BendPak HD-7W 4 post lift REVIEW

So just bought this and had it installed last week.  Some of you read my other thread detailing the issues I had with install.  Once the electrician came back and got the wiring correct, everything is a-ok.

Today I used it for the first time, swapping the summer wheels/tires onto my wife's Cayenne Diesel.  I was excited to see how the lift worked in comparision to my old Direct lift, particularly the bridge jack.

Having 220v for the lift makes much more of a difference than I expected.  The lift rises the car SO much more quickly than my old 110v lift did.  Running a dedicated 220v line for the lift was totally worth it! 

Lift went up easily, not that hard to get it onto the locks, just gotta make sure you're level on all the locks so the decks are level.

Bridge jack slides very easily to where you want it.  Comes with different height adapters for the lift pads, I used shorter ones in the front, then realized the error of my ways and used the taller ones in the back.  Bridge jack runs off of air and it needs ALOT of it.  I put in a 2 stage, belt driven 30 gallon compressor just for this lift and well, it runs the bridge jack but its pretty clear I would've been better off with a 60 gallon compressor.  Running the car up on the bridge jack empties the entire 30 gallons.  

So I should've put in a garage sub panel so I could've had TWO 220v circuits, that way I could've had a 60 gallon compressor.  Oh well.  It does work fine with the 30 gallon one, so I'll make due.  I did get the center lift pad adapters for the bridge jack so I could lift off a front subframe of rear center diff.  I was unhappy to discover that the slots on all those adapters pads are too "pinched" to slide over the bridge jack channel.  So they're currently useless.  I have a call into the place I bought them from to find out what they want to do.  I don't really feel like trying to pry them all apart.

I love the extra height and width of this lift, makes pulling an SUV onto or underneath it really easy.  My old Direct lift you had to have the SUV lined up perfectly to get it onto or underneath, plus it was limited in height, so you couldn't get anything you wanted underneath it.

Quality is markedly better on the Bendpak vs the Direct lift, nicer powdercoating, etc.

So far, so good!

Awesome,  can't wait to get mine installed.

Well, lift is down for the count.  Having a rather serious issue with it right now, one of the lift cables ripped out of it's stop and bent the bracket.  The only thing holding it in place was a 10mm bolt/nut, which got bent.  I found this out Wednesday as I'd asked my installer to come by and look at it, I thought it just needed a cable adjustment done.  He left the house with a caution of not to use the lift in its current condition, that doing so could be deadly.  Great!

I've been in contact with BendPak and am currently waiting to hear what they propose to resolve this.  My wife and I aren't feeling very confident in the safety of the lift at the moment.

In other news I brought my E36 M3 home today and discovered that it won't clear the bridge jack.  I knew it was going to be close, but thought I had the clearance to make it over.  Right now I have the bridge jack pushed to the front of the lift so I could get the M3 onto the lift. 

I'm not sure if I'd clear the bridge jack if I back the M3 onto the lift.  Regardless, this is another thing I'm pissed off at Bendpak about.  If my M3 can't clear this bridge jack, than a Porsche, Ferrari, Cobra etc sure isn't going to.  WTF were they thinking making this jack sit 4" above the height of the decks?  Their target market are car enthusiasts, who tend to own sports cars.  Sports cars are low! 

So now I need to go out and buy 2x12's to drive the M3 on top of, just so I can use the bridge jack.  Unless anyone else has a more elegant solution?

Wow, the tone of that changed rather quickly. Sorry to hear your issues.

In reply to docwyte :

RaceRamps makes a 4" lift kit. You could probably couple that with their rack ramps so you're not moving those heavy 2x12s around all the time. It's not exactly cheap though.

Sorry to hear about the lift. It seemed like something you were pretty excited about.

what exactly does this 10mm bolt hold? Is that the weakest link of the system? If so, it seems rather weak.  That would freak me out.  

The 10mm bolt basically holds the two ends of the bracket together.  It's not meant to hold the cable at all, the bracket does.  However, in my case, the bracket bent, allowing the cable to slide forward between the two bracket legs, so the only thing holding the cable in place was the 10mm bolt.

I just backed the M3 onto the lift and cleared everything, but backing onto the lift is a PITA!  What irritates me most about the bridge jack is the older generation bridge jack was only 2.5" over the lift decks, this new one, while ALI certified, is 4" above the decks.  As much as I like having something ALI certified, I'd much rather have the older, lower sitting bridge jack.

Those Race Ramps would work out really well, but another $785!  Man, after what I've spent for the lift and the bridge jack, that's a *ton* of money I just don't want to spend.  Agreed that they're a much more elegant solution than 2x12's tho.

Talked with BendPak about my lift, they're going to be sending out another brand new runway.  They're also having my install company come out to patch the lift together so the tech can inspect it and find out what else has failed.  Then Bendpak will send those parts out as well.  They feel something else caused this to happen.  Then the install company will come out with new runway and all the other parts and install it all again.

Dang that's a mess. Sorry to hear about that. 

The cable and bracket would freak me out too, and you're right about the bridge jack. Major oversight on their part.

I'm in the market for a lift in the next 12 months, so I'll be watching and crossing my fingers for you.

I agree that the rolling bridge jacks seem to be ridiculously oversized.  I think the problem is that they're designed to be large enough to accomodate SUVs and the like, and so the 4500 pound weight capacity and available lift height for that make them too big for the sports cars we want to use them on.  I'd rather have a scaled-down RJ-25 with a 2500 pound capacity, because I don't think I've ever had a vehicle weighing more than 5000 pounds on my lift.

