Lifting UTV In The Shop

[Sportin' Wood]

What is the best practice for lifting a SXS for maintenance prep and service? With so much wheel travel, my floor jack won't get the wheels off the ground unless I position it at an individual A-arm or training arm. I'm changing tires this week, and it sucks having to do one wheel at a time.

So I started thinking about how I might approach this situation if I was prepping a race car. My son builds and preps Ultra4 cars and hates the two post lifts. He always talks about how a table on wheels would be better, but he never takes the time to solve the problem and build one.

I used to have a motorcycle lift, and I thought that might be a great solution.
https://www.harborfreight.com/1000-lb-steel-motorcycle-lift-68892.html

I've got to pull some measurements, but my thought is that if it can't lift it high enough to get the wheels Off, maybe I had a couple of 4x4s bolted to the table. This method would allow me to adjust the height for whatever task I perform and not have to crawl all over the car or get down on my knees.

It would be extra points if I could wheel the chassis around in the shop.

Anyone got any better ideas? Too sketchy to use an HF 1000lbs jack? I have not looked at it in person yet; I assume I could swap the ram for an air-activated ram.

I've got a gantry crane and winch in storage (In Idaho) that is pretty handy and could be a perfect partner for a lifting table.

 

[Icky]

Have you tried a block in between the jack and sxs?

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Go to Harbor Freight, buy this and a couple pairs of jackstands.

If you have an existing HF style 1.5 ton or 2 ton jack you can convert it for shop use.

These guys have tons of parts options for many types of jacks.

911 Motorsports - Push the Limits

I bought their 6” trail jack extension kit for my scissor jack I keep in the SXS. Great quality products.

I use an aluminum scissor jack from a sports car so it didn’t have quite enough height with 32-33” tires. I was using wood blocks. This is a lot more solid now.

Also Pro Eagle makes a saddle and extension kit that will fit non Pro Eagle jacks with minor modification. I have been using these for a few years on my old steel jacks at home and in Havasu. These work good for me because I’m lifting both low sports cars and UTVs, and the Pro Eagle extension twists on and locks in place. They also make a taller version of their extension.

 

[Bails]

I use a hydraulic table I found on Craigslist. The guy was using it to repair industrial mixers. It had a leak and I got it cheap and fixed the leak. It lifts all four tires off the ground and works great.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

I use a hydraulic table I found on Craigslist. The guy was using it to repair industrial mixers. It had a leak and I got it cheap and fixed the leak. It lifts all four tires off the ground and works great.

Nice score. Those tables start getting expensive above 1k lb ratings.

 

[Sportin' Wood]

Have you tried a block in between the jack and sxs?

Yep. Not tall enough. A larger block would not provide the confidence I want for a safe situation. While I used to practice Safety Third, these days, wisdom suggests I reconsider sketchy situations influenced by stupid ideas.

 

[Sportin' Wood]

Go to Harbor Freight, buy this and a couple pairs of jackstands.

View attachment 1195285

If you have an existing HF style 1.5 ton or 2 ton jack you can convert it for shop use.

View attachment 1195286

These guys have tons of parts options for many types of jacks.

911 Motorsports - Push the Limits

I bought their 6” trail jack extension kit for my scissor jack I keep in the SXS. Great quality products.

I use an aluminum scissor jack from a sports car so it didn’t have quite enough height with 32-33” tires. I was using wood blocks. This is a lot more solid now.

View attachment 1195287


Also Pro Eagle makes a saddle and extension kit that will fit non Pro Eagle jacks with minor modification. I have been using these for a few years on my old steel jacks at home and in Havasu. These work good for me because I’m lifting both low sports cars and UTVs, and the Pro Eagle extension twists on and locks in place. They also make a taller version of their extension.



View attachment 1195288
View attachment 1195289

I've been trading emails with Proeagle. I'll talk to them at KOH next week. HF does not have the Badlands jack in LHC. Special order only.

I used to have high lift jack stands when I was racing, but it was a PITA to change the height of the race car. Often times we would set the car down on the ground without wheels to make it easier to reach shit. Getting down on my knees and crawling under the car to position jack stands is for young men.

Good idea to buy the Pro Eagle accessories and outfit your floor jack.

 

[Sportin' Wood]

I guess the big questions
Can the 1000lbs HF design handle a 1500lbs car without failure?
Can I modify the 1000lbs lift to accept a new ram that can lift a 1500lbs car cheaper than buying a lift made for 2000lbs?
Will lifting the car on a platform across the skid plate limit access to any critical components?

Hopefully, a few UTV teams are still on the lakebed next week when I go to KOH and I can see what they are doing. My guess someone has a slick set up.

 

[Racer56]

Last week Speed UTV showed a new SXS lift they they are coming out with. It was pretty bad ass and lifted the Pro R and El Jefe no problem.

 

[DLC]

I have the 2 ton HF jack w/ the ext on it. This works great to lift my can am but if I plan to leave it lifted and tires off the ground from one trip to another trip you need a jack stand.

jack extension - I have the tall one

 

[DLC]

I’ve been toying with making some taller jack stands either out of wood or weld up something…. That’s a WIP in my mind.

I looked at jacks again and thought I could do this…

Bolt up the red scissor jack to the HF jack shown below. the blue HF jack has a lock mechanism so it won’t creep down over time. I think I need like 28-30 inch of lift. You could also make a taller extension on top of the HF jack shown but it would need to be about 10-12 inch Taller than it is…

this set up would be able to lift one end at a time. My car is about 2 to 2200lbs with all the extra do dads and fuel level.

the other thing is storing the crap when it’s not being used…

the blue jack shown goes up to 17 inch
The red jack goes up to 14 inch

 

[jeepdog]

Comes with a couple different applications...lol

 

[Sportin' Wood]

Last week Speed UTV showed a new SXS lift they they are coming out with. It was pretty bad ass and lifted the Pro R and El Jefe no problem.

Is Speed taking deposits?

 

[DirtyWhiteDog]

Couldn't you just strap the hub,axel Aarm to the cage before jacking it up ?

 

[DLC]

Yes but depends what your doing to it service wise.

there is so much droop /fall out that after taking off the tires your hubs can be 6-8 inch off the concrete so you need to crank it way up to get everything at a nice level to work on.

 

[riverroyal]

View attachment 1195329 View attachment 1195330
Comes with a couple different applications...lol

Same model as mine.

 

[PlanB]

I used an old wheel and tire from a Rhino on my floor jack. Worked good!

 

[Badchoices03]

View attachment 1195329 View attachment 1195330
Comes with a couple different applications...lol

I got that same model, got it for real cheap on sale...lol