Well so far I am impressed with the support at Bendpak. I submitted a ticket on Saturday night, with a photo of the leak (posted above). This morning a nice gent called me, thanked me for the nice photo, and asked me a few questions. He found the order in their system, so he explained how the pump system worked once he figured out I was comfortable with troubleshooting and taking some things apart. He said it was either a missing or damaged O-ring on the pressure relief, or a defective part. When I got home this afternoon, I sent him a few more photos, he promised to get back to me in the morning with an update on the parts they were going to send me. The thing is really easy to get out, the O-ring looks fine to me, but who knows. I've learned they can be finicky sometimes.
Meanwhile I had an issue with what I thought was a bad wheel bearing (which wasn't), so I wanted to give this thing a try, even if it was leaking. It takes awhile to get it positioned properly, several up and down cycles to get it just right, but eventually I got a system figured out.
I started by lifting from the frame where it starts to taper in at the front, and from the lower control arm mount in the rear. It worked fine, but I didn't like how it distorted the rubber block.
So I shifted to just stacking both the 3" and 2" blocks and lifting from the frame.
It works really well. It is actually much more stable than I expected, I really gave it a few good hard shoves and it is just totally solid. And it goes up and down faster than I expected, the pump doesn't even seem to be working hard. It only draws 5.2 amps when running, so no issues with electric.
I did a lot of measuring before ordering, I decided I didn't need the special SUV blocks, as I was worried it would raise it too high and would hit my garage door opener. Turns out I still have over 6" of clearance when the thing is at the highest setting. I have access to lots of scrap steel and a welding shop, so I may fab up something myself. Tires are about 3" above the floor, there's almost 20" clear under the front skidplate to roll under on a creeper, so a couple more inches would be nice.
Overall, I am pleased, and I'm glad I bought the thing (despite the minor leak, that seems to be slowing down). Would buy again! Looking forward to trying it out on other cars, like my son't little NA Miata. Any questions, let me know.