As for the Ferrari owners, I suspect they aren't doing much DIY maintenance with their Bend-Paks but are just using them for storage, so they don't buy the rolling bridge jacks.

Do you have a photo of the bent bracket?  I'm curious to see how it failed, and if it's the same design as mine.

In reply to codrus :

Problem is the older RJ-45, which had the exact same 4500lb weight capacity only sat ~2" above the deck of the lift.  Bendpak initially had it sitting ~4" but was able to lower it to address complaints about its height.  So what do they do with their new ALI certified bridge jack?  Make it the same height that everyone complained was too high!  Despite having the old one half the height.  You can always add extensions to the pads to make the lift go higher, you can't do anything to have it sit lower. 

I'm incredibly irritated by the fact that I I have to back onto the lift for storage and will have to drive on top of something in order to use the bridge jack.  These lifts are for the home hobbyist, not a professional shop.  They've gotta realize what their market is and make things easy for people, especially since this is a large purchase.

Here are the pics of the lift.  That bolt was the only thing keeping the cable from whipping out of there.  Look at how shoddy the welds are there too.

Based on what I'm seeing and and understanding how that bracket is supposed to work I would say improper assembly/installation?

Look at how poor the welds are on that bracket.  

Its physically impossible for the cable to pull through the bracket, so not sure how this could happen.

docwyte said:

Look at how poor the welds are on that bracket.  

 

Indeed.  That does not inspire confidence.  I wish you success in getting this straightened out satisfactorily.

Was that (now bent) bolt not tightened up properly? 

I can see it having to be out to install the cables, then threaded up when the cables are in. The fastener should have been threaded up tight so there is visible thread passing through the locknut, and the brackets only need to be spaced apart enough for the cable to pass through and the end of the cable (ferrule?) to butt against. 

If the bolt isn't tight enough, the brackets could spread, and the cable move, getting wedged between the two. The bolt doesn't nothing other than keep the brackets from spreading.

But yeah - nasty welds.

That bolt doesn't hold the bracket together. If it does I would've hope they'd use a larger bolt!

 Agreed there needed to be thread visible out the nut.

The bolt is there to keep the two steel parts from spreading.  First, BAD design.  Second, bad installation.  

People always tell me I wasted money buying my Rotary hoists, but those cables on mine end with a 3/4 inch threaded adjuster, with one end run through 3/4 inch plate, the other end 1/2 plate.

seeing that, I'll likely never buy one of these.  what happens if the ferrule loosens up? Maybe I'm seeing this wrong, but there seems to be a few issues here. Also, I'm a terrible welder and I don't like those.  

Streetwiseguy said:

The bolt is there to keep the two steel parts from spreading.  First, BAD design.  Second, bad installation.  

People always tell me I wasted money buying my Rotary hoists, but those cables on mine end with a 3/4 inch threaded adjuster, with one end run through 3/4 inch plate, the other end 1/2 plate.

Have a pic that for me?  Issue I have is space.  This is literally the only high rise, normal length 4 post lift on the market.  Since I mostly use the lift for parking/storage I'd rather not go with a 2 post lift. 

grover said:

seeing that, I'll likely never buy one of these.  what happens if the ferrule loosens up? Maybe I'm seeing this wrong, but there seems to be a few issues here. Also, I'm a terrible welder and I don't like those.  

Yeah, those welds are crap.  I have friends with BendPak lifts and they ran out to inspect the welds on their lifts after seeing my pics.  Thankfully the welds on their lifts are much better.  So apparently these aren't getting welded by a machine and my lift was welded by a monkey who had never picked up a welding torch before.

In reply to docwyte :

It almost looks like this was a refurb unit or something.  I'd say it was welded onsite if it didn't have the paint 

I definitely didn't pay refurb money for it.  Was sold a small brand new, never used

Wow, that is horribly disconcerting!  I am not sure I would even want to keep that lift, those welds look so bad.  I was very happy to see your original post that all had turned out well for you after your other thread detailing initial installation issues.  I am wishing you all the best and look forward to updates. I have considered getting a lift for years and considered Bendpak to be top rated.

codrus said:

I agree that the rolling bridge jacks seem to be ridiculously oversized.  I think the problem is that they're designed to be large enough to accomodate SUVs and the like, and so the 4500 pound weight capacity and available lift height for that make them too big for the sports cars we want to use them on.  I'd rather have a scaled-down RJ-25 with a 2500 pound capacity, because I don't think I've ever had a vehicle weighing more than 5000 pounds on my lift.

As for the Ferrari owners, I suspect they aren't doing much DIY maintenance with their Bend-Paks but are just using them for storage, so they don't buy the rolling bridge jacks.

Do you have a photo of the bent bracket?  I'm curious to see how it failed, and if it's the same design as mine.

 

I will be using mine for a Ferrari and various Porsches.  Based on this thread I’m going to look at other bridge jack options.

I have unloaded mine,  but haven’t unpacked it yet.  Hopefully I’ll have better luck,  but we’ll see how it goes.

In reply to Cotton :

Let me know if you find other bridge jacks that work with the BendPak, to my knowledge theirs is the only one that fits.

In reply to docwyte :

I just found this thread on Ferrarichat about a guy that had bendpak modify his bridgejacks to fit his Challenge Stradale,  which is a very low profile car.  Might be worth a call to bendpak to talk through your options.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/youll-want-to-see-this-bendpak-rj-45-sliding-bridge-jack.311379/