That is a very neat idea, but it IS a table lift, which I have explained does not meet my objectives. Also, the bike shown in the photos is a sportbike which is MUCH lighter in weight than my Harley. Note that the description on the website about rolling the bike onto the lift includes having the lift "tilt" upward as the combined lift plus bike center of gravity shifts while he pushes the bike up the lift. Scary.

Jim G

 

Jim,
As a owner of the Harbor Freight lift I would like to respectively ask if you would please provide me more info about the " It also angers me that the quality is untrustworthy" that you state is the case with this lift.

If I could find any documentation on the net that I may have a problem I would like to research that source as I do value my safety.

I have searched consumer affairs, the reviews I see are all five stars and when I reversed Google image search that picture you posted of the broken Harbor Freight lift. I see that same image posted a few other places but I can't find the source. I question is that a random screen grab of that image or is that your lift that failed on you or on who?

I can not find any reports of this lift failing and if you are aware please provide as if I have a bad product I'll take it back or take it the issue up myself with Consumer affairs...

Thanks for any help you can give pointing me in the right direction.
Thanks,
Soundman5000

 

So you won't buy cheap, and your wife won't let you buy good. Sounds like you are done. What's to talk about? You won't discuss anything that doesn't meet your narrow exhaustive criteria. You want the blue lift. You can't have it. Period. It's a no. We can't help you on that.

All good things come to an end. Maybe it's time to stop spending money on stuff you can't do. The day comes for all of us. I have a lift, it serves me well. I still have to roll around on the garage floor. It kicks my butt. The only thing wrong with me is I'm not 30 anymore. I need a lift table... But I won't buy one for the trike. Best I can do is jack stands. Still have to get under it. It is what it is.

You can't do what you used to. You can't have the blue one. You won't buy an alternative. Sounds like it's settled.

 

He will not reply to posts that do not scratch him behind his ears. He is not open to the reality of his situation. He is having fun by having a dilemma. He is retired and has nothing else to do with his time but naval gaze.

 

That report about the HF lift failure was NOT from me. Someone else posted it on this thread. I do not know where he got it. But the buyer reviews on all these inexpensive jack lifts all contain both "good" reports and "bad" reports. I personally believe that SOME of the bad reviews are from people who don't know the important safety steps to take when lifting any motorccycle, or did not even read the instructions, but SOME of the good reviews are also from users who bought the lift to lift a lightweight bike OR simply have not used the lift a lot yet. My approach has been to try to find the lifts with an overwelming percentage of GOOD reports, thinking that MAYBE that improves my odds of avoiding lifts that have questionable design or manufacturing quality. But, the report of a broken weld on a lift that score over 95% good reviews shook me. I think you have too read as many reviews as you can, assess the user credibility and experience, and draw your conclusions.

One thing that you should know when reading those reviews, is that when a lift refuses to LOWER, it is not always failure of the hydraulic system, but sometimes the result of deformation of a part in the lifting mechanism, due to overloading or wrong bike placement, which is preventing the hydraulic system from lowering. Keep that in mind when reading reviews, especially reviews by users not qualified or experienced enough to accurately determine the cause of a problem.

I worked for many years in manufacturing before I changed to project management, and in most of my manufacturing roles, I was either indirectly or very directly responsible for worker and product buyer safety. So, I may be coming into this lift thing with more and deeper concerns than some others. I take safety VERY seriously as a result of seeing in person the effects of bad accidents. The worst one involved the loss of a worker's hand and forearm in a particularly gruesome manner. He simply let instinct override the rules he knew. I had the awful task of driving his wife to the hospital emergency room. I've never forgotten that incident.

Jim G

 

And you can't eliminate mechanical things from failing. Joe six pack goes to work hung over and your motorcycle is on the ground. It's cool, because the manufacturer warrants their stuff from manufacturer defects so you will get a new one. Top quality gear still fails.

Go to HF and buy the cheap one already. Scared... Then test it. Get 6x6 landscape timber. Jack your bike up and block it. Test the stops. Hell leave if for a month. Do crack test with some dye penatrant on the welds. Either it passes or it doesn't. Saved yourself $400 bucks and get kudos from the wife. So many solutions...

 

Looking again these only go for around 200 quid (355 Canuckistan dollars) used on fleabay, so I might keep my eye out and pick one up if it's within a couple of hundred miles of me.
For that money it can sit in a corner, owe me next to nothing but be right handy when needed.

 

So many solutions, so little time.

 

MrLongbeard: The Big Blue lifts are only 500 quid brand new in Britain, and that INCLUDES both the beams (at no extra charge) and shipping even to Southern Italy. It sounds like the reduced British cost makes them MUCH more common than here in Canada. If used ones are THAT common, and THAT cheap in England, I wonder if I could figure out how to find the British used ads, and how much it might cost to ship one to Canada.

$355 CDN is cheap enough that shipping, even if high and slow (about 90 or 95 lb box and maybe as much as 2.5 ft x 3.5 ft x a few inches thick), might still be feasible. How could I get access to the British ads? What marketplaces are they on in Britain?

14 years of them being sold and used apparently without a single failure sounds very reassuring.

Jim G

 

As I said, Ebay, they're probably on facebook marketplace too.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...&LH_Complete=1