Hello all,

I'm going to pull the trigger on a QuickJack, but I have a question on the power source. My garage is a distance from the house and is powered by an off-grid solar and battery array system. I do have an inverter, but it is smaller and powers LEDs, chargers, etc. Nothing heavy duty. To power the 110v QuickJack, I'll need to get a larger inverter, and then I'm faced with the fact that inverters aren't as efficient as native 12v devices (since my battery array is 12v). I have plenty of battery capacity, but I'm not sure what direction to go with the QJ. A 12v unit is a no-brainer hook-up directly to the batteries and will use less overall amperage than the 110v (including losses from the inverter). But the 110v may be more useful if I decide I want to tote it down to the driveway for some unknown purpose. I can't imagine I would, but I'm looking for advice here so I don't make a short-sighted decision. I know I can always get a 110v power pack for it to have dual usage, but I don't want to go that route if logic seems to point another way.

Thoughts?

 

Your 12v battery system (designed to power some LED lighting) have enough amps to power the lift? I'm guessing these are deep cycle batteries designed for low amp discharges, not starting batteries designed to dump a lot of amps for a very short time. Quick look at the QuickJack web site didn't show any power requirements.

Will the car itself power the 12v lift? Maybe at a high idle/

-- Chuck

 

Here's what I could find regarding the power draw of the various versions. (I have the 110V version.)

The manual indicates that the 12 VDC version can be powered off of a car battery, so as long as your system for the garage is capable of supplying enough amps, I wouldn't think you'd have an issue powering it directly from the system. The 12VDC looks like it is designed with flexibility in mind; the power poles are threaded.

 

70 amps is gonna put a load on the lil' S2000 105 amp charging system but I think it'll work fine. Alternators usually get hot when they have to work above 50% of their ratings but the lift doesn't take that long. If in doubt use a bigger car/truck.

12v lift will make this "self contained" and not require running a stout power cord from the house.

-- Chuck

 

I do have enough battery to power this at 12v from the garage bank, but I would need to see how it went and it might be worth just getting a dedicated battery for this (a starting battery) and leverage a charger to recover it... food for thought. @Fokker, thanks for the specs - I had looked at those and that's why I'm considering going with a 12v version. It's about 30+ amps less on 12v (70 on 12v vs about 100-120 if using 110v with an inverter - 110v loads are a 10x amp load or so at 12v DC).

Or... I could just get a 2000w inverter generator to run it, but that defeats the purpose of my off-grid success in the woods. :-)

 

I bought my QuickJack as a pre-order on the first shipment of 5,000lb units in May of 2014. I opted for the 12v because I wanted to be able to take it to the track if I so desired. To run it I bought a Marine Grade Group 29 battery and an Optimate 3 battery tender. I have not had one instance of any problem with its operation under that configuration. It is still sitting in the garage in exactly the same location and same configuration that was established 5+ years ago. I did move it to the driveway for a couple of days in order to use the garage to store materials for a renovation project but that's it.

 

I saw on the CTR boards that there's a QuickJack style system that you can use a drill / impact on to lift them. It may be easier if you don't have the power sources to look into those.

 

My more expensive EZ Car Lift uses an electric drill to raise lower it. Probably be damaged by an impact wrench. Spec notes it requires an 8.0 AMP or higher corded electric hand drill and I doubt (but don't know) a battery powered drill will handle it. Takes a minute or two to lift to full height. I bought a factory reconditioned Rigid R7111 1/2" drill which seldom gets used around the house for anything else. Gonna need 120vAC

I'm convinced the EZ Car Lift is more stable/safe than the hydraulic lifts as both legs are connected but can't quantify that. Lifts to 26" (I can sit under the car on the lift).

Not sure dropping the gearbox will clear the cross bars and things like the exhaust have to be wiggled around them (but exhaust is otherwise very easy).

Lift is stored leaning against the wall in my garage.

-- Chuck

 

Yeah, I've looked at the EZ Lift, but the root issue remains. If I can run an 8 amp 110v drill, I can run the QJ.

I like the QJ better for my circumstances because my garage floor is plywood, not concrete. It's a single bay premanufactured unit, and fully supports a car (it's made for it), and since the EZ Lift uses rollers at the 4 corners, that much force concentrated on that small of an area (two wheels) will dig into the floor. The QJ spreads the weight over a greater area. And it'd less expensive.


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I don't believe I understand. Are you using corded drills? Those can be used with the cordless drills. I got a Milwaukee set of Drill+Ratchet+Driver for $110 with 3 batteries (M12). It seems like those would be more like what the EZ-Lift would use.

For the weight distribution and flooring issue, I understand why you would go QJ instead. A friend of mine has the Costco model ($899 when on sale) and he converted it to use a battery pack as well as his at home plug in.
A lot of guys at Grassroots seem to like these if they have a trailer for transporting them.

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