Rotary Lift by Revolution

[vipergts1960]

I received and had my Rotary lift installed today. So far, I have chosen not to bolt it down. I am not sure that was the best decision so I will probably end up bolting it down. I put my Viper on it for the first time tonight and a scary thing happened. I raised the car all the way up. The next thing you are suppose to do is lower it onto a lock. When I tried to do this, the runway at the left rear column did not lower causing the whole thing to start to twist with my car on it. I stopped immediately when I noticed this, raised it back up until it was even, then lowered it all the way down to the ground according to the instructions. The lowering to the ground when as I would have expected. Has anyone had a similar experience? The installer is coming back tomorrow to check it out. I have lost come confidence at this point.

 

[rcl4668]

I also have a rotary.

Did you try raising it first to the maximum possible height and then lower it onto the lock? I had an issue with that after my install and all it required was the installer to come out and adjust one of the cables at the top of the post.

I have not had an issue with it since and it has been a great product. If this issue persists, however, I would contact Donnie at Rotary. I have found his customer service to be excellent.

/Rich

 

[RedLiner]

Anyone got pictures of this lift?

 

[voi9]

I have had my Rotary 4 Post lift for 5 years now and I love it! Do not be discouraged. It is,IMHO,one of the best 4 Post lifts you can buy. I had mine adjusted on two occassions within the first 6 months after I had it installed. It was only a matter of the cables having to be slightly adjusted and some minor adjustments on the lock plate inside one of the columns. In your case, it sounds like the left rear lock did not fully disengage. Make sure you have the handle facing in the full vertical position before you begin to lower it after you lift it slightly off of the locks. I always check to see if all the locks are fully engaged when I put any of my cars on the lift.
BTW, I also chose not to bolt my lift to the floor. I have the bolts,from the installer, to bolt it down if I choose to but I dont think I will. Many of the 4 Post lift companies products are made to be free standing due to the large 12"x12" foot plates on the bottom of each column or can be bolted down.
Let us know what happens after the installer comes back.

 

[vipergts1960]

I did raise it all the way up, but when I tried to lower it onto the lock position, the runway didn't come down at the left rear corner causing the car to start tilting with the lift. I am hoping it is something simple like yours. It seems like a great product. Did you fasten yours to the concrete?

 

[voi9]

I did raise it all the way up, but when I tried to lower it onto the lock position, the runway didn't come down at the left rear corner causing the car to start tilting with the lift. I am hoping it is something simple like yours. It seems like a great product. Did you fasten yours to the concrete?

Were you holding the lock disengage handle in the full vertical position when you started to lower it? Try to fully raise and lower the lift without the car on it and see what happens. I know there will be no vehicle load on the cables but you can see if everything is working.

 

[vipergts1960]

I wasn't holding the lock disengage handle in the vertical position. I pulled the car on it for the first time and raised it all the way up. From there I tried to lower it down on a lock to store it up there. That is how I understand I was suppose to do it when you raise the car. The problem occurs when I try to lower it onto a lock afer I initially raise the car. It seems to lower fine when I follow the instructions on lowering it to the ground. When the installer demonstrated it without a car on it, everything seemed fine.

 

[DrumrBoy]

Not to hijack, but what's a Rotary 4-post with installation set you back?

Pix'd be great as well.

 

[rcl4668]

I did raise it all the way up, but when I tried to lower it onto the lock position, the runway didn't come down at the left rear corner causing the car to start tilting with the lift. I am hoping it is something simple like yours. It seems like a great product. Did you fasten yours to the concrete?

Viper GTS --

No, I have never bolted mine down and have found that the lift has moved hardly at all (maybe a cm or 2) over a three year period. Also, I ordered the caster kit that allows you to roll the lift around in your garage which is fairly handy.

Someone asked for some pictures of the Rotary. Mine is the XLT model which is the larger size but as you can see I do not have any problems with front end garage clearance:

 

[voi9]

I wasn't holding the lock disengage handle in the vertical position. I pulled the car on it for the first time and raised it all the way up. From there I tried to lower it down on a lock to store it up there. That is how I understand I was suppose to do it when you raise the car. The problem occurs when I try to lower it onto a lock afer I initially raise the car. It seems to lower fine when I follow the instructions on lowering it to the ground. When the installer demonstrated it without a car on it, everything seemed fine.

