Answer
Feb 10, 2025 - 01:36 PM
These lifts were made for cars and light trucks.
The lighter vehicles typically have shorter wheelbases, and the heavier vehicles typically have a longer wheelbase.
So occasionally we get customers who plan to place very heavy, but very short wheelbase vehicle on their lift, such as a forklift, or tractor.
And they assume that because the lift is rated at 9,000 lbs capacity, that anything under the rated capacity will be OK.
But the situation is more complex.
If you place a very short wheelbase vehicle on this lift that is also very heavy, you may see some bowing in the runways, because you have all that weight concentrated in the very center of the runways, like a lead brick, not spread out over a wide area, like a large truck would be.
So while this lift is truly rated at 9,000 lbs lifting capacity, the rated capacity does decrease as the wheelbase gets shorter.
See below for a general summary of the wheel base limitations -
- Min. wheelbase @ rated capacity: 135" / 3,429 mm
- Min. wheelbase @ 75% capacity: 115" / 2,921 mm
- Min. wheelbase @ 50% capacity: 95" / 2,413 mm
- Min. wheelbase @ 25% capacity: 80" / 2,032 mm
