2 Post Lift Questions? Any Experience with Challenger 10k Versymmetric? (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Notorious]

I'm 75% sold on the 10k Challenger Versymmetric 2 post lift (VLE10), but still considering the ProKar 9k lift. The ProKar is about $1700 which is about the bill for all the concrete work, and comes with similar warranty.

This is strictly for personal / hobby use, and will likely never pay for itself in jobs performed. I will be shocked if I use it more than once a month. I am looking at the verymmetric because of it's 3 stage arms, and how possibly it's pretty dang universal.

- Curious if anyone had any first hand experience with this lift and a variety of veicles? Mainly curious if the verymmetric is gimmicky, or actually maybe it is a cool hybrid of the standard and asymmetric designs. Or maybe the door ends up right where the post is anyways?

- For those that have installed, what have you guys done as far as the concrete? I'm too close to a joint, so I have to re-pour something new anyways. I am 75% leaning towards a 4' x 15 pad, 12" deep with reebar and tieing into existing surrounding pad. Lift Manufacturers have different requirements depending on brand. Some just require 4'x4'x12" Piers / islands, and some recommend the full rectangular pad like I'm considering. The lift sales people and local concrete contractors say 4x4' x 6"-8", which I don't really see stated on any manufacture's website. The exact lift I'm eyeing doesn't have details so I'll be calling the mfg (and not sales people) directly tomorrow.

Here is list of potential things I'd be working on:
- Standard SUV's (FJ80 / wife's Durango)
- Diesel F250 4x4 Crew Cab
- side by sides
- Lowered track cars (5th gen ZL1 Camaro & BMW 3 series)
- Short wheel base 4x4's (FJ40 / SWB Jeep / Suzuki Samurai)
- If I can figure out a motorcycle adapter I'd probably lift that too eventually.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

This might be better posted in the gear and equipment forums under tools and fabrication....

 

[F226continental]

I’ve got a 12k challenger, no problems after 10yrs, have not been nice to it either , get an extra set of truck adapters you will need them

 

[PIP]

I use a 2 post to develop and prototype new automotive products. It might go up and down 20 times in one day then it might sit up in the air for 2 months. I would consider my use very similar to how a non-commercial hobby shop would use theirs.

I own two lifts, one in my shop and one that is still installed in my dad's building. One I bought used is a 1970's era 7K Rotary that is way overbuilt. I turned the pressure up so it will lift 10K lbs and it is a champ in every way. It uses real bearings in the uprights, like a forklift mast. The uprights each weigh about 1500 lbs and are 1/2" thick steel in the thinnest cross sections.

My other lift I bought brand new is a 9K Western brand. It is a cheap POS with UHMW sliders in a 1/4" thick column. The columns weigh about 400 pounds a piece. I can stand them up by hand by myself. I've owned this lift 11 years now and about 4 years ago I noticed the insides of the columns were scored and very rough- The UHMW bearings are all tore up as well. When I discovered this I really started researching lifts and discovered I had bought a POS. All the cheap lifts use UHMW sliding bearings instead of real forklift mast rollers. So real easy life and it probably started failing as soon as I started using it. I ground the scoring inside the columns down and slathered them with grease to limp it along. It is basically junk, but still works.

In actual use the cheap lift with lightweight columns and UHMW sliders does NOT feel very safe with 9K lbs on it. It doesn't really feel great with any weight on it, but it does lift it in the air. The old Rotary with thick steel columns and roller bearings is solid as can be even being used at 140% of it's original capacity. IMO, that extra rigidity and feeling of safety you get with a lift built to a higher standard is well worth a few extra bucks. In reality it's a much better investment to buy a used commercial quality 2 post than a new cheapo throwaway model.

As far as concrete goes concrete itself is dirt cheap. Renting the saw including diamond blade wear to cut the hole out is atleast a few hundred bucks. If you do the labor yourself this whole job is under a grand and an easy job. If you hire it out you will pay a small fortune for labor for a dirt simple job.

My approach to anything concrete related is go big because concrete is so darn cheap. Mud is $120/yard where I'm at. I have well over 200 yards of the stuff in my shop and some areas are over 3 feet thick. One of my machines is a punch press that weighs 21 tons and about 5 tons of it's mass cycles up and down 22 times a minute. In order for the machine to not sink the floor over time as it runs it needed to be set on an "inertia block" that is just a big chunk of concrete isolated from the rest of the floor and with ground pressure below 1000 PSF. So I took the weight of 11 yards of concrete (one full truck) 44,000 lbs + the weigh of machine 42,000 lbs = 86,000 lbs / 1000 to get 86 square feet. I didn't want to dig down that far so I went 100 square feet and that ended up exactly 3 feet thick. Easy stuff.

Having paid more attention to lifts and how they are made if I ever buy another 2 post it will be a Mohawk. There is nothing else on the planet built like a Mohawk. They make all other lifts look anemic.

 

[FMC80]

I use a 2 post to develop and prototype new automotive products. It might go up and down 20 times in one day then it might sit up in the air for 2 months. I would consider my use very similar to how a non-commercial hobby shop would use theirs.

I own two lifts, one in my shop and one that is still installed in my dad's building. One I bought used is a 1970's era 7K Rotary that is way overbuilt. I turned the pressure up so it will lift 10K lbs and it is a champ in every way. It uses real bearings in the uprights, like a forklift mast. The uprights each weigh about 1500 lbs and are 1/2" thick steel in the thinnest cross sections.