I always hold the lock disengage handle in the full verticle position any time I am lowering the lift. Sounds to me like the lock on the rear left engaged when you reached the top position, however, the lift probably had to go up a slight bit more in order for the other 3 posts to engage/lock. When you started to lower the lift, the left rear lock didn't release because you did not hold the lock disengage handle in the vertical position and the other three didn't have to disengage because they were never locked.

 

[voi9]

Not to hijack, but what's a Rotary 4-post with installation set you back?

Pix'd be great as well.

Mine was $3800 delivered and installed with a 2 year parts and labor warranty.

 

[vipergts1960]

I paid $3520 for the standard model, plus $550 to install. If you have the room for the XLT that is the one I would recommend. You can stand up straight under your car with the XLT from what I understand. The standard model gives you about 5'3" of headroom under the lift.

 

[v10kingsnake]

It happened to me once with my rev. lift and it was because I forgot to hold the lock release latch. no biggie just raised and lowered it again. hasnt happened again. bolt it down though.

 

[rcl4668]

I paid $3520 for the standard model, plus $550 to install. If you have the room for the XLT that is the one I would recommend. You can stand up straight under your car with the XLT from what I understand. The standard model gives you about 5'3" of headroom under the lift.

I am just under 6' tall and with the XLT lift in the maximum height position I have a good 4-5 inches of clearance when I walk under the lift.

 

[DrumrBoy]

Wat cool. Thanks for the pix and info.

 

[Jerry Dobson]

I have installed 15 of these lifts. This is a installation issue.

There are two levels you need to set. One under cable pressure and second on the locks. Some installers will set the lift locks without a car in place. Did the installer put a car on the lift when checking the locks?

NEVER allow the car to continue down if some of the locks are not catching. This would be considered operator error. When you lower the car, you should see all four sides stop. If one side keeps going down and three are holding, you could tweak the lift.

Your problem is an easy fix with an adjustment. Make sure a car is putting weight on the lift.

Jerry

 

[AJT]

Were the ramps still attached?? The only problem I ve had with mine is if you leave the ramps on & lift the car, then the ramp bends the bar that disengages the rear locks. It may even be putting it in a bind. Take a look at the round bars that go to the locks on the end, they run under the ramps. see if they are bent.

Near my house in Houston companies that are using Revolution: Lexus, ford , infinity, & chevy.

mine is not bolted down, 4 yrs.




.02
Andy

 

[vipergts1960]

The installer came out today and with my car on the lift he adjusted the lock on the left rear column. Everything is working great now. It was a little scary at first when it happened to me. Someone recommended putting a solid block under each column to give a little more head clearance when under the car. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Will the Viper still clear on the bottom due to the angle change? I pulled my SRT-4 under the Viper this afternoon for the first time and almost lost my antenna. I think i should be albe to find a short antenna for that though. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

 

[v10kingsnake]

DONT DO THAT!!!!

 

[v10kingsnake]

It is not meant to sit on blocks but more importantly when it is time to drive on and off the lift you will never make it without bottoming out.

 

[rcl4668]

DONT DO THAT!!!!

What he said; the lift posts are designed to sit on a flat, wide concrete surface, not the relatively porous, smaller footprint of a block of wood.

/Rich

 

[vipergts1960]

I spoke to someone that put a solid block of concrete under his columns and used epoxy to fasten them to the concrete floor. I will be leaving mine like it is I think. Thanks again for the feedback.

 

[AZTVR]

What he said; the lift posts are designed to sit on a flat, wide concrete surface, not the relatively porous, smaller footprint of a block of wood.

Ah, come on. What's the worst that could happen?
Well, if the weight collapsed one of the blocks, I'd guess that corner could come apart and cause what's on top to come down on what's underneath.

I don't think that it would be a very good idea to improvise with one of these things. You would certainly have to have a high strength block. No wood, no cinder block, and I wouldn't trust a cement pad I made myself.

 

[past ohio]

Something I do is when my car is being raised, I listen to hear each lock do the snapping sound as it goes up over the welded stop blocks on the post, and all four locks seem to click within about a second or so, if not, the lift needs adjustment....always get the car all the way up to the height you want then slowly lower it down and make sure it is stable on ALL four locks...my $.02