BendPak Car Lifts: The Machinery Beneath the Craft
We admire the car after the work is finished. I’m interested in the machine that gives someone room to do that work properly, and the decades of thinking hidden inside its columns.
By Dr. Rob Urban · The 10AP, HD-9 and an evolving idea of vehicle service
A different view of the automobile
Some of the most interesting automotive engineering never goes for a drive.
Car culture spends a great deal of time looking at the parts that shine. Paint. Wheels. The curve of a fender. An engine compartment arranged so neatly that opening the hood feels like interrupting a jewelry display. All perfectly reasonable interests. Yet the work that keeps a car alive often happens underneath, in the part of the machine with the least flattering lighting.
A vehicle lift changes that relationship. Components that were awkward to inspect become accessible. A person can approach the work from a useful height and angle. A floor that held one vehicle may, in an appropriate installation, gain another level of parking. The vehicle has moved vertically, but the practical change is much larger.
That is what draws me to BendPak car lifts. The company has spent decades working through the unglamorous details that make a dramatic result possible: where force travels, how supports reach the correct points, what holds a raised load, and how the equipment fits into the movements of a working person.
I own a third-generation Toyota 4Runner and have lovingly restored much of it. That has not transformed me into a professional mechanic. It has made me appreciative of people who can look underneath a vehicle and read it with the confidence I reserve for a well-edited paragraph. Good equipment gives their knowledge somewhere to work. My interest in BendPak begins there, rather than with a claim that I have used these particular lifts.
Start with the job
Two ways to create useful space
A two-post lift supports the vehicle at its designated lifting points, leaving the wheels free. A four-post runway lift supports it through its tires. That difference shapes the work each makes convenient. Within BendPak’s current range, the 10AP and HD-9 provide a useful way to explore those two approaches.
The choice begins with what you want to accomplish. Frequent wheel and suspension work asks different things of a lift than storing a second car above the first. The shape of the machine follows the job, and choosing by appearance alone misses most of the interesting part.
10AP two-post lift
The BendPak 10AP is a clearfloor, 10,000-pound-capacity lift with adjustable installation width and arms that accommodate symmetric or asymmetric positioning. Its appeal is access around and beneath a correctly supported vehicle.
Think of a service bay where the wheels need to come off, the suspension needs attention, and floor space between the columns needs to remain useful.
Published maximum: 2,500 lb per arm, as well as 10,000 lb total.HD-9 four-post lift
The BendPak HD-9 is a 9,000-pound-capacity runway lift intended for parking, storage and service. Its open center provides underbody access while the tires remain supported.
Think of a vehicle that needs a second parking level or a convenient raised position. Wheel-free work requires suitable additional lifting equipment.
Capacity also depends on the published wheelbase and loading requirements.Before the columns
The name came from bending pipe
BendPak’s history makes more sense when you begin with a machine shop. The interesting progression is from making a component to understanding an entire job well enough to build the equipment for it.
Don Henthorn’s company began as Quality Machine & Associates, or QMA. His wife Ginger became an important part of the business and later served as vice president. Aerospace machining preceded the automotive equipment. The eventual name combined the pipe-bending business with the 5ivePak specialty tool. BendPak’s company history records that development.
I like an origin story with an actual mechanical problem in it. A shop needs to form a piece of exhaust tubing. Someone has to translate that need into fixtures, force, repeatability and a machine another person can operate. There is a customer at the far end of the engineering, trying to finish a job.
- 1965
QMA begins in Southern California, taking on precision machining work, including aerospace components.
- 1979
The hydraulic exhaust-tube bender known as the Burgundy Bullet enters the automotive-service market.
- About 1983
The first BendPak four-post lift opens a new direction for the business.
- 2005
The hyphen is removed from Bend-Pak as the identity becomes BendPak.
The move from a pipe bender to a lift is compelling because it preserves a habit of thinking. What does the operator need to control? Which motion is awkward? Where does precision matter? How can a physical mechanism make that precision repeatable? Those questions remain useful even when the product changes completely.
Don died in 2024, after handing day-to-day leadership to the company’s management in 2022. BendPak’s leadership account describes his continuing involvement as chairman emeritus. The scale of the business changed over his lifetime, but the work remained close to physical machinery and the people responsible for it.
That gives the history weight for me. In manufacturing and industrial businesses, an idea has to survive materials, production, delivery and years of use. A promising sketch is a beginning. A machine that somebody builds a working day around is a much more demanding achievement.
