Dannmar D7-X 4 Post Lift Experience

[v10enomous]

I know that some of you expressed interest in the Dannmar 4 Post lifts in other threads. I ordered my Dannmar D7-X a couple of weeks ago and it showed up at the freight dock yesterday 3 weeks ahead of schedule. I figured that I would document my experience with this lift as a point of reference for everyone.

I purchased the Lift online from Garage Equipment supply. Tiffany there was very helpful and gave me special pricing for a package that included the D7-X extra long, high and wide lift along with 3 drip trays, casters and the jack trays all for $2,200 delivered no tax to the local Conway freight terminal about 10 miles from me. For $2,350 they would have included the lighter aluminum ramps but I figure I would see how it goes with the stock steel ramps first...

The max lift is 89" and max drive under is 85". The GTS is 49 1/2" tall and the ceiling is 141" So the 89+49.5=138.5 inches leaving 2 1/2" inches clearance on max lift but I only need to go up to the next to last lock to drive under so I will still have about 6 1/2" clearance to the ceiling.

The selling points for me were the extra height to accommodate my SUV below and a width that is about the same as my garage door for easy access on a daily basis. The price also seemed to be a great value for what I have come to find out is a previous generation Bendpak design.

The folks at Dannmar recommended a local installer and he was very easy to work with. Because the lift arrived earlier than expected, the Liftmaster garage door opener hasn't been installed yet, the plan was to take delivery today and avoid thye $85 a day storage fee at Conway and have the installer back after the Liftmaster is in.

Here are some pics of the delivery today...

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[eucharistos]

hope you continue the photo documentary, looking fwd to your install and use impressions

thanks

 

[eucharistos]

v10enomous, are they in cali

 

[v10enomous]

Looks that way...

Contact Dannmar

Here is the Distributor link as well...

Garage Equipment Supply - The Automotive Tool and Equipment Superstore is a supplier of automotive lifts, auto lifts, car lifts, car hoists, two post lifts, four post lifts, alignment lifts, along with automotive tools and equipment of all kinds.

v10enomous, are they in cali

 

[All Blue ACR]

Kinda like Christmas morning isn't it

Tear off the wrapper and get after it.

 

[v10enomous]

So today was the install of the jackshaft garage door opener. I went with the Liftmaster 3800 which seems to be the most popular for this type of application. It took 2 guys about 6 hours to remove the old Craftsman and install the new Liftmaster. A few things I didn't realize were that the door opener has an isolated track lock device and that the light is also isolated and wireless remote and can be mounted anywhere there is an outlet. Another nice feature is that there is a clock and thermometer on the touch pad... You can see in the pics that my garage has a beam that the roof of the viper will be above but the hood area will fit just below. Everything is now set for the lift installation on Saturday.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[LifeIsGood]

I'm a little curious about why you chose to install the lift in the middle door/stall? Anything in particular about the garage layout...justs seems a little unusual to me .

 

[v10enomous]

You would think that it makes sense to put the lift over in the front stall and that's what I originally intended to do. As it turns out after thinking about it I opted for the middle for a few reasons. You can see that I have bicycle hooks on that front wall and I didn't want bikes and other crap hanging over the Viper. So now once the Viper is in the center I can move the bikes and ladders and stuff back to the hooks. Then I thought about ease of access when I want to take the Viper out so it just seemed that it would be easier to move my SUV than my Rhino and plow and snow blower and all the other stuff which I don't want to have to walk through to get to my daily drivers. I also have a bass boat that I will probably move to the front stall next to my Rhino and that's a pain to move too.

The thing is that if I don't like it this way even though the lift has casters, the posts are higher than the door opening and the garage columns won't let me move it from side to side so the lift would have to be disassembled to move it...

I'm a little curious about why you chose to install the lift in the middle door/stall? Anything in particular about the garage layout...justs seems a little unusual to me .

 

[v10enomous]

OK... the lift was assembled today... Pretty uneventful... It took an experienced assembler 6 hours working by himself... The lift seems to be very good quality. It is a medium duty residential 7,000 lb lift but it lifts the Viper effortlessly and the height, width and length are comparable to some much more expensive lifts... The only real problem was that the caster kit was missing the wheels. I will see if I can sort that out with Garage equipment Supply on Monday... The standard 110 wall outlet wouldn't power the lift sufficiently so I have to run a cord over to a high amp 110 I had installed to run my compressor... Total investment $2,200 including casters, jack tray and drip pans plus $650 for installation including hydraulic ATF fluid. Here ar some pics... Don't go disin on our daily drivers you can see what stand tall in my garage...

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images

 

[SkyBob]

Did you watch the installer assemble it? You said he did it by himself so there weren't any super heavy pieces that required two people. Do you think the assembly is something that requires someone familiar with the product or could any old buyer (like me) put it together fairly easily?

