write up, cheers!

 

[McRusty]

I have the Sealey one. A bit more basic but does the job admirably.