Pressure becomes movement
Oil does the pushing. Geometry sets the terms.
Hydraulics can look almost suspiciously calm. An electric motor runs, a pump moves fluid, and a very heavy object rises without any visible display of effort. Inside the system, pressure acts over the piston’s area to produce force. The underlying principle is associated with Blaise Pascal, whose work helped explain how a pressure change is transmitted through an enclosed fluid. OpenStax explains Pascal’s principle and its application to hydraulic systems.
A useful idealized relationship is force equals pressure multiplied by effective piston area. At the same pressure, a larger effective area produces more force. For a given fluid flow, moving a larger-area piston the same distance takes more fluid and therefore more time. Designers balance force, movement, packaging and the power available to the system.
The 10AP uses dual direct-drive hydraulic cylinders. Its AP-series technical brochure describes a high-volume, low-pressure approach. The HD-9 uses a single cylinder with a cable-and-sheave arrangement. These are different mechanical ways to turn controlled hydraulic movement into the elevation of a vehicle.
The quietness of the result is part of its appeal. The operator sees a straightforward action because the complications have been assigned to cylinders, guides and structural members. I have considerable affection for machines that do their thinking before I arrive.
A lighter vehicle can still ask too much of one support
A capacity label gives a necessary limit. It does not describe every possible arrangement of the load. A vehicle’s weight is distributed through its support points, and those forces are not automatically equal. The engine, occupants’ cargo, modifications and the location of the lifting points all matter to the setup.
For an object at rest, the supporting forces must balance its weight. It must also have no net tendency to rotate. Those are the force and torque conditions for equilibrium. A familiar example is carrying a tray: moving a heavy object toward its edge changes the effort required to keep the tray level, even though the object weighs exactly the same.
The 10AP’s published 2,500-pound maximum per arm deserves attention alongside its 10,000-pound total rating. It is possible to remain below an overall limit while distributing too much load to an individual support. The job is to satisfy all the applicable limits, using the vehicle’s specified lifting points and the lift’s operating instructions.
Component removal makes this especially interesting. Taking weight away can move the remaining center of gravity. Removing an engine, for example, changes the balance of what is left. “It weighs less now” is not a complete description of the new support condition. Appropriate auxiliary support and the prescribed procedure remain essential.
This is one of the reasons I find lifting equipment worthy of a longer look. The obvious problem is weight. The subtler problem is how weight behaves during work. A thoughtfully designed lift has to account for people changing the object it is holding.
The 10AP, examined more closely
The details that make access possible
Reach that also retracts
A long arm can reach a distant lifting point. It also needs to get out of its own way when the lifting point is nearby. BendPak’s triple-telescoping design addresses both needs. The AP brochure describes nested inner sections that can retract through the back of the arm assembly, avoiding some of the packaging limits created by conventional end structures.
That is a specific piece of ingenuity worth noticing. The useful range of an adjustable mechanism includes its shortest working position. Anyone who has tried to fit a perfectly capable tool into an inconvenient space will recognize the distinction.
Arms that stay where they belong
The 10AP’s Automatic Swing Arm Restraint System, or ASARS, is designed to resist unintended arm movement. BendPak describes a forged-steel mechanism with a full-circumference grip and more than 2,000 pounds of side-force resistance. That manufacturer figure describes restraint performance, not additional lifting capacity.
The attraction is control at the place where the machine meets the work. Positioning an arm correctly would accomplish little if the arm could readily swing away during service. Restraints address that motion; correct pads, lifting points and vehicle balance address other parts of the support problem.
A working floor between the posts
The clearfloor arrangement carries connecting services overhead instead of beneath a protective floor plate between the columns. BendPak’s two-post lift guide explains the distinction. The practical result is a floor area that remains available for movement and suitable service equipment, provided the installation has the required overhead space.
This is where a lift starts to feel like workplace design. A transmission jack, a cart and the person using them all need a route. The space around a machine can be as consequential as the space the machine occupies.
Materials chosen for their job
Steel gives the structure its load-carrying role. The 10AP also specifies UHMW polyethylene carriage bearings and polyurethane pad surfaces. Those polymer components have different jobs from the columns: guiding relative motion and forming an appropriate contact interface. The current 10AP feature description identifies these materials.
I admire that kind of selectiveness. A machine does not improve merely because every component is made from the same impressive-sounding material. The interesting question is what each part must do, what it touches, and how its behavior changes after repeated use.
Model-specific features above are described in BendPak’s 10AP-series brochure and current product information. Setup and operation belong to the 10AP installation and operation manual for the supplied unit.
