Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi Guys, can anyone recommend a make ,model of scissor lift that works with the ?lan? That is one that can pick up on the chassis, rather than on the sills, as most seem to?

Jonsered

Have a look on this site for a person who's user name is 'miked' he purchased a lift which I have been to see working , excellent it was to.
'miked' put quite a lot of information on this site about where he got it from , how it worked etc.

Do you mean something like this?

Support arms are adjustable in both length and angle. Bought this on eBay many years ago and still using it.

Looking on eBay, I can find nothing like it. As you say, they all lift using the sills. There is no maker's labels on mine so I can't even point you in their direction, sorry.

I have a 4 post lift, mainly for storage as working on anything on the suspension is impossible, so I was also thinking of getting a sissor lift. I found a well priced one from Harbor Freight for around $1,500 that might fit your requirements. But firstly, you do know that the Elan was designed to be lifted from the corner of the sills? While I wouldn't want to leave it up there for an extended amount of time, but for the occasional suspension or brake work, it should be fine. Anyway, the reason I thought of this unit is that it has these swivel arms that may be able to relocate under the Elan frame. Not sure how stable it would be, and most likely be better if you fabricated a support from 8x2 lumber to place under the frame to lessen the load on the fiberglass, but still use the outrigger arms to support the sill corners and balance out the car, especially if you are going to take the wheels off and perhaps tug of the suspension bits. Just saying.

I went for a quick lift bl 5000, then foam covered 2 2x3 each side under the sills. Don't think it available in the UK thou.

............. i just love that saving weight INDOCTRINATION before we could get k-nuts and titanium profiles, bolts etc..... it's good i only keep my elan and myself lite! my wife's light as she eats lots of salad and veg: I DONT! sandy 36 / 4982 on the road this sunday ------------------ only got flipped off once

I bookmarked this when the excited poster I can't remember mentioned it. About the same cost as the others, has a bar set to fit the Elan and Europa.

http://ezcarlift.com/index.html

Haven't gotten round to spending the money, but I like the weight and simplicity. And it says it will marginally lift my Sienna, so a Lotus isn't going to bend it.

My brother had the harbor freight unit, rusted the pistons leaving it outside and discovered they are unobtainium. It worked well until he misused it.

Thanks guys for all your responses, I found the post by Miked, as Greg suggested, however it looks like the lifting pads should locate on the sills again, I looked at the one Gearbox is talking about, like you I initially thought that it would work, unfortunately the moveable arms don't come in enough to pick up on the narrow chassis at the back, just have to keep looking!

Jonsered