[vtl]

After doing countless jobs on jack stands, including turbocharger installs, clutch changes, exhaust and diffs I have finally got around to installing a hoist. Crawling underneath the car is no fun, its tiring, you breathe in a lot of dust and can be quite sketchy removing big items like gearboxes. It wastes so much time having to crawl in and out just to get tools as well.


Requirements were a hoist that would fit under the ceiling of my garage. This narrows it down to low-mid rise scissor lifts or a very small number of 2 post lifts.

There are various other requirements that have to be met before installing the hoist

Slab thickness - you want at least 100mm thickness of concrete, if you do not have this, you may have to buy steel reinforcement plates or cut out the concrete and repour it thicker. If you have a modern house with an attached garage you likely have a waffle slab, which can be very thin (can sometimes crack the concrete with a scissor jack)
Roof height - Low rise hoists are around 1.5-2m in height, this will easily fit under most homes but realistically you want a decent height to work under.
Space - If you have a modern 2 car garage, chances are its already tight with 2 cars in it. With a hoist it'll basically be a 1 car garage

I decided on getting a hoist and was strongly leaning towards the Maxjax hoist which is very popular in the USA. After doing more research on it, it seems like a poorly thought out product albeit with a huge fanbase, as it is sold through a large number of retailers over there and is easily accessible. Over here, they are distributed via a local distributor, who were very difficult to get a hold of via email, quite unhelpful with basic technical questions and pricing was very poor.

I ended up going for a Hood Auto Performance HAPP90 hoist, which is far superior to the maxjax in almost every way. The main differences are

- That the HAPP has higher lift range,
- Has automatic locks every 100mm (maxjax only has two positions via a manual pin you have to put in by hand )
- Very responsive local support, with good technical and sales people
- Accessories available locally
- Parts on this small happ90 are shared between their larger hoists, spares are easy to get
- has none of the weird maxjax issues like bolts blocking hydraulic fittings etc
- arms and pads look a lot more sturdy and are heavier duty, and has a higher load rating
- Cheaper to buy than maxjax including freight

For an indepth comparison and review, this is review definitely swayed me towards buying the HAPP90

http://holman.id.au/HAPP90/

The hoist itself was very reasonably priced, $3150 delivered to Melbourne depot from QLD, and included the hoist, freight, 2 low profile ramps and a roller seat.

But the main thing isnt the cost, its the effort required to get the package home and installed. The package size is 2060mmx740mmx470mm /530kg and a few other additional boxes Luckily this will fit in a single cab ute tray (just) and hiring a ute I felt was the most cost effective way of getting it home. Upon arriving at the depot, the loading process is quite easy, the forklift does all the work for you. I strapped it down with as much rope as I could and drove it home without any issues.

This is where the challenge begins. At 530kg, this is quite a large package to lift even if you had a whole group of people helping. I purchased an engine crane to unload it in my garage, I used quite a lot of rope to hoist it out and was quite difficult as it would tilt as I lifted it up with the crane. Having a second person helps immensely to manoeuvre and stabilise the large object. I eventually got the thing down onto jackstands and started unpackaging the columns. The hardest part of this whole process was getting it off the ute.

Unpackaging everything is a very time consuming process, I found the metal frame that the hoist ships in actually is bolted on and welded up, which boxes it in and you cant disassemble it without using an angle grinder Wasn't a big deal but still. Used the crane to lift out each column and set them down on the floor. The arms are quite heavy and are stored inside of the columns during shipping, once removed you can actually push the column upright quite easily with one person.

I opted to pay for professional install, I could have probably done it myself but it was so much faster and convenient to get some experienced guys in. They were great blokes and took the time to make everything right.

Overall quite happy with the hoist, the ceiling height is definitely the limiting factor as I cannot raise the car high enough to walk under the car. I am very happy I went with the HAPP90 vs the maxjax, would be horrendous not having the locks every 100mm.

I have found with BMW jack points the pads are very far outboard and close together so the arms tend to be too long. I have experienced this in other lifts and is quite frustrating. I installed the lift as the max permissible distance from each other but I still found the arms to be too long. The hoist comes iwth 2 long arms and 2 short arms, the long arms are generally too long and difficult to get onto the pads, so a lot of times I have to use a rubber pad that sits on the metal arm vs using the adjustable pad. I got sick of this pretty quickly and I purchased an extra set of 2 short arms for a great price from HAPP

The other annoyance I am having with the hoist is the cables to the power unit are just on the floor, which make it quite annoying. Eventually I want to purchase a longer hose, so I can route the hydraulic hose onto the ceiling and have the power unit off to one side, freeing up floor space and allow carts/jacks/seat to be rolled around easily and not have a trip hazard.

Eventually, it would be nice to raise the roof of my garage. The roof is not structural and could potentially be detached, as it is made out of corrugated sheet metal. Max lift height would then be 1500mm, and the included pad spacers can get it up to 1670mm of height. Currently very low stools have to be used to work underneath the car, which is not the most comfortable

Have done a few jobs so far, definitely a lot easier. It is very quick to get the pads onto the points and have the whole car lifted without dealing with jack stands. Have done clutch change, oil pan gasket, suspension and brake jobs. if you are able to, well worth the investment if you are into DIY.

