Garage Lift

I have a QuickJack 3,500 lb., dual lift system and it comes supplied with two sets of different thickness rubber blocks.   The blocks fit into larger trays on each end of the lift (so you can move the blocks around a bit) and the car sits on the blocks.  Mine do not have ramps, nor is there a drive-across surface, so I have to bunch the lifts together under the centerline of the car (where I store them when not in use) and then just pull them out to under the sides of the car to position the blocks under the jack points.  If they had ramps I would just drive over them and leave them there but either way hey are easy to use.  

The whole set-up processs takes about 2 minutes and then 15 seconds to get up to max height (about 24”) and then I place jackstands under the car for double safety.

Thanks for the reply Gordon. I like the Quickjack size, I just wished it lifted to 48 inches or so. I wanna get off my back (insert joke) and dream of sitting on a stool working under the car. The lift I am looking at is basically the same as the QJ, but bigger. 

Can you elaborate on where you place the rubber blocks to lift the car up based on the jacking point diagram?

Thanks!

Gordon you also use jack stands those have to be quite tall, i just make sure the safeties are well in there,,, and you can work on a small rolling chair when not underneath,  I like the quickjacks a lot. 

I have a friend that has the Busch . He says he wished he'd bought the max jack after looking at mine. He says he trips over the supports on the floor between the scissors. He also says the Busch wiggles sideways (right to left) when he's working under it. He says it probably won't fall over but it took a little getting used to.

My max jack  lifts about 45 to 48 in. It IS nice to sit on my butt on a roller stool after all this years on my back.  Hmmm I can only think of two professions that make money on their back...Hmmmm...........Bruce

Thanks for the info Bruce!

"Hmmm I can only think of two professions that make money on their back...Hmmmm..........."

Let's see...  Mechanic and painter of chapel ceilings, right?

Come on, Lane.

You forgot the most obvious one - plumbers. 

@Gordon Nichols, do you have any pics of a pan based car being lifted up with the quick jack? Curious on where to put the rubber blocks. Think I am leaning towards the quick jack. Thanks!

I recently purchased the HF lift which listed for $1500 but with a 25% off coupon it was $1100. My ceilings are 9 foot. It works great, no complaints at all.

I had a Kwik Lift for a few years. simply left it in place and parked on it when not using it. Kind of a nice display stand for the car. Very stable to work on... I found mine on Craigs List. I'ld buy another one if I need a lift in a tight space

https://www.kwik-lift.com/

Now I have a couple of Danmaar lifts - Life is great!

PaulEllis posted:

I recently purchased the HF lift which listed for $1500 but with a 25% off coupon it was $1100. My ceilings are 9 foot. It works great, no complaints at all.

That sounds great, Paul. This would work for me at my house.

Looked at the scissor lifts and for me, they will not work. I don’t want to build ramps to drive up on it.

i am thinking the quick jack and using the pan to lift the car might be ok. 

I used a 40 " scissor lift for many builds no issues

@PaulEllis:

The HF lift is supposedly 7" high. It appears to be that high with the arms attached. It looks about 3-4" without the arms. I'd be very interested to know. If it's as low as I think without the arms, I'll probably get one.

I laid down a 10 foot wood beam on either side of the lift to drive up on. My car sits pretty low. This lift is just right for my ceiling height and makes it so much easier to access the bottom of the car. You can take off the rubber pads and it is still a little to high to drive up on. 

James Garrett posted:

Looked at the scissor lifts and for me, they will not work. I don’t want to build ramps to drive up on it.

i am thinking the quick jack and using the pan to lift the car might be ok. 

I don't have a pan based car but it works well for me and they are easily moved in my opinion.   Another thing if you call QJ, they often have open boxes for a good discount. Just saying. 

P.S. I have the 3500 not the 3500XL model. 

@Bob: IM S6 In Canada there is a really good sale on the 5000XL at Partsource right now

Thanks Paul, appreciate the info.

I bought a "last year model open box" Quick Jack 3500 couple years ago after reading a thread here on it.  Think it was $850 delivered to FL door by big truck with no tax even.  It had a couple small scratches and the prior years safety latch.  It had never been put together or filled with fluids.  Only issue is it only raises Speedster just less than 24" --- 36 would have been nice but that would be pushing a scissors jacks architecture.  They don't recommend storing car in air on it.  It is easy to move around with detachable handles and rubber casters - with long hydraulic lines.

Thanks Wolfgang, where are you putting the rubber blocks? 

