Whether you’re running a car repair shop from home, or a high-end repair shop, choosing the right lift is vital.
If you are running a home repair shop, and fixing your own car, a classic car, or your friend’s car, the lift you get will be on a completely different budget than one designed for the automotive repair industry. Grade of equipment, maintenance requirements, and capacity all vary as widely as does the cost. The point is, you don’t need an industrial lift if you plan on home use only. If you are going to use the automotive lift in a professional capacity you need to get a lift that lasts and is built for that purpose. A home lift is not going to cut it in the long run.
The lift industry categorizes lifts into two classes – ones that engage by the wheel and ones that engage by the frame. Four post lifts are by far the most popular of all lifts. Two post lifts are the most popular frame engagement lifts.
Here is a brief rundown of available automotive lifts, with their pros and cons:
Four-Post Automotive Lifts
This is the wheel-engaging type auto lift, also known as a type of alignment lift (see below).
Four-post automotive lifts are the most common solution used in the automotive repair industry. Due to the additional support given by four posts, these lifts are known to be sturdier than their counterparts, two-post lifts.
Some four-post home automotive lifts require no anchorage to the floor. They can be moved with relative ease when needed, using manufacturer-supplied casters. This makes them a popular choice for some hobbyists and home-owners, as their placement is not “set in concrete” and one can always move them temporarily if needed. They can also be used for storage, for example, when stacking two cars in one spot.
Four-post lifts are usually priced slightly higher than the two post lifts, due to the extra mechanics and materials involved in manufacturing them.
Two-Post Automotive Lifts
Two-post lifts are the best-selling “frame engaging” lifts. They are recommended as the “drive-through” garage solution – drive it in, lift it, fix it, put it down, and drive it out.
There are two types of two-post lifts on the market: symmetric lifts, and asymmetric lifts.
They both work great. However, with a symmetric two-post lift, one needs to take care not to bump the car doors after one has driven the vehicle into position for the lift. There’s only so much space available, to open the doors between the posts. Really, it’s not a problem providing you stay alert of what’s happening while you work with the lift. There are also wider symmetric two post lifts available on the market that addresses this problem.
Asymmetric lifts are specifically designed to handle the problem of accidentally denting car doors. Their posts have been rotated at a thirty-degree angles of each other and the front arms are shorter than the back arms – this balances the car’s weight distribution so you don’t have to worry about denting the doors (you stop the car about a one third the way in, in as opposed to half-way between the posts – eliminating car-door dent syndrome).
With all that in mind, the biggest advantage of having a two-post car lift is that it works out cheaper than a four-post lift and still provides full access to the wheels (as well as the rest of the car body).
Automotive Scissor Lifts
Scissor lifts are named as such because they raise vehicles with an accordion-like mechanism beneath the runways; a metal frame of X’es joined to raise the platform on which the vehicle is standing.
Scissor lifts come in a variety of capacities and heights for both home and professional automotive repair shops, and are quite capable of lifting very heavy vehicles. From a low height of three feet to anything beyond that, they are built as both wheel and frame engaging models.
When the scissor lift is not lowered and in use, it is much more pleasing to the eye than then four-post lift, as it shrinks itself to the ground.
Portable Automotive Lifts
Space is always an issue and that is where portable automotive lifts come in. Want to pack your lift away when you’re done sorting out your car? Then it’s a portable automotive lift you’re after.
Portable auto lifts are an efficient solution for the home or for the small businesses. They have a limited lift capacity, so if they are used for business, be aware that they can’t lift larger, heavier vehicles. Be sure to check the capacity of these lifts for their intended uses.
Either ways, portable auto lifts, such as two-post lifts, are very popular and are great solutions when space is an issue. They are also available in four-post, scissor, and even single-post models.
In-Ground Auto Lifts
For many years, in-ground auto lifts were the industry standard for car and truck lifting. The best feature being that you can keep them down low on the floor of your repair facility when they aren’t being used.
Depending on the design, in-ground auto lifts can be either frame or wheel engaging.
In-ground auto lifts are generally more expensive than other lifts, and there is also the cost of the installation which has to be taken into consideration.
Alignment Auto Lifts
The alignment automotive lift has runways which the vehicle is driven onto. It is a special type of lift because it comes with extra features that make it easier to perform alignment services on cars and trucks. Special turn-and-slip plates are built into the runways to allow the wheels to easily turn without resistance. This is type of lift is also called a “wheel engaging lift”.
There are two different types of alignments lifts – the scissor lift and the four-post lift.
Mobile Column Auto Lifts
Mobile column lifts are wheel engaging lifts. The way they work, is you wheel your column in place by a wheel (for every wheel of the vehicle) and they lift your car simultaneously for an even lift. Each column is a completely separate unit and when put in place at each wheel work together to lift the vehicle. These generally heavy duty lifts are not your typical home-owners choice.
Parking Lifts
Public or private parking benefit from parking lifts. The idea being that a single parking space – given enough room vertically – can be occupied by two cars. These lifts are smaller than four-post lifts as they generally use one or two posts and have a lifting platform under the car that prevents fluids from leaking onto a vehicle parked underneath it; therefore, these lifts cannot be used to repair a car from underneath.
As you can see, there are quite a few types of vehicle lifts, and many factors to be considered prior to investing in the right lift for your home or establishment. For advice or consultation on the best lift for your needs, feel free to browse our official website http://www.chinapuli.com/index.asp.
Share：
No comments:
Post a Comment