[iliketurtl3s]

Noicceeeeee

[LucasAry]

thanks for the review

[EB89]

Thats a nifty little setup, nice review

[dhanu]

Excellent review Vince! All the best with your future projects

[Monger007]

Originally Posted by dhanu

Excellent review Vince! All the best with your future projects

I have the flush mounted type.

[Socket]

Great review Vince.... All of us have dreams of owning our own hoist, you're actually living the dream lol ... jelly

[Aus335iguy]

Good stuff mate, just wish there were more knowledgeable people like you around.

[vtl]

Thanks guys

For reference this is how much space is available to drop a transmission. Doing most of the job sitting down on stools, still hard work but nowhere near as bad as working under jack stands. Transmission can be raised and lowered safely too, minimum height of the transmission jack would be an issue if the ceiling was any lower though.

[Boganian Rubes]

Sweet as grats vince!

[ash335]

Nice work Vince. Thats going to make things a lot easier!
Have you moved to a new place? That garage does not look the same as when I saw it last.

[vtl]

Originally Posted by ash335

Nice work Vince. Thats going to make things a lot easier!
Have you moved to a new place? That garage does not look the same as when I saw it last.

Yeah moved into my own place in Rowville in March

[Nugget]

Good detailed review.
With the amount of work you do, your life will be so much easier now.

Originally Posted by Monger007

I have the flush mounted type.

I got similar.

[ash335]

Originally Posted by vtl

Yeah moved into my own place in Rowville in March

Awesome! Congrats
Will have to check your digs out once things settle down at home (2nd bub)... still need to do my OFHG and a few other bits and bobs.

[vtl]

Originally Posted by Nugget

Good detailed review.
With the amount of work you do, your life will be so much easier now.



I got similar.

Looks very convenient, I do find the columns a bit annoying when i just want to park the car. I have a 7m long garage so its possible to drive forwards a bit more so I can swing the doors open without hitting the columns, but can be tricky if I have junk lying around.

What kind of lift height can you get out of the scissor?

[vtl]

Originally Posted by ash335

Awesome! Congrats
Will have to check your digs out once things settle down at home (2nd bub)... still need to do my OFHG and a few other bits and bobs.

Congrats! Best to get that OFHG out of the way before the oil starts damaging coolant hoses etc

[Ninjaoz]

congrats mate! very nice indeed, that's a big investment...

can I bring my E39 over for a couple of minor jobs one day if you are keen to earn some extra bucks?

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by vtl

Looks very convenient, I do find the columns a bit annoying when i just want to park the car. I have a 7m long garage so its possible to drive forwards a bit more so I can swing the doors open without hitting the columns, but can be tricky if I have junk lying around.

What kind of lift height can you get out of the scissor?

I'm limited by my roof, but specs say it can lift up to 2m.

http://www.aaq.net.au/application/fi..._AL-3000BG.pdf

[Coupes33]

Originally Posted by vtl

Thanks guys

For reference this is how much space is available to drop a transmission. Doing most of the job sitting down on stools, still hard work but nowhere near as bad as working under jack stands. Transmission can be raised and lowered safely too, minimum height of the transmission jack would be an issue if the ceiling was any lower though.

Looks good Vince. I would love to have one so that I didn't have to crawl under my car on stands. However, I need the room in my garage for 2 cars and the hoist makes the garage a single car option only. The scissor style looks more accommodating for 2 cars. Too be able to hoist your car up to a good height would make so many tasks under the car quicker and easier, especially for an old bloke like me.

[Coupes33]

Originally Posted by Nugget

Good detailed review.
With the amount of work you do, your life will be so much easier now.



I got similar.

The scissor style hoist looks ideal for lifting the car and also closing up out of the way. Where do you buy these and how much are they? How is the scissor mechanism locked so it cannot collapse when extended?

[DR-JEKL]

Hmm I'm building a new house which the slab shall be poured in Oct, i think that scissor style lift would be handy!

Would be good to see the details and specs on it

[vtl]

Originally Posted by Ninjaoz

congrats mate! very nice indeed, that's a big investment...

can I bring my E39 over for a couple of minor jobs one day if you are keen to earn some extra bucks?

Sure thing send me a pm

Originally Posted by Coupes33

Looks good Vince. I would love to have one so that I didn't have to crawl under my car on stands. However, I need the room in my garage for 2 cars and the hoist makes the garage a single car option only. The scissor style looks more accommodating for 2 cars. Too be able to hoist your car up to a good height would make so many tasks under the car quicker and easier, especially for an old bloke like me.

It was definitely a big decision to lose the car space. Despite the size the columns are really not that heavy and most of the weight is concentrated at the bottom. You can install the hoist with bolts instead of studs and wheel the columns away when not in use, although realistically it would be a bit of a big hassle to do so.

The in ground option is very attractive for the extra space, and access looks fantastic underneath the car. Only downsides I can think of are the groundworks required and the potential of dropping screws/bolts into the cutouts in the floor, or spilling fluids down in there.

Either way you can't go wrong, I've done the clutch on my car on jackstands and done many turbo installs on jackstands too, gets very tiring. Simple things like getting up to get a tool is much harder and more time consuming than it needs to be. Definitely worth doing!