 

[LifeIsGood]

Congratulations...it fits really well in that space. All Blue ACR installed an outlet in the ceiling to run his...might be something you can also do, or high up on the wall to keep the cord out of the way...

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[v10enomous]

The lift weighs about a ton... The runways look to be several hundred pounds a piece. This guy has done quite a few and knew just how to use the crane blocks on the back of his truck and the dollies along with a bunch of precut timbers. There is a lot of playing around with the cables and adjustments. He made it look pretty easy but there were a lot of special techniques employed. You would need at least 2 and maybe 3 or 4 guys if you were doing it without experience imo. I might be able to do it with a few buddies but even getting it from the freight terminal to the house would be a challenge. It was worth $650 for peace of mind too.

Did you watch the installer assemble it? You said he did it by himself so there weren't any super heavy pieces that required two people. Do you think the assembly is something that requires someone familiar with the product or could any old buyer (like me) put it together fairly easily?

 

[All Blue ACR]

Congratulations...it fits really well in that space. All Blue ACR installed an outlet in the ceiling to run his...might be something you can also do, or high up on the wall to keep the cord out of the way...
QUOTE]

Since then I got rid of all the extra cord too. Goes straight from the pump to the roof.
V10emous, does the lift go to the max and stop before the beam on your ceiling or do you stop it there?

Looks good

 

[lh4x4]

I have purchased two four post lifts from Garage Equipment Supply in the past four years. they are the best at customer service.

One was the same Dannmar model that you have and the other was the Bend Pax.

My experience was a little difference than yours. First Con Way called and asked what date that I wanted delivered. They said as long as it was not to far in the future there would be no fee.

Second I offloaded it myself. I used a cherry picker to lift the end up and pulled it out to about a foot left on the bed of the truck then lowered the cherry picker end to the ground and unhooked. Went to the front and lifted that end off of the semi trailer bed,signed the paperwork and the semi drove off.

I lowered the unit onto some furniture dollies and towed the cherry picker and all into the garage with a garden tractor.

I did the set up the next day by my self and the cherry picker.
I did it about 5 hours. It was not difficult at all.

Since it was two years ago, I got it for $2k with the drip trays, jack stand and moving dollies. The delivery was to the end of my driveway.

 

[v10enomous]

Thanks guys...

The high amp outlet is up in the front corner of the garage behind the Rhino. I was going to just tack an extension cord just above the concrete sill all the way around up to the front but the ceiling may be a better option to explore. I should probably run Romex inside of conduit... You can see the garage has a way to go... It was 30 degrees in there today with the doors open... When it warms up a bit I will get out there and clean it up and reorganize everything... It's a work in progress but today I was just happy to get my SUV back in there...

Congratulations...it fits really well in that space. All Blue ACR installed an outlet in the ceiling to run his...might be something you can also do, or high up on the wall to keep the cord out of the way...
QUOTE]

Since then I got rid of all the extra cord too. Goes straight from the pump to the roof.
V10emous, does the lift go to the max and stop before the beam on your ceiling or do you stop it there?

Looks good

 

[v10enomous]

Actually it stops about 4-5" before it would hit on max lift of 89" then it locks at 85" lift with 81" drive under... My Xterra fits underneath one lock setting down but it's roomier in there when it's all the way up.

Congratulations...it fits really well in that space. All Blue ACR installed an outlet in the ceiling to run his...might be something you can also do, or high up on the wall to keep the cord out of the way...
QUOTE]

Since then I got rid of all the extra cord too. Goes straight from the pump to the roof.
V10emous, does the lift go to the max and stop before the beam on your ceiling or do you stop it there?

Looks good

 

[v10enomous]

I called Garage Equipment Supply about my missing caster wheels yesterday and they told me that soemone would call me back. So Gabe from Dannmar calls me back... Turns out that GES owns Dannmar. He says that they are backordered and will be in within 2-3 weeks.. So a few hours later Tiffany from GES calls me and says they were delivered by Fedex on 2/9 and somebody signed for them... OK..not me but I'll go out and check all the snow drifts around the house... Nothing ! So the Gabe from Dannmar calls me back and says that they are backordered but it will be 60 days... A couple hours later Tiffany calls to apologize...

On a more positive note during all of these conversations I came to find out that the ramps actually store on the drip tray rails which frees up some space in the garage... Better yet though it seems that once I do get my caster wheels I can move the lift forward enough so that the ramps can stay on...

I wanted to also mention that I found a dual laser park device that will replace the single beam device that I removed so I will have a beam for the Viper and my daily driver with one device...

Amazon.com: Instapark Dual Garage Door Laser Parking Guide System: Automotive

You must be registered for see images