fastsuv

Now that I've moved out to the country I can finally purchase the item I've wanted for years- a home service lift. My barn has a 10 foot high "ceiling" (distance from floor to 2x6 crossmembers) so I can lift the HHR around 5 to 6 feet high. At my old house, the height was only 8 feet in the garage, so it didn't make much sense to spend the money on a lift to only lift it a couple of feet.

Does anyone have any experience or recommendation on these lifts, usually described as "parking/service lifts"? There seems to be two categories, the very inexpensive lifts around $1900(probably Chinese made), and the better ones around $3100 (probably USA made).

If the cheap ones are good enough for routine maintenance, mods, etc then I don't want to spend extra money. However, my life depends on the integrity of the lift. If the cheap ones will flex and bend as I tug on hard-to-remove parts, then I don't want them.

I feel at this point I have lived long enough to earn the right to avoid laying on my back with rust falling in my eyes!

Steve

dan-d

Steve,

Search through this forum for pictures I posted of my shop, you will see that I have one of these lifts. The one I have is made by direct lift and is called the Pro-Park 7, you can see it at http://www.directlift.com/propark7.html . These lifts are great and the cost is under 2k. I'm sure they're made in China or somewhere over seas but they work great. The funny thing is, the show Crank and Chrome featured their lift on one of the episodes, theirs is an Eagle Lift. As they were showing the features I noticed right away that it's exactly like mine only red instead of black, same design, same runway locks, same motor, same EVERYTHING. So I researched it and found that they're the same lift, but if it has the Eagle name on it instead of Direct Lift it cost's about 1k more. We've had numerous cars and trucks on mine including both compacts and full size, the lift worked great every time. -Dan

BTW: Eagle lifts are advertised as "American" ...... what a joke ... LOL

In my research I found several lift companies advertising their lifts as American made only to find out that they get them from China. I think they buy the components over seas and assemble them here making them "American Made".

fastsuv

Thanks for the information, dan-d. I weighed my 3/4 ton Suburban a few years ago with just me and a full tank of gas and it weighed 6960lbs, which comes uncomfortably close to the max weight of 7000lbs on the low-cost lifts. The source that you recommended, direct lift, does have the Pro Park 9 Plus with a max weight of 9000lbs. I am interested in that one and the price is not that much more than the Pro Park 7.

Again, thanks for the feedback. Recommendations from someone who actually has a lift are much more valuable than marketing literature from the manufacturer.

Steve

dan-d

Steve,

When I bought mine we discussed the weight rating, the dealer I bought mine from said that most lifts are way under rated. This is done obviously as a safety net against liability. But in your case I too would opt for the Pro-park 9. We did have a full size pickup on my lift complete with a camper shell and a bunch of stuff in the bed, my guess is that it was most likely very close to, if not over the weight limit. It lifted it without a hitch. If I were going to be lifting something like this very often I would have gotten the Pro-Park 9, but as seldom as I'll be lifting anything this big the 7 is just fine. Either way, these lifts are well worth the investment, they're as good if not better than any of the others I've seen on the market. And beleive me, I looked at a ton of orher lifts before deciding on this one. Mine has been in service now for almost two years and has lifted countless numbers of cars / trucks. Good luck with your project and I hope to see what you decide on when all the smoke settles. -Dan