I have a Rotary 10k pad lift that has been very reliable, but (a) not portable and (b) not cheap. At the price point this is compared to it's competition (what competition really?) I'm not surprised there are some issues to work through.
I have a Rotary 10k pad lift that has been very reliable, but (a) not portable and (b) not cheap. At the price point this is compared to it's competition (what competition really?) I'm not surprised there are some issues to work through.
Datsun1500 wrote: Keith, I came in to type what DrBoost said. I know you're a dealer, and I understand that you want them to be good. Just because you don't hear many complaints does not mean they do not exist. Some people just say nevermind and buy something else. As a dealer you are putting your reputation on a product that you need to make excuses for, and I am surprised that you are willing to do that.
If you think our customers aren't very willing to share their dissatisfaction, you are welcome to take over the phones at FM for a while 
Miata owners have very high standards for quality and finish, which is partly our fault. By far, most of the complaints have been broken wheels and paint damage to the lifting unit. Leaky hoses and damaged pumps are a very small minority.
Forum threads like this one invite the dissatisfied to chime in. Even the thread title. Those who are using them happily just go on using them. And based on my contact with a wide range of actual customers, the latter outnumber the former.
Are there some problems? Definitely. Ranger/BendPak is an industrial supply company, not a consumer tool company. You're not buying from Home Depot here. They're learning some hard lessons with these things, from how to ship something UPS instead of by freight to what consumers (as opposed to shops) are willing to accept. We've dealt with BendPak for our lifts for years, and there are often some teething problems when getting them set up. Then they work reliably for years. These things definitely are at risk of damage when being shipped because they're heavy and they're not well packed. The good thing is that Ranger gets right on problems.
As for safety concerns, you can run the numbers. We did some estimation and figured the support legs as having about a 4x safety margin for strength.
I still think it's fundamentally a good product. I've personally worked them hard when doing suspension development, swapping out shocks on two cars constantly for several days. I've put my own money into one for home after using the shop set. There isn't much else on the market that fills this particular niche.
I have nothing usefull to add. But after reading this I went Googling for mid rise lifts, and one that came up was the Ranger at Norther Tool. This is the pic they have. 
Obviously those having issues it's their own damn fault, according to the pic you're only supposed to life RC cars
I am not one to leave the thread open-ended so here is the update:
The replacement hose arrived via next-day FedEx. Good on Ranger there, for sure. I was a little miffed that they only sent one hose, as it has clearly been revised since the first one(s) were shipped. The finish on the hose and fittings is different and the hose has different stampings. Not a big deal but if I had one failure of the old design, why not send a pair of replacements?
After installing the new hose I cycled the unit a few times and did a bleed of the lines. One side moves very smoothly but the other is slightly jerky.
Not sure if the video will post but here is the link:
This was from Sunday but the unit is still doing the same thing- notice how disjointed the motion is when lifting and lowering. Only one side is doing this now.
(sorry abut the incorrect orientation)
http://vid90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/phenryiv1/House/Garage/20150426_164534.mp4
Put a load on it, they can be a little jerky when unloaded sometimes.
In reply to rcutclif:
The patent question was more of a curiosity based on my new job. Not necessarily any other reason.
Okay, more info as I got the final pictures uploaded. After a few calls to Ranger all was rectified and I got it working. Here are a few pictures:
Easily fits under my lowered e30:
We have liftoff:
Are they moving smoothly now? And, uhh, it looks like some parts fell off your car.
mine is less than 1 year old and yours has more hoses than my 2500....I hope you get 100 years of great service and enjoyment from it, I still think its a suckie company.
if you mean me, about 1 week. after the 10 week back order.
Keith Tanner wrote: Are they moving smoothly now? And, uhh, it looks like some parts fell off your car.
They went up smoothly but I have not yet lowered it with a load.
And yes, some things came off of the car...steering rack, front calipers, PS pump, rotors. Fortunately all new/reman parts went back on.
Datsun1500 wrote: How long was it from when you first got it until you could actually use it? A Month?
6 weeks, give or take a couple days.
The wrote: mine is less than 1 year old and yours has more hoses than my 2500....I hope you get 100 years of great service and enjoyment from it, I still think its a suckie company.
Mine has 2 single hoses from the cylinders to male QR fittings, then a double line (QR female on both ends) from there to the pump.
I hope that the headaches are all behin dme now but I will say that for what I have used it to do so far it has been great. Now that it seems to be WORKING, that is.
Swapping the steering rack and doing break work has been very easy and while it is not as high as my TD6MR was (about 42") it offers much more room to move than ramps (which would have been impractical for this job anyway) or jackstands. Being able to roll over to snag an errant bolt or tool without catching my shoulders on the underside of the car has been a nice change, plus since I have been hunting leaks it is nice to have the car up this far to look for drips over the last few days. Doing so with the car on stands or ramps did not allow a clear line of sight to the leaks while this lets me get under the car easily to track drips and rectify.