It comes with a couple different size rubber blocks but I also have some cutoff of 2x6" and 4x4" PT wood blocks.  Wish I had got the option pinch seam rubber blocks for my Miata ($80).  You just position jack up some and then put blocks where they will hit solid metal frame pieces.  Lift can also go side to side.

Please forgive this question, scissor-lift guys-- I'm really not trying to anything but learn.

What advantage is there to a low-rise lift over buying a long-frame floor-jack and some H/D high-rise jack-stands? I can get my wheels over 2 ft off the ground with tools that stow easily and take no power. It takes me 5 minutes to get the car in the air high enough to get the engine out. If I need to kneel or lay down while using it, I'm not sure what good a lift does me.

A legit 2-post lift get the car up enough to walk under it, which is nice, but not as fabulous as it sounds. With what our cars are, most of the work is performed "in the position" with the butt end 2+ ft in the air, and the nose almost dragging.

Our "Dear Leader" offered us his wisdom in the guise of a thought-provoking question:

"What advantage is there to a low-rise lift over buying a long-frame floor-jack and some H/D high-rise jack-stands?"

Nothing.

Well, bragging rights, I guess. ( Hey - I'm the only guy in my neighborhood with a lift! )

And there's the pure joy of watching as you press a simple button on your hand-held controller and watch your pride and joy magically ascend.  

But there are those moments, like when I want to rotate tires and can get the lifts positioned and get the whole car up to the first stop on the lifts, whip out my impact gun and have at 'em.  Zip/Zap, everything's rotated ( which is rather an odd word for exchanging wheels front-to-back, right? ) in about 20 minutes for both sides.

Truth be told, the world lost a great baseball pitcher (Mark "the Bird" Fidrich) when his dump truck fell on him and killed him, so I have always put jack stands in place, even with my lifts, to make sure I'm safe, so even there I'm buying both the lifts and a bunch of jackstands so not savin nutin.

Still, it's always handy to have all that stuff at hand for whatever circumstance arrives, right?

If I had the room and the money (neither of which seem to be available these days) I would have a nice, BendPak 4-poster.  I'll just keep hinting at my son.....   He has the car, the garage bay with a 14 foot ceiling and is the "Car Guy" in his neighborhood.  A lift and a wide-screen TV in the shop would suit him.  And then I can visit.  With Pearl.  Just dropping in, you know?

With a scissor lift from Harbor freight or the like you can roll around under it on a stool or similar with a MaxJax two post.

The quick jack is where I am having troubles justifying the cost vs reward. It only gets the car 24inchs off the ground which is IMO the main point of a lift. 

I am in between a maxjax, scissor lift and quicjack. All have their pro’s and con’s, just trying to figure out what will work best for my setup and balancing costs at the same time. 

Well I don't really like JackStands and a hand operated hydraulic floor jack and yes you can do 4 Jacks at each corners.  I have both and sure it works but then if you have QuickJacks (QJ) it brings a lot of other options for all sorts of work, and yes you can even detail your car while sitting on a nice rolling stool.  It's easy on your back and for me I can line them up under the car in 2 mins and in 60 secs they are up and locked for safety.  Even with all the other jacks sometimes part of the jack is in the way of something your wanting to do, Max Jack can also be in the way and a four poster with tracks for the wheels has other issues at times... so maybe having 3 options is the best  

The Pinch Weld situation can be easily fixed by cutting your existing rubbers or ordering a pinch weld rubber pads from QJ. 

Here you go, Jim:

Of course, I could gain another 6" - 8" by placing big wooden blocks between the QuickJack plates and the car with the rubber blocks on top of those, but I haven't been silly enough to try that (yet).

I have several 6-ton jack stands (they were once used under school buses) so they reach a max height of 30" - Once the car is up I just slide 'em in and let it slowly settle onto them and feel the flush of safety wash over me.

And apparently, you need to have Fuchs wheels if you buy a QuickJack lift.

Thanks Gordon for the video, most helpful! I practiced driving the car up on Ramos today in case I go with the harbor freight lift. It is a bit of pain because I have to enter my garage at pretty much a 90 degree right turn. Stupid layout if you ask me 

"And apparently, you need to have Fuchs wheels if you buy a QuickJack lift."

Apparently that is true Gordon...

BTW, I cut a 2x6 tight fit and inserted them into the slots and then I put a larger pad I bought from QJ on mine. I get a bit higher lift but the amount of room you have under your car would determine what you can use or how much more you can add to the jacking point.  Just saying. 

