Backyard Buddy Free Standing Car Lift Blog

Car Lift Cables

  

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Flexibility, strength, and intelligent design. Good cables come with plenty of each and bad cables come with none at all. The problem for customers is that you cannot “see” a bad cable. In fact, a junk cable will look just like the best cable to a novice. So how is a guy supposed to tell? Simple. Look for a few very specific things.

1. Flexibility- This matters. Since most lifts have a 4 or a 5 inch pulley, the cable is required to take a series of pretty sharp turns. A rigid cable (637cable for example) will not provide the kind of flexibility to keep the cable on the pulley when it is not under tension. This leads to accidents as people do not always check before lifting. Also, this will create premature wear. If the cable is designed to be “bent” at a certain angle and it is, it will wear quickly. The Chinese made lifts all come with very cheap, rigid cables that do not last. Ours all come with 937 wire rope.
2. Strength- For obvious reasons, this matters. If a cable is working hard to lift the weight of your car, it will wear out faster. Plain and simple: cheap lifts come with weak cables. Period. There are no exceptions to this. The certifications usually mean it has been tested to less of a standard, albeit a standard. Most certifications only require 1 ½ times lifting capacity while we demand cables that are tested to 3 times their capacity. Safety and durability are affected here.
3. Intelligent design- How can you tell if the cable has been swedged properly or if it is holding? All of the imported stuff has end caps over the cables because that is a cheaper way to weld the ends. Ours are open in the ends. That way you can look and see if it has slipped or if it is moving at all. While more expensive, it is a much safer and more durable way to do things. The cables are just another important component to the lift that makes a great deal of difference in its ease of use and safety. We do not believe that cutting corners in these areas is worth the risk to our customers. Unfortunately, many off-shore brands could care less about these issues as evidenced by the components they use.

If safety and durability matter, our lift is the only one to buy!

Compare the American Made Backyard Buddy Automotive Lift to the Lower Quality Imported Lifts