Assuming that it keeps working, I think it will be a nice tool to have around.
Add me to the list of those who ordered, received and then put together a "Dud"! As others have stated, I hear the pump running, but no pressure. The rams have not moved at all.
I've put in an email and phone call to Ranger, hoping to get this resolved rather quickly. By the sound of things, Ranger has taken care of its customers.
I just feel a big let down as this is a rather large investment and it doesn't work upon arrival. I will add there are no leaks, I double checked the fluid level and it has not gone down at all.
I'll post more upon response/update from Ranger.
UPDATE Received both an email and phone call from Ranger. They quickly responded and advised me that it was a simple issue with priming the pump. Once primed, the BL-5000 came to life and is fully operational!
I'm one happy camper to say the least!
Jose
None of my fittings leaked, but....
Ranger QuickJack BL5000 SLX Arrived Friday 02 Aug 16 Unpacking, I noticed some minor damage to the shipping packaging. Pump assembly box, the pump assembly had damaged the styrofoam, but apparently not cut through the cardboard box. No visible damage of pump assembly could be seen.
One of the frame boxes had been opened from stress during transport right at the first band / strapping location The other frame box was intact, but wet from rain. I used a dolly to get them into the house Once removed from their boxes, no visible / obvious damage occurred to either frame. all wheels were intact (seems most likely to sustain damage). Initial assembly proceeded inside using web downloaded manual.
Completed assembly using shipped manual. Filling the reservoir with ~2.5 quarts as that is what I remembered from my first read of the web downloaded manual. I double checked the shipped manual, and it listed 2 quarts in two places - so initially I was a bit worried I had over filled the pump unit. Initial raising and lowering unloaded proceeded with very inconsistent results. ( I gathered from later reading that this is somewhat normal).
However, when the lift stopped working as expected I noticed the breather vent on the reservoir was ejecting ATF fluid. So I though I had indeed overfilled the reservoir, I assumed the ATF ejection at the breather was not normal. I disconnected the pump unit from the twin hose assembly, and opened the tank filler port, and poured out some ATF fluid into a bucket. Being not too familiar with hydraulics, I sprayed the breather valve with compressed are to make sure air flowed through the piece (side hole to top hole etc..). Re-connected twin hose assembly and continued initial no load checkout. Now, the frames will not rise from fully lowered position without assistance. Reading more online, and using the trouble shooting guide from the web downloaded manual I tried priming the pump. Location of relief valve is problematic for getting a wrench on it, so I disconnected the two male fittings on the pump body, removed the relief valve cap, and re-installed the two male fittings. Ran the unit expecting the eventually feel pressure at the relief valve - but none could be felt.
The troubleshooting guide listed low oil level as a possible cause of 'pump not priming'. I get more ATF fluid, add to reservoir, and eyeball the full recommendation (~1/2 inch from top). At all times added ATF was directly from a new bottle of retail Dexron III, meaning I had enough sense to not attempt re-using what I had poured out (contamination). Now lift can get off of fully lowered position. So I decide it's time to add a load. Position 1999 Audi A4 2.8 on the lift, and after some adjustment get the lift to raise the vehicle. Curb weight well within 5000 lb rating... I took it up and down slightly at first, then past first lock position, tested the lock function, and proceeded to go higher. Took it up the second lock position, and feeling great, took a picture.
Going to take it back down, the lift moved up, but not far enough for the rockers to fall down above the second lock position. The Car was Stuck After several more attempts to raise the car, the lift stopped moving at all from the second locking position. The unit was making at least some pressure, as the lift made a mechanical sound when depressing the DN button after attempting to raise the lift off of the second locking position. Desperate searching for solutions on the internet really did not help. Although I found some folks who had the same thing happen to them no immediate solution was apparent. I was not relishing the prospect of the car on the lift for several days, Monday being Labor Day, etc...Not to mention the possibility of rain damaging the lift. I continued to add ATF to the reservoir in small batches to hopefully get motion. I was cognizant that I was overfilling the system but I really did not have any more ideas. While stuck, I repeated bleeding both cylinders - the lack of air bubbles confirming that my previous two bleeds were sufficient. I felt that if I could get the lock bars over the second locking position, I could get the car down. Not knowing how much force it would take I acquired a rooting bar and a standard demolition crow bar. I realize what I did was extremely dangerous, but the QuickJack put me in this situation. With another person holding the UP button continuously, I used the demolition crow bar to lift the locking bar over the second locking position, one side at a time. The maneuver was thankfully free of drama, and the car was lowered uneventfully. As expected upon lowering, the reservoir breather sputtered ATF. What was not expected, was when I tried to raise the lift again just to see if they would move, they would not. Disconnected all hoses, cleaned up a lot of ATF, and started the wait for QuickJack tech support.
