snakebitdave
Enthusiast
Hi everyone. There is a lot of interest in car lifts so I thought I would submit my experience with the hopes this helps with your decision making. I spent months trying to decide should I buy one of those for $1875 or spend $3275 for something I hoped would be of better quality. Based on information read on this forum, the recommendation of Jerry Dobson and the reputation of Rotary I ordered their RFP7XLT series lift. As promised it was delivered in 2.5 weeks. It arrived less the bolt kit but they UPS'd it overnight.
I began on Saturday (by myself)at 11:00 a.m. by removing my vehicles from the garage. Then,I had to remove the brush hog from my Kabota and install the front end loader to lift the components off my trailer and start assembly. I broke for lunch at 12:15 and played with the grand kids til 1:00. I spent a lot of time doing some lifting and moving things the hard way; as I said I was alone. At 5:30 (due to being unprepared) I had to make a quick trip (1/2 hr)to Auto Zone to get 12 qts of Dextron III for the hydraulic pump. By 7:30 I had one car on the lift, one under it and all the others in the garage. All that is left to do is some touch-up painting (spray bomb is included in kit). All this to say you can do it yourself with some ingenuity and extra time but an extra pair of hands would have been mighty helpful and made the job quicker. This stuff is heavy.
The supplied directions were very well written; however, there are a couple of steps that could have been made clearer.
Their list of necessary tools was very complete but I would add a couple of pry bars, an 8" c-clamp, wood blocking and a floor jack to their list of standard hand tools.
I like the safety features and the ability to adjust the safety latch bar as well as each cable at each corner. Once plugged in it worked right off the bat. I had very little leveling to do. I do hope I don't have to service the safety latches as it would mean almost complete dis-assembly of one end of the unit. This would be my most critical feature.
I didn't like a mix of U.S. and metric fasteners but this has become commonplace in any field.
All steel gauges and construction are robust-no complaints. For just a few cents they could have supplied flat washers to install under the heads of bolts and nuts where they are over slotted holes. This is a pet peeve of mine, I tend to be picky about details.
The ramps are heavy-52 lbs each. They don't offer aluminum so I will be making my own set. You do need to take them off in order for the lower car to drive under so it is best to drive the first car onto the lift then remove the ramps while the lift is still on the floor.
I would rate the paint job as average, there were many runs; especially on the round parts.
I design and build special conveyors so am familiar with this type of equipment. Like I said, I tend to be a perfectionist and am very pleased I made the decision to purchase the Rotary lift. I hope this write-up helps you to make a more educated decision on your purchase. Good luck.
I began on Saturday (by myself)at 11:00 a.m. by removing my vehicles from the garage. Then,I had to remove the brush hog from my Kabota and install the front end loader to lift the components off my trailer and start assembly. I broke for lunch at 12:15 and played with the grand kids til 1:00. I spent a lot of time doing some lifting and moving things the hard way; as I said I was alone. At 5:30 (due to being unprepared) I had to make a quick trip (1/2 hr)to Auto Zone to get 12 qts of Dextron III for the hydraulic pump. By 7:30 I had one car on the lift, one under it and all the others in the garage. All that is left to do is some touch-up painting (spray bomb is included in kit). All this to say you can do it yourself with some ingenuity and extra time but an extra pair of hands would have been mighty helpful and made the job quicker. This stuff is heavy.
The supplied directions were very well written; however, there are a couple of steps that could have been made clearer.
Their list of necessary tools was very complete but I would add a couple of pry bars, an 8" c-clamp, wood blocking and a floor jack to their list of standard hand tools.
I like the safety features and the ability to adjust the safety latch bar as well as each cable at each corner. Once plugged in it worked right off the bat. I had very little leveling to do. I do hope I don't have to service the safety latches as it would mean almost complete dis-assembly of one end of the unit. This would be my most critical feature.
I didn't like a mix of U.S. and metric fasteners but this has become commonplace in any field.
All steel gauges and construction are robust-no complaints. For just a few cents they could have supplied flat washers to install under the heads of bolts and nuts where they are over slotted holes. This is a pet peeve of mine, I tend to be picky about details.
The ramps are heavy-52 lbs each. They don't offer aluminum so I will be making my own set. You do need to take them off in order for the lower car to drive under so it is best to drive the first car onto the lift then remove the ramps while the lift is still on the floor.
I would rate the paint job as average, there were many runs; especially on the round parts.
I design and build special conveyors so am familiar with this type of equipment. Like I said, I tend to be a perfectionist and am very pleased I made the decision to purchase the Rotary lift. I hope this write-up helps you to make a more educated decision on your purchase. Good luck.
