I have since 3 years a MaxJax lift, also my wrenching buddy. Advantages in my opinion:
- fits in any residential garage with ceilings less than eight feet
- can use when needed, easy to set up by 1 person, then conveniently store out of way when not in use keeping garage and vehicle lanes free. You will not use it every day or week (requested by my wife and now I like it too)
-lifting height provides ample clearance under the vehicle for comfortable service of almost any passenger car and light truck
-mid-rise is no problem, I can work comfortably from a rolling shop seat under the car
- the system provides wheels-free convenience for quick brake and tire service
-single phase motor 110 V AC 20 Amp motor for the hydraulic mobile power unit
-low profile arms, even a lowered BMW no problem
-I have mounts for inside my garage and outside in the driveway
Disadvantage: hydraulic system is not superfast to raise or lower the car, so not recommendable for a pro shop, but for a DIYer fast enough
http://www.maxjaxusa.com/features.html
Problems I had:
-when the package arrived one connector for the hydraulic line between power unit and post was without thread, could not be used, my buddy made the thread on his lathe
-in rare cases when a car is misbalanced I let a car down from the highest highest safety stop, only one side goes down and the other side is stuck in up position. First time panic started, now I know how to handle it. Stop releasing hydraulic fluid= lowering the car immy, lift up the other side again till highest level, smack the post frame with a big mallet and the polyamid or whatever material blocks get lose again. Maybe I have to bleed the post hydraulic system once more and also have to regrease.
Seems to be not the only case, I found here the comment: quote:
Talked with Gabe this morning at Dannmar. He thought that the problem had been either something in the line (most doubtful), the flow divider not "kicking in" (possible) or just some binding of the blocks in the column. He suggested the following:
Re-grease the columns and make sure the block tracks are well lubed;
Raise the car up 16 inches to test the lift under load and reposition the car fore/aft to make sure it's at its balance point;
When lowering the vehicle, activate the release valve by "feathering" it -- in other words, very light initial touch instead of just hitting it hard to start the release flow.
I did these things and everything works just dandy.
In retrospect, I think that the car was misbalanced fore/aft and bound the block at the top on one column at full extension. When I tested the balance fore/aft after talking with Gabe, it was clear that I didn't have the vehicle's balance point even with the column. I was a little back heavy. I moved the car forward so that it was more balanced and it went up and down smoothly and with no complaints. I also had liberally re-greased the inner column and tried my hand at feathering the lowering valve. It worked perfectly. Gabe said that if you initiate the lowering by easing into it instead of just hitting the lever full on, the flow divider kicks-in better. Hitting the release valve hard can make the divider bias to one side.
Anyway, one problem does not a trend make. I'm chalking it up to fine tuning the system (I hope) and learning how to do this correctly. At this point don't think it will be a repeat problem. Dannmar made it clear that they were there to help so kudos to them for that.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...9900&showall=1