Slack wrote: None of my fittings leaked, but.... Ranger QuickJack BL5000 SLX Arrived Friday 02 Aug 16 Unpacking, I noticed some minor damage to the shipping packaging. Pump assembly box, the pump assembly had damaged the styrofoam, but apparently not cut through the cardboard box. No visible damage of pump assembly could be seen. One of the frame boxes had been opened from stress during transport right at the first band / strapping location The other frame box was intact, but wet from rain. I used a dolly to get them into the house Once removed from their boxes, no visible / obvious damage occurred to either frame. all wheels were intact (seems most likely to sustain damage). Initial assembly proceeded inside using web downloaded manual. Completed assembly using shipped manual. Filling the reservoir with ~2.5 quarts as that is what I remembered from my first read of the web downloaded manual. I double checked the shipped manual, and it listed 2 quarts in two places - so initially I was a bit worried I had over filled the pump unit. Initial raising and lowering unloaded proceeded with very inconsistent results. ( I gathered from later reading that this is somewhat normal). However, when the lift stopped working as expected I noticed the breather vent on the reservoir was ejecting ATF fluid. So I though I had indeed overfilled the reservoir, I assumed the ATF ejection at the breather was not normal. I disconnected the pump unit from the twin hose assembly, and opened the tank filler port, and poured out some ATF fluid into a bucket. Being not too familiar with hydraulics, I sprayed the breather valve with compressed are to make sure air flowed through the piece (side hole to top hole etc..). Re-connected twin hose assembly and continued initial no load checkout. Now, the frames will not rise from fully lowered position without assistance. Reading more online, and using the trouble shooting guide from the web downloaded manual I tried priming the pump. Location of relief valve is problematic for getting a wrench on it, so I disconnected the two male fittings on the pump body, removed the relief valve cap, and re-installed the two male fittings. Ran the unit expecting the eventually feel pressure at the relief valve - but none could be felt. The troubleshooting guide listed low oil level as a possible cause of 'pump not priming'. I get more ATF fluid, add to reservoir, and eyeball the full recommendation (~1/2 inch from top). At all times added ATF was directly from a new bottle of retail Dexron III, meaning I had enough sense to not attempt re-using what I had poured out (contamination). Now lift can get off of fully lowered position. So I decide it's time to add a load. Position 1999 Audi A4 2.8 on the lift, and after some adjustment get the lift to raise the vehicle. Curb weight well within 5000 lb rating... I took it up and down slightly at first, then past first lock position, tested the lock function, and proceeded to go higher. Took it up the second lock position, and feeling great, took a picture. Going to take it back down, the lift moved up, but not far enough for the rockers to fall down above the second lock position. The Car was Stuck After several more attempts to raise the car, the lift stopped moving at all from the second locking position. The unit was making at least some pressure, as the lift made a mechanical sound when depressing the DN button after attempting to raise the lift off of the second locking position. Desperate searching for solutions on the internet really did not help. Although I found some folks who had the same thing happen to them no immediate solution was apparent. I was not relishing the prospect of the car on the lift for several days, Monday being Labor Day, etc...Not to mention the possibility of rain damaging the lift. I continued to add ATF to the reservoir in small batches to hopefully get motion. I was cognizant that I was overfilling the system but I really did not have any more ideas. While stuck, I repeated bleeding both cylinders - the lack of air bubbles confirming that my previous two bleeds were sufficient. I felt that if I could get the lock bars over the second locking position, I could get the car down. Not knowing how much force it would take I acquired a rooting bar and a standard demolition crow bar. I realize what I did was extremely dangerous, but the QuickJack put me in this situation. With another person holding the UP button continuously, I used the demolition crow bar to lift the locking bar over the second locking position, one side at a time. The maneuver was thankfully free of drama, and the car was lowered uneventfully. As expected upon lowering, the reservoir breather sputtered ATF. What was not expected, was when I tried to raise the lift again just to see if they would move, they would not. Disconnected all hoses, cleaned up a lot of ATF, and started the wait for QuickJack tech support.
Did you get anywhere today?
This sounds like a company with manufacturing and capital issues. First a design problem (newly designed fittings on the replacement, not sending both new hoses to a miffed customer shows lack of capital, absent-minded customer service or both.) The continuing delivery issues, statistically speaking based on how many people on this board who owned them vs how many have posted an issue, shows that they are deficient in logistics and production quality checks.
This might be the greatest invention since sliced bread, but if you can't build it, get it to your customer properly and support it, best to just license the idea and walk away. Especially in something that, if it fails, will kill people.
EDIT: This is from a former Quality/Manufacturing/Design/Product engineer point of view. If you have one and enjoy it, by all means, love it!