Stan Galat posted:

Please forgive this question, scissor-lift guys-- I'm really not trying to anything but learn.

What advantage is there to a low-rise lift over buying a long-frame floor-jack and some H/D high-rise jack-stands? I can get my wheels over 2 ft off the ground with tools that stow easily and take no power. It takes me 5 minutes to get the car in the air high enough to get the engine out. If I need to kneel or lay down while using it, I'm not sure what good a lift does me.

A legit 2-post lift get the car up enough to walk under it, which is nice, but not as fabulous as it sounds. With what our cars are, most of the work is performed "in the position" with the butt end 2+ ft in the air, and the nose almost dragging.

I'm sold on the scissor lift for a few reasons. 

It's portable. OK, it's really not that portable. But I can take it with me when I move as there is ZERO installation.

It gets the car to a decent height without crawling around. Four and a half feet high is enough to do all brake work and 90 percent of all other work at the PERFECT height, without bending a lot and paining your 50-plus-year-old back. You need to work in your footwell, say on your pedals? Raise the car and lean in, instead of crawling in from on your knees.

It gets it high enough to do productive work on the car in a regular 8 foot garage(mine is a 7.5" ceiling).

Four feet under the vehicle is better than two feet and stands.

A scissor lift is completely out of the way of all working parts on a Speedster or Spyder excepting the seat mounting bolts.

6,000 pound capacity lets me also raise the daily driver for all the mundane have-to-do tasks.

Well that works too  

Jim wrote: "I practiced driving the car up on Ramps today in case I go with the harbor freight lift. It is a bit of pain."

Because my exhaust tips hang down a lot under the car, I had to drive up onto a pair of 2" X 8"s lain flat and then up onto the ramps of my car hauler in order for the tips to clear.  You get used to it pretty quickly.....really!  After a short while, I would just blast onto the boards, bump against the ramps and then slowly push up the ramps (they were ladder ramps, not a plate, so it went up in fits and starts).  The first year of travels went slowly, and after that the whole process of loading took maybe 45 seconds, tops (tie-down straps took another ten minutes).  You get used to it quickly.

WOLFGANG posted:

I bought a "last year model open box" Quick Jack 3500 couple years ago after reading a thread here on it.  Think it was $850 delivered to FL door by big truck with no tax even.  It had a couple small scratches and the prior years safety latch.  It had never been put together or filled with fluids.  Only issue is it only raises Speedster just less than 24" --- 36 would have been nice but that would be pushing a scissors jacks architecture.  They don't recommend storing car in air on it.  It is easy to move around with detachable handles and rubber casters - with long hydraulic lines.

What have you done to the speedster with your fancy lift?

I replace the CV rubber boots every few years.  

Wolfie wrote:  " I replace the CV rubber boots every few years.  "

Is that because they rot out from lack of use?

@James Garrett  re QJ, one thing you have to remember is that the location of the scissor point is important.  So I put up the car took the wheels off (4) on the last one I had to give it a shot to remove it not realizing it was pressing against the QJ frame wheels... DUH.... when I went to put them back on no way could it go on. Finally, I just let the air out a bit and it slid on.  Go Figure... I will check that the next time for sure.  

I said to myself that was D#mb... then I heard no... just part of learning..

CORRECTION FYI-      WOLFGANG posted:

I bought a "last year model open box" Quick Jack 3500 couple years ago after reading a thread here on it.  Think it was $850 delivered to FL door by big truck with no tax even.  It had a couple small scratches and the prior years safety latch.  It had never been put together or filled with fluids.  Only issue is it only raises Speedster just less than 24" --- 36 would have been nice but that would be pushing a scissors jacks architecture.  They don't recommend storing car in air on it.  It is easy to move around with detachable handles and rubber casters - with long hydraulic lines.

CORRECTION:   I just Emailed QuickJack and in their response, they say,  that as long as you have the locks properly set up there is no issue leaving the car on the QJacks at all...

Phew, I left mine up there for months.  

Thanks for the info, pretty much made up my mind to go with the Harbor Freight lift. That will be the next project. Getting RaceDeck like tiles shipped today to do the floor. 

There is a solution for everyone... hence the number of different jacks.

I installed Horse Stall mats, 1/2 inch thick 5x7 and covered my whole floor ... nice and cushy. 

Yeah, and now Ray has a craving for Oats, too.