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Originally Posted by mgarblik
My ceiling in the shop is about 11 1/2'. Packed with R32 insulation and then an outer cover of a fire proof paper. It really is fire proof too. I tried to burn it with a torch. It just chars. There are a bunch of threads about lifts and the plusses and minuses of drive-on and two post lifts, various brands and so forth. You will need to determine what suits your needs the best. There are advantages to both styles. There are some two post designs that will just fit in a 10' ceiling. I have seen some people take out or modify 3-4 trusses where the lift will go to a modified truss design for more clearance in that area. There are just so many options. I do know 2 things. 1. Any lift you decide on, you will love it. You won't know how you worked on cars for so many years without one. 2. I have a Forward Brand lift. I have only been marginally satisfied with it. 3 weeks after installing it, the pump and motor failed in spectacular fashion. It locked-up smoked and blew a 50 AMP breaker! It was all made in China of course. I called their National Service in KY, they were super nice. They had 1 electro-hydraulic unit left that was made in Italy and they sent me that one. I installed it and haven't had a problem in almost 10 years now. I have to assume all the service parts now are Chinese however. I also had a hydraulic ram begin leaking at the piston seal after a few months of use. They sent me a complete replacement unit right away. So the service has been really excellent, great people. The overall quality I can only give a C-. There are probably better lifts out there.
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Forward lifts are manufactured overseas and use Chinese parts to keep costs down. In the past it was a great lift and still better than anything else in its class, most notably due to its ALI certification and increased testing methods Rotary uses in its design and construction but with all that being said I definitely saw a run of pumps and cylinders failing a couple of years ago, those issues have been rectified with the newer lifts in my experience. While I would agree with your feelings on the performance or lack of performance/quality on your particular lift it is still a MUCH better lift than other import lifts, the most important part being that Rotary supports the lift with service and replacement parts. Believe it or not there a lot of lifts in the marketplace sold at a professional level of quality with zero support, warranty or replacement parts, it’s a sad state of affairs out there. The biggest problem with Forward in today’s market is that the costs due to various reasons and tariffs have brought the price to within a few dollars of the made in the USA Rotary lifts.
FWIW, our recommendations to a customer on Rotary vs Forward is if the lift is used more than 5-10 times a day than the customer is better off with the Rotary which is designed for over 30,000 cycles, generally speaking for limited use whether it be at home or light shop use we recommend the Forward, for high volume applications such as dealerships, high volume shops we recommend the Rotary products. Overall the Forward is a great lift for home shop use and you’d be hard pressed to find a better lift, especially after 5-10 years of use, the other lifts will have failed and needed replacement well before that time in my experience.