My other lift I bought brand new is a 9K Western brand. It is a cheap POS with UHMW sliders in a 1/4" thick column. The columns weigh about 400 pounds a piece. I can stand them up by hand by myself. I've owned this lift 11 years now and about 4 years ago I noticed the insides of the columns were scored and very rough- The UHMW bearings are all tore up as well. When I discovered this I really started researching lifts and discovered I had bought a POS. All the cheap lifts use UHMW sliding bearings instead of real forklift mast rollers. So real easy life and it probably started failing as soon as I started using it. I ground the scoring inside the columns down and slathered them with grease to limp it along. It is basically junk, but still works.

As far as concrete goes concrete itself is dirt cheap. Renting the saw including diamond blade wear to cut the hole out is atleast a few hundred bucks. If you do the labor yourself this whole job is under a grand and an easy job. If you hire it out you will pay a small fortune for labor for a dirt simple job.

My approach to anything concrete related is go big because concrete is so darn cheap. Mud is $120/yard where I'm at. I have well over 200 yards of the stuff in my shop and some areas are over 3 feet thick. One of my machines is a punch press that weighs 21 tons and about 5 tons of it's mass cycles up and down 22 times a minute. In order for the machine to not sink the floor over time as it runs it needed to be set on an "inertia block" that is just a big chunk of concrete isolated from the rest of the floor and with ground pressure below 1000 PSF. So I took the weight of 11 yards of concrete (one full truck) 44,000 lbs + the weigh of machine 42,000 lbs = 86,000 lbs / 1000 to get 86 square feet. I didn't want to dig down that far so I went 100 square feet and that ended up exactly 3 feet thick. Easy stuff.

Having paid more attention to lifts and how they are made if I ever buy another 2 post it will be a Mohawk. There is nothing else on the planet built like a Mohawk. They make all other lifts look anemic.

Mohawk is another class of lifts. Like many things in life, you get what you pay for. When it comes to lifts, I won't compromise safety. I don't want to pay for a Mohawk but in the limited research I've done, they seem to be top tier.

Made in the USA too.

 

[PIP]

Mohawk is another class of lifts. Like many things in life, you get what you pay for. When it comes to lifts, I won't compromise safety. I don't want to pay for a Mohawk but in the limited research I've done, they seem to be top tier.

Made in the USA too.

I use forklifts everyday. I own a couple of them to 10K capacity and regularly rent forklifts up to 48K lb capacity for rigging jobs. I've have also been involved with projects using Versa-lifts that can lift over 120,000 lbs on the forks. I'm always amazed at what forklifts can do and how much a forklift's mast can handle. Forklift masts are made from special rolled steel forms made specifically for forklift masts by steel mills.

Mohawk is the ONLY lift manufacturer that makes their columns from real forklift mast raw material and components. Every component in a Mohawk is actually designed from the start as a lifting device.

I have stumbled across several great deals on used Mohawk 2 posts since I learned what they are, but haven't been in a position to buy because it's more a want than a need.

 

[FMC80]

I use forklifts everyday. I own a couple of them to 10K capacity and regularly rent forklifts up to 48K lb capacity for rigging jobs. I've have also been involved with projects using Versa-lifts that can lift over 120,000 lbs on the forks. I'm always amazed at what forklifts can do and how much a forklift's mast can handle. Forklift masts are made from special rolled steel forms made specifically for forklift masts by steel mills.

Mohawk is the ONLY lift manufacturer that makes their columns from real forklift mast raw material and components. Every component in a Mohawk is actually designed from the start as a lifting device.

I have stumbled across several great deals on used Mohawk 2 posts since I learned what they are, but haven't been in a position to buy because it's more a want than a need.

Where are you finding these deals? I found a site long ago that was selling brand new Mohawk lifts that were considered over-stocked for 30-40% off or something crazy. As expected those lifts sold out very quickly.

 

[PIP]

Where are you finding these deals? I found a site long ago that was selling brand new Mohawk lifts that were considered over-stocked for 30-40% off or something crazy. As expected those lifts sold out very quickly.

Craigslist. I want a 12K Mohawk. I have seen one well used one for $2500 and a shop selling 3 almost new ones for $20k for all of them and the other one I almost bought was a 30K lb 2 post for $3500. I would have bought the 30K 2 post, but it really was too big for lifting small stuff. It was gigantic.

 

[FMC80]

Craigslist. I want a 12K Mohawk. I have seen one well used one for $2500 and a shop selling 3 almost new ones for $20k for all of them and the other one I almost bought was a 30K lb 2 post for $3500. I would have bought the 30K 2 post, but it really was too big for lifting small stuff. It was gigantic.

Wow, I'll BOLO. Thanks.

 

[PIP]

BOLO?

 

[FMC80]

BOLO?

Be On the Look Out

 

[hurricane51]

I have a challenger 10k versymmetrics also rotary 10k asymmetrics a 12k rotary symmetric and 2 cheap danmar 10k asymmetric lifts. They all get used everyday in a commercial setting and haven't had any trouble. With that said the challenger is by far the best lift for ease of racking vehicles but they all work. The danmar lifts are certainly the cheapest option I have and I only have them because they were sold from a customer who has commercial property and they were in his building...brand new..guess the tenant went to jail. If money isn't an issue then challenger is great but the danmar isn't bad even using every day. The only issue I've had in 3 years with 1 of them is a hydraulic line leak. If you're racking the same couple of cars all the time you will know where to pull and what you need to rack it properly so most any rack will work. Hope that helps

Anthony