I guess I should consider myself lucky that I got a good one. I also recommended to friends and two of them have bought and gotten good ones. But these were all the (now-discontinued?) smaller size.
I got mine in Feb 2015. On first assembly it oozed a little. After using teflon tape and torquing the berkeley out of the fittings, it works with no leaks. It has been used several times a week since. Still going strong. Only issue is that one side seems to have lost its 50 psi charge (which is just for lowering it the rest of the way to the ground once the load is off it. So I walk over and stand on that one for a second. Whatever. Too lazy to top it off again.) Very happy with it overall.
And now that I wrote that, it'll probably break or something.
Did you get anywhere today?
Nope... Weekend is over - busy after work, and wanted to wait for a reply from QuickJack after submitting a techsupport via their web form. Got a reply yesterday, to which added the details I posted here along with pictures.... the verdict before and after they read everything is "failed buffer valve" They say I'll have on today or tomorrow so come the weekend I'll give it another go.
From the picture they sent I'll have to remove the reservoir from the pump essembly to get to and replace the buffer valve. Fingers crossed, I like the design, and I am not looking forward to how much labor and cash it'll take to send it back.
Flight Service wrote: This sounds like a company with manufacturing and capital issues. First a design problem (newly designed fittings on the replacement, not sending both new hoses to a miffed customer shows lack of capital, absent-minded customer service or both.) The continuing delivery issues, statistically speaking based on how many people on this board who owned them vs how many have posted an issue, shows that they are deficient in logistics and production quality checks. This might be the greatest invention since sliced bread, but if you can't build it, get it to your customer properly and support it, best to just license the idea and walk away. Especially in something that, if it fails, will kill people. EDIT: This is from a former Quality/Manufacturing/Design/Product engineer point of view. If you have one and enjoy it, by all means, love it!
This is also the Official Internet Bitching Thread for these parts. The thread title is just catnip. As someone who sells them to Miata owners - a demographic that is not shy about providing feedback for product shortcomings, perceived or actual - the failure rate is nowhere near as bad as this thread would have you believe.
Ranger is an industrial lift company that's used to shipping industrial parts to shops. The retail lift market is different, as they've discovered. Slack is an example - not familiar with hydraulics, but trying to troubleshoot a hydraulic lift on a weekend when he has no access to support.
So is shipping via UPS instead of freight. There's no question the packaging was substandard, I don't know if the new SLX models have addressed that or not. It was almost always damaged wheels, which is annoying but doesn't prevent you from using the part until you get replacements. In my experience, Ranger has been good at dealing with any problems. Not just with these, but also with their industrial parts.
I'm pretty sure these are made overseas, not in the US by Ranger like their industrial stuff. The boxes in particular have that HF vibe about them.
We are now on the next generation of units. The SLX models have some design tweaks (most notably a longer table for a wider spread of lifting points) and it's POSSIBLE some of the other problems have been addressed. I don't know about that. But it would be good if anyone who signs in here to complain specified which model they were using. There are now six variations available new and four more that are discontinued.
My personal 12v BL-3500 unit is working great. No leakage other than a few drops when disconnecting hoses (hint: make sure you have fully bled off any pressure before releasing fittings). It's been dragged all over the country and gets used to lift my car between every session at the track.
Keith Tanner wrote: Slack is an example - not familiar with hydraulics.
The funny thing is...I work for Parker Hannifin. (I am NOT familiar with hydraulics - EE by profession, just thought it was ironic.)
And I agree this thread is a dumping ground, mainly it's by prominence in google search results, and yes the title....still, it contains some useful information. I posted over on Vortex but it didn't get much attention. I posted in here mainly as a just-in-case scenario...i.e. quickjack slow to respond, or response was lacking. FWIW, Response was polite, professional, and gives me hope. I like the design of this lift it has got a lot going for it, in my lay opinion.
Keith Tanner wrote: My personal 12v BL-3500 unit is working great. No leakage other than a few drops when disconnecting hoses (hint: make sure you have fully bled off any pressure before releasing fittings). It's been dragged all over the country and gets used to lift my car between every session at the track.
Yeah, the latest revision of the quick disconnect fittings has totally fixed the leakage issues I was having.
I've got the originals It's that trick of holding the "down" button for an extra few seconds after the lift is collapsed that makes all the difference.
Keith Tanner wrote: I've got the originals
Mine leaked even with that. They got gradually worse over time, it wasn't that they'd leak when you disconnected them, they'd leak just sitting on the garage floor when the lift was disassembled. Leave it there for a week and there'd be a small puddle of ATF on the floor underneath them.
Mine is one of the first dozen or so units they sold, I'm pretty sure the one you have has at least the second revision of the disconnects. They're up to at least rev 3 or rev 4 at this point.
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