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Post by gato on Feb 15, 2020 7:06:59 GMT -5
My VW mechanic of 20 plus years is pulling the plug. He's going from mechanic and harmonica player in a band, to strictly the harp thang. I used to do most of my own repairs, doing the jack-it-up, jack-it-down operation with floor jacks, but got to thinking, why now something to get the whole VW off the floor. Looked at a variety of lifts, from the exotic bolt-to-the-floor kind (I don't have the room for that) to various other "portable" units. Trouble with most of them is they use compressed air or hydraulics, and they really aren't that portable. Think 60 inch TV with a handle on top to make it "portable". kind of impressed with the EZ Car Lift. Looks like it could be stored standing on its side, handles the relatively low weight of my 50 year old beauties and best of all, uses a screw system to raise and lower .... powered by a heavy duty corded electric drill. No hydraulics, no compressed air. Looks like the 26 inches of floor clearance would be ample to handle four wheel brake jobs, clutch / accelerator cable replacements, shocks and the like, as I could scoot underneath on my creeper. Opinions? www.ezcarlift.com/
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 15, 2020 8:34:38 GMT -5
It looks like it's well-made.
The air-powered platform lifts you mention are also available as self-contained electric-powered units that use a large Acme screw scissor similar to the EZ.
Check out the Youtube channel Mustie1. He does a whole lot of VW stuff and he uses several different platform lifts (air and electric). They store flat on the floor, in place right where they are used.
I prefer a floor jack and jack stands because of the infrequency that I need to lift a vehicle (tire rotation, brake work, etc.). If it were something I did a lot of, I'd invest in (or make) a lift system to save time getting vehicles up in the air. Time is money, if it's a business or a heavy hobby. But for the occasional need, the jack and stands work for me: easy to use and they take up little storage space.
If you need to work on just the front or rear of a vehicle, ramps are a great thing.
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swampyankee
Wholenote
Fakin' it 'til I'm makin' it since 1956
Posts: 713
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Post by swampyankee on Feb 15, 2020 9:07:36 GMT -5
I bought an old VAG product specifically because theres a good mechanic down the road. Hopefully, if he called it quits I'll have picked his brains enough to be able to do most repairs DIY. As it is, I'll do standard stuff myself.
I've done some pretty extensive repairs on cars over the years all on Jack stands lifted by floor jack, but it's alot of work dragging that heavy floor Jack around and positioning Jack stands, etc. If I had the space and the extra cash, I would invest in a lift. As long as it was low profile and could be driven over, it wouldn't need to be wicked heavy duty since most of my projects cars weigh 3000# or less.
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