[Pepi]

Wow, I wouldn't have been ale to sleep that night. Did the manufacturer do anything else besides replace the lift. Offer to reimburse any expenses you incurred to get the car back down safely?

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by Pepi

Wow, I wouldn't have been ale to sleep that night. Did the manufacturer do anything else besides replace the lift. Offer to reimburse any expenses you incurred to get the car back down safely?

Yeah, like a year's worth of anti-anxiety medication.

I would be soooo paranoid about any storage lift after that happening.

I remember when I was 16 and I had a carb backfire that started burning the hood insulation in my Camaro. I eventually was able to put the fire out with several fire extinguishers and a large bowl of old tuna salad that my Mom had happened to be carrying out to the garage to dump in the garbage. I took a year for me to lose the paranoia about starting that car up and seeing imaginary smoke. But I digress...

I would imagine that you are going to put the less valuable car under the lift and the next least valuable car on the lift.

Leave the black car on the ground on the other end of the garage, please. :-)

[njsteve]

P.S.
Bob, Do you think that maybe the black car is getting a bit jealous and just happened to try to kick that lift (and the red car), out the door? :-)

[Bentwheelbob]

A few random responses...

1) Frankly, I was surprised the whole lift stayed together given the horizontal stresses it was subjected to over the course of about 16 hours.

2) The primary seal blew out on the hydraulic cylinder allowing fluid to leak out the vent and the system to lose pressure. The first offer from the manufacturer was for a new cylinder and cables. Pretty quickly they agreed to an exchange, but I ate the other costs. With the cost of lawyers and the value of my time I couldn't have argued very long before my costs exceeded the amount being argued about.

3) I think everyone else was more stressed out than I was. I learned long ago that worrying and getting stressed usually has an adverse impact on the quality of the outcome. I slept really well, but I hated to go out to the garage that morning not knowing what I would find.

4) The lift was not anchored to the floor and is not required to be. I never thought about earthquakes though....I think what probably saved me was the epoxy floor coating. I've got "full flake" coverage, 3 bottom coats and 4 topcoats. In all the coating are probably 3/32" thick and the corners of the base plates were able to dig into this coating which likely prevented them from kicking out. If the floor had been slick finished concrete I think the mess would have been huge.

5) I've put a number of these together myself and this is the first problem and I hope the last. On the replacement lift I left the car hanging from the cables (at very low elevation) for a number of days to stretch them. I then left it sitting in the lock position for several days, after which I went back and re-leveled and adjusted everything.

6) Steve - you may have something there with the Black Car jealousy, but perhaps something more like a curse. One other member here has suggested that this was probably a sign and that I should sell him the Red Car to add to his hoard of cars. The lucky thing is that everything shifted over toward to the side wall of the garage. The other lift was loaded with Black Car over Yellow Car and given the short distance from the side wall I don't believe I could have stabilized it as effectively with the binder straps.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

I learned long ago that worrying and getting stressed usually has an adverse impact on the quality of the outcome.

Wisest words I've heard in a long time around here!