When I arrived home, the task was to unload this thing, I don’t have a forklift this could get interesting. I had a neighbour come over and help, it took about an hour and a half to unload the lift piece by piece. The biggest pieces are the ramps, one of the ramps weighs 230 kg while the other one is around 130. We managed to unload both of them, still bolted to the shipping crate in one piece with some clever ingenuity, some moving dollies and an engine hoist.

Saturday morning I had two friends come over to help me assemble the lift, it really wasn’t that difficult. We bolted up the endplates to the posts, bolted the ramps to the crossbeams, stopped for a beer or two and some pizza, routed the cables and filled the hydraulic pump with fluid. After some adjustments and leveling we were done — total time was approximately four hours including the pizza and taking our time to read the instructions carefully. They were not the best but useable.

Because of the grade in my garage I had to max out the adjustments for the lift and add shims to the front columns as well. The instructions mention bolting the lift to the floor if the grade is greater than 1/8 inch per foot but mine is just that so I’m on the cusp. The lift comes with casters that allow you to move the lift if need be which is a bonus and convenient. The lift also comes with drip trays and a jack tray to aid in lifting the wheels off the ramps.

After I had the lift up and running I drove my car on it and gave it a whirl. The lift is slow to rise, it probably takes a minute or more from lowest to highest setting but it does lower quickly with the weight on it. With just over 10-foot ceilings I have enough space to easily walk under the vehicle when raised and although I haven’t put my racecar on the lift just yet I know that I will be able to easily fit both cars for storage.

Changing oil on the car was a revelation with the lift, not a drop of oil was spilled while I was able to clearly see what I was doing and easily work without crawling on the ground.

Changing my brakes and tires was a little challenging the first time as my car was very low to the ground and I did not have a bottle jack that fit — soon to be remedied. But again with some ingenuity the car can be raised off its wheels using jackstands and some blocks.

The service and answers I received from Direct Lift over the phone was top notch as they patiently answered all my questions. In the end I’m very pleased, the hardest part of the whole process was opening up the wallet and spending the money. The install was not nearly as difficult as I first expected and the benefits and uses are nearly endless. I only regret not doing this sooner.

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