MaxJax Lift Install

Chesapeake Region

Maxjax Lift Install

Dan Zadra

I have always been able and wanted to work on my own vehicles. I stared with the quick jacks that get the vehicles off the ground around 2ft. After owning them for 4 years I was getting tired of moving them every time when I needed to use them. They weighted around 70lbs each. And moving them is not an easy feat. I have always had my eye on the MaxJax 2-post lift for home garages but not until recently have I been in a position to be able to get one. I had my eye on it since Dannmar produced the lift. Now Bendpak bought them out and now produce the lift. Bendpak is a major vehicle lift mfg and brought a lot of safety upgrades and redesigns to the lift to make it more like a commercial lift you would find in an automotive shop. I decided to start the process of looking into seeing if this lift was feasible for my garage.

the lift and coming up with an issue. I did not want to cut the floor and pour deeper footers. I drilled test holes in my concrete and confirmed that it was indeed right around 5 in thick. The lift requires a minimum of 4 ¼ thick and 3000 psi concrete. Once I figured out that I was good with my floor, I reached out to local PCA member Steve Wood. He was gracious enough to left me see his garage with the lift installed with a lower ceiling. He showed me his MaxJax lift with his Porsche on it and showed me the range of lift operation. After seeing it in operation, I was sold and moved forward with placing the order.

I live in a 4-story townhouse with a 18x19 foot garage. I have just about 9ft ceilings. I bought the townhouse brand new before it was built. I was able to talk to the building foreman and saw how they were pouring the concrete. They put small rebar in the garage floor had to pour the slab 5in thick and they were using 4000 psi concrete. So, I had a lift in the back of my mind when I bought the house 6 years ago for just incase in the future. I did a bunch of homework on the lift to make sure it was feasible before buying

Once the order was placed, I had some set-up work to do. I had to figure out the correct position the lift needed to be in to still maintain full garage usability. It took me around ½ a day to find the sweet spot of where the columns needed to be front to back position. The next major measurement was the width between the columns. The nominal range that the lift can function is 105-135 inches. At first, I planned for

around 110-115 inches using tape on the floor to mock it up and see how it would look. I had settled on 115 until I got the lift to visually see how it would look before drilling the holes.

I got the lift and set them into the marks I had marked out on the ground at 115 inches from end to end. Once visually seeing it, I knew I needed to go further back. After trial and seeing how it looked/fit, I settled on 127 inches. I was going to go 125 but with my overhead storage I had near the lift I was able to get 2 extra inches without having to move the overhead rack. With 127 inches this gave me 96 inches of clearance from post to post. This was plenty of room to not make things super tight to get around and into and out of the car. Once I had the distance marked it was time to mark and drill the holes. Drilling the holes requires a 7/8 concrete bit. The manual tells you to drill though the hole in the lift into the floor. That is just not possible, the bit gets

stuck in the metal due to the way concrete bits are made. So, I marked the center of each of the 5 holes requires for each post and drilled them that way. Then it was time to install the anchors.

The anchor installation did not go as planned and how easy as it was made out to be. I cleaned the holes as described and put the anchors in. I had issues getting them to bite into the concrete when you tighten them to get the wedge to put the lock into the concrete. Instead, it would not grab and just pulled the anchor to high and not flush with the hole. I was only able to get 5 of the required 10 to lock in correctly, 3 on one column and 2 on the other. I had to get the epoxy anchor kit and use those for the 5 that would not lock in. I had to pound in the bad anchors into the ground below. Trying to pull them out would damage the concrete. Once they were pounded down into the ground below 7 in from the floor of the concrete. The epoxy anchors were 1 ½ inches longer than the wedge anchors. I got the 5 epoxy anchors set into the holes and let them sit for 24 hours before trying to install the columns. I installed all the hold down bolts and torqued them to the spec and let it sit over night to make sure no anchors moved or pulled out. I had no issues with the anchors. I moved along to getting the hydraulics installed.

The lift comes with lines and a cart to install the pump. I do not like the lines or the pump on the cart, I prefer clean installs without having to do extra steps. I found a spot on my wall to install the pump. I ran 20-amp service over to the pump with a dedicated breaker from my electrical panel. I used the bracket that came with the cart to install the pump and mounted it to the wall with some brackets from Home Depot. Once all points were mounted, I planned my line route out with some string. I took the string to a local hydraulic line shop to make the lines for me. The lines were costly at $550.00 but it makes for a cleaner installation. I routed the lines from the pump to the lift columns. I put fluid into the reservoir and bleed out the lift. I ran the lift for the first time, and everything worked correctly.

It was time to test the lift and make sure everything was ok. I decided to use my VW Jetta just in case. I set the lift and put it off the ground. I put a level on the column to watch the bend on the columns as it went up. I left it about 2 ft off the ground for a bit to make sure nothing happened. I raised it all the way up and set it on the locks. I was able to take the lift all the way up without hitting the ceiling. I checked the level again and found the column flexed about 1/32 of an inch max on the level. I let it sit for around 4 hours to monitor. I found no addition- al movement. I took the car off the lift removed the bolts for the posts and inspected all the anchors. I found no movement in them or cracking of the concrete. I put the posts back down and bolted them down again. All the bolts torqued correctly. If I need to move the one column its super easy to do so. The lift arms come off easy and the hydraulic line is quick disconnect as well. The lift comes with handles built in to move them easy. Also, while you have the lift column not bolted down the lift comes with bolts to go into the anchor holes, so you do not get dirt or debris in them.

Overall, this is a great lift for the money if you are limited for ceiling height. I have roughly $4K into the full install. That includes everything I had to buy to do the install and the lift kit itself. I used the lift for 8 hours with my car on it and did major work to my Jetta. I now have the confidence to be under the lift and to put the Porsche on it without any concerns.