Been doing DIY auto stuff for years. Finally got sick of struggling with jack stands or ramps and bought a Quickjack setup from BendPak/Ranger. Guess I shouldn't post a link, don't want to get in trouble. Google is your friend for more sales information. I bought mine direct from Ranger, $1,340 complete including shipping for the 5,000 lb capacity model. Took exactly a week from when I called in the order until FedEx Ground delivered 3 boxes with total weight of 250 lbs.

The lift is available in 3 capacities (3,500, 5,000, and 7,000 lbs) and 2 power sources, 110VAC or 12VDC. I chose the 12V model so I can use it at the track when there is no electricity available. I power it with a battery jump-start box, you can also just connect to the battery of the car being lifted, or any other car battery. The AC version draws 12A and lifts the car in about 1 minute. The 12V version draws 125A and lifts the car in about 20 seconds. The AC and DC versions are the same price. When I ordered, the DC version was in stock for immediate shipment; the AC version was backordered for a couple weeks because their AC pump motor supplier is slow to deliver.

Here are some photos: What the packages look like, the big parts as delivered, the pump and small parts as delivered, and the parts all assembled. Assembly was pretty easy. If you are an advanced enough hobbyist to be considering something like this you should have no problem assembling it. Basically assembling a few hydraulic fittings and some simple wiring.

 

More pictures... My BMW on the lift, one at the low resting height and one at the high resting point, the pump, hoses, and other misc parts in the storage tote I got to keep that stuff in, and the jump-start box I'm using.

 

The fully-lowered height of the lift is about 3-1/2 inches. The website and specs say 3 inches, which is true if you exclude the required rubber lift point blocks that stick up above the metal frame about 1/2 inch. Both my BMW and Aston are about 1/4 inch too low at the front jack points for the lift to just slide right underneath. So I have to drive the front wheels up onto a little piece of wood. Still orders of magnitude easier than using jack stands, and I have no worries of the car falling off stands while wrestling to get them positioned, etc.

I'd be happy to answer any questions or provide additional photos if needed.

 

Jeff 335i,

I also bought the Quick Jack 5000lbs version but in 120v, I was able to use it without any pieces of wood under my front tires on my 2009 Vantage with sports pack. I use the smaller of the rubber pad and I had a good inch or more clearance, my car is about 5 inch from ground at the front jacking point. It also was perfect for my 2014 BMW 328d and I used the bigger pad for it. Maybe your cars are lowered as mine are stock from factory. I love it, it makes easy work of changing winter tire and lifting any cars I have in 10 min or so. Thanks for the review

For price in Canada, delivered all in was just under $2300 :-( our $$$ really sucks right now.

 

Awesome info! Thanks for posting about this - definitely on my list of things to get. I'm going to look into cutting out a recess in my garage floor so I can put this into it, then have a hard cover over it to keep my floor flush when it isn't in use.

What kind of safety features does it have built in?

 

My BMW is lowered a LOT (approx. 3 inches) on coilovers, and my Vantage is lowered on H&R springs. If they weren't lowered the jacks would fit easily as handyman said.

The diagonal bar that's in the approximate middle of the frame parallelogram is the safety lock. There are two notches in the bottom of the frame that the bar slips into as resting points to give you two safe lift resting heights. You lower the car down onto either rest and it is rock solid stable. Then you can disconnect the hydraulic lines and pump if you like since there is no hydraulic pressure in the lines while it is resting on the stops.

Also, the quick disconnects they supply work great, less than one drop of fluid escapes when disconnecting them; earlier version had different connectors and they spilled a good amount when disconnecting.

 

I'm interested in these but the car I tend to lift the most often is my Elise. The front lift points on an Elise are relatively close to the center of the car compared to the rears. So much so that the rails can't be set parallel, making them unusable. I've also read that they are only about 7/10 on the stability scale which would really make me nervous.

 

what do you mean 7/10 on the stability scale? They might tip?

 

Right, if your lift points are located such that you can't keep the lifting frames parallel to each other within a couple inches then they will not work for you. From what I've seen most cars will work fine. Some vintage full-frame cars have weird shapes that won't work, some trucks have kicked-up frames that won't work, and some really small cars won't work.

While I was researching these I never saw any reviews that said they weren't stable. I tried to rock my BMW with all my 185-lb body weight and it didn't budge at all. The frame base is 11 inches wide and about 5 feet long when raised. That's a lot more support area than any jacks stands.

Most negative reviews were from people with Porsche 911s where the spacing between the rubber blocks wouldn't fit their cars. That problem has been solved with the newer models.

 

How heavy is each side? Asking to figure out how to store them in case I don't do a recess in my floor.

 

Each side weighs about 85-90 lbs. The power unit weighs about 25 lbs. The lifting frames have little wheels on one end so you can roll them around like a cart.

In the summer I will leave mine in the middle of my garage floor and park my Jeep or GTO on top of them. I've seen some guys get a 2-wheel hand truck/dolly from Harbor Freight and stand the frames up on that and strap them on with bungee cords.

 

Like Jeff_335 said it is rock solid and I have about 50lb more than him and still didn't move :-). I trust these 100% more than 4 floor jacks

 

Great review! I have a pair of these and agree, 100% better than jacks and jack stands.

 

"Most negative reviews were from people with Porsche 911s where the spacing between the rubber blocks wouldn't fit their cars. That problem has been solved with the newer models.
'[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the review, I have been sizing these up for a while.
Do you know if they will work with the 996 series 911 Porsches? I'd like it to work for all of my cars.
Thanks

 

I have been looking at these for some time. Age and health prevents me from moving these things around.
I believe an alternative configuration would be a system that's designed to bolt to the floor. It would have small ramps to drive up and over them. The motor would either be permanent or detachable. You could then park any car in that garage bay by just driving over them.