After many months of looking at mid-rise scissor lifts, I (and a lack of Norco distributors locally) decided to purchase a Bend-Pak MD-6XP.
I tried to buy this from
www.asedeals.com, but their 'guaranteed lowest price' is B.S. - they go as low as they say they can, but won't price match if they don't like the margin. IMO -Don't buy from them.
I contacted a local distributor -
www.bencostuff.com - and they were easy to buy from and have provided great service thus far.
Scissor 'or' 4 Post
Not at all trying to get into this long-debated topic. I have a pretty good sized garage and don’t need the extra space of a four-post lift at this time.
I wanted to be able to get under the C5, but also be able to get the wheels off quickly without additional bottle/air jacks that are commonly used with four-posters. I also thought that this type of lift would make wheel detailing or cleaning out the car a lot easier.
If I add another car, I’ll exceed the 4 current space capacity and will get a 4 post at that time.
Delivery and Install (Sorry No Pics)
When you have a truck with a hoist on the back, it makes short work of what would have been a real PIA for even a few guys. If you buy from an online company, be prepared to pay some extra for a lift-gate service to bring it down to ground level. At a minimum, you would want an engine lift capable of the 1300 lbs (with pallet/shipping materials) to move the lift into your garage and to remove the lift from the pallet.
I don’t have a hoist, so I decided to pay the $200 extra to have Benco deliver and set the lift up.
The setup of the lift was very simple:- Remove from pallet
- Unpack the arms/blocks/screws/pump mechanism
- Attach the hydraulic line from the lift to the pump mechanism
- Pour approx 1.75 gallons of hydraulic fluid into the pump mechanism
- Plug unit in and press the green button – cycle up and down 2 times.
No priming, no releasing any fluid already in the cylinders, it’s just ready to go from the factory.. Amazingly simple – almost wish I would have bought online
The Lift
Paid $1550 for the lift (plus install/delivery mentioned above).
From what I could gather, the Bend-Pak is regarded very well vs many of the knock-off lifts out there.. Norco is alleged to be the best, but I honestly don’t know what could be more robust on this.. Mark and I will have to compare notes – he’s got the Norco 86002.
The lift comes with a base set of lift pads that are attached to a metal part that slides over the lift arm. It also comes standard with two riser plate sets that are handy if you’re lifting a vehicle that has exhaust or other things hanging below the jacking points. On a std. C5, this isn’t an issue as the bottom is virtually flat. I used my jacking pucks just because I had them, but the rubber lift pad is approximately 1” high and would do the job just fine.
Max lift height – on the the highest mechanical safety – puts the top of the base pad at about 43 inches. That’s essentially 44” from the bottom of the C5 to the floor – FYI in case you were tempted to add the 4 or so inches of ground clearance to the factory figure.
The minimum height listed by the factory with the pads installed is 4 ¾” – that is misleading because the safety mechanism and the hydraulic tubes are both higher than that – important because you may end up dragging your air dam over these parts. The highest ‘low’ point on the lift is the safety – 6.25” off the floor. Plan accordingly.
My car is lowered from stock about an inch due to the Bilstein sports. The quick math told me that my 4” of ground clearance would require a ramp system of at least 2.5 inches – made my decision to go with two 2x12’s stacked pretty easy. (More on the ramps later).
The lift handle has a little metal rod sticking up from it’s base plate. This cleverly allows the lift to be raised on one end (the end without the wheels – front on my pics) and move the lift around dragging it on the rear metal wheels.
My thoughts when I first saw the lift were – ‘wow, this thing is really heavy-duty’. I knew it weighed 1200 lbs or so, but the size of the cylinders/lift arms and magnitude of the welds was very impressive. Looking at it, there was no doubting this could lift it’s rated capacity of 6000 lbs.
The lift is very well suited for the lifting points on the C5 – and the weight of the car is far below the capacity. I actually lifted my X5 4.4i up a couple of feet, but due to the arm extension’s being maxed out and the weight of the truck, I was not nearly as comfortable as I would like to have been.. I personally would NOT work under my SUV in this configuration. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of jacking point options on BMW – if you have another truck and can get the jacking points closer to the center of the lift, then you may be better off.
Lot’s of room underneath the C5 with my ramps to move the lift arms into position – you can remove the jacking pad assembly and fold the lift arms over the lift.
I opted for a neutral positioning of the C5 given it’s weight distribution.
It takes about 60 or so seconds to lift the car and about ½ of that if you’re in a hurry to get it down.
NOTE: the lift walks from the back – meaning the front of the lift doesn’t move. You’ll want to plan for that if you’re building ramps (
and you will need ramps even with a stock height C5). I’ll cover this in more detail in a future ‘ramp thread’.
Lift after setup
Lift hydraulic tubes – note my size 11 as reference
Lift welds closeup
Lift arms closeup – the lift arms are about ½ plate steel – note my fat finger for comparison
Lift safety – very clever two part design: The black finger and the blue safety catch. When you raise the lift, the black ‘finger’ ratchets the safety over the welded-in stops on the mechanical safety. If you want the lift to stop at a certain height, you lift just past the blue safety catch (before the finger comes down to over-ride the safety). Then just lower down on the mechanical. For me, I think I’ll plan to keep the hydraulics pumped up too along with the mechanical lock – when I’m under the car, more is more.
Lift opened
Lift max height on top mechanical safety
This lift has a lot of open space when elevated – two very big cavities and a very open front and rear – more it would seem than the Norco lift I was planning on getting.
There are more pics below from under my C5, but there shouldn’t be any access problems for most ‘home-grade’ work.
Lift lowered
Lift at max height with my C5
Back shots
Front shots
Lift floorplan:
It’s getting late, so I’ll post the photos/info/specs about my ramp setup in another thread and/or in an edit to this one.
If I can answer any questions about my lift, shoot me a PM and I’ll be happy to try and help.. Mark (Mark’s_C5TT) helped me out quite a bit, but I wasn’t really able to find out much online about the Bend-Pak version of the scissor lift.
All in all, I’m very impressed with the design, ruggedness and ease of use of this scissor lift. I’m looking forward to a whole new world of detailing and modding.
Chris
Corvette Store
You've provided some great info, Thanks!