The HD-9 beneath the runways
Four corners have to agree
A four-post lift makes the vehicle-support arrangement easy to understand: tires on runways, runways carried between columns. The movement beneath that arrangement is less obvious. In the HD-9, a hydraulic cylinder works through steel cables and sheaves, the grooved wheels that guide the cables. The system distributes the cylinder’s movement around the platform.
A cable is flexible enough to travel around a sheave while carrying tension. That flexibility is useful, but repeated bending is also part of the cable’s working life. BendPak’s four-post design study discusses cable-bending fatigue and the role of larger sheaves. It also describes polymer guides that help keep moving structural components aligned. Both details point toward a machine designed for repeated motion, not merely a single successful lift.
The geometry is worth picturing. The platform has to rise in a controlled relationship at all four corners. Alignment, cable condition and adjustment matter because the vehicle is sitting across a structure whose parts must cooperate. A runway lift may appear to be a pair of steel shelves, but shelves rarely have to negotiate their position with hydraulic machinery.
| Part of the system | Its role | Why that distinction matters |
|---|---|---|
| Hydraulic cylinder | Produces controlled movement through the lifting arrangement. | Producing motion is one part of supporting a raised vehicle. |
| Cables and sheaves | Transmit motion and tension around the lift. | Routing, condition and adjustment affect the platform’s behavior. |
| Mechanical locks | Support the lift at designated locking positions. | The operating procedure includes settling the lift onto its locks. |
| Slack-cable backup latches | Provide an additional protective mechanism. | A backup addresses a different condition from ordinary operation. |
The HD-9 description identifies multi-position locks and independent slack-cable backup latches. Its operation manual explains how to use the locking system. The appeal here is the division of responsibility: controlled lifting and mechanical support are addressed through distinct parts of the design.
Accessories can extend the runway format. A compatible rolling bridge jack can raise an axle clear of the runways for wheel service. Drip trays serve a different purpose when one vehicle is stored above another. Neither accessory changes the need to observe its own capacity and compatibility requirements.
The optional caster kit deserves precise language. It permits repositioning the unloaded lift under the prescribed conditions. The manual expressly prohibits using that kit with a vehicle on the runways. “Movable lift” and “move the car while it is raised” are very different propositions.
Where the work is going
What happens when the vehicle becomes two separate loads?
BendPak’s current OctaFlex 12DPS answers a problem that goes beyond getting underneath a car. It combines a 12,000-pound primary lift with a 6,000-pound auxiliary lift-assist system, using four primary and four auxiliary arms. Those are separate system ratings, not numbers to add into an 18,000-pound vehicle capacity.
The intended work includes supporting major assemblies during EV battery service, drivetrain work and cab-off truck repairs. One part of the vehicle needs support while another part is separated from it. The equipment has to help manage their relationship during that change.
That is a fascinating direction for the category. In automotive manufacturing and mobility, a change in vehicle architecture creates consequences far beyond the vehicle itself. Workshops inherit new access problems, new handling requirements and different sequences of work.
A pickup cab held apart from its chassis is a fairly persuasive argument that workshop equipment has not run out of things to invent. The familiar two-post silhouette now has another responsibility: help the technician control the pieces after the vehicle stops being one intact object.
Choose around a working day
The right lift has a useful place in the room
The wheel-service bay
A two-post arrangement makes sense to investigate when wheels, brakes and suspension work are frequent. Correct lift-point reach matters, as does room for carts and the equipment that supports components during removal. The useful layout includes the person doing the work.
The carefully kept collection
A runway lift deserves attention when additional parking is the primary goal. Measure the actual vehicle pair and the room as a complete arrangement. A lift’s height specification alone cannot establish whether two particular cars can occupy the space comfortably.
The changing vehicle fleet
A shop handling different vehicles needs to examine the range of lifting points, weights and service procedures it encounters. Today's easy fit should not distract from tomorrow’s difficult one. Documenting those requirements is more useful than choosing the largest number on a label.
For a professional shop, the lift also affects the sequence of work. Where does the vehicle enter? Can its doors open during setup? Where will a removed wheel go? Does moving a tool cart require someone else to stop? These are small questions until they repeat all day.
That perspective informs my work with auto repair shops and mechanics. A capable business has to deliver the work its reputation promises. The physical arrangements behind that delivery deserve the same thought as the message on the website.
Even in a personal workspace, a lift should make the intended activity more inviting. The goal is to create room for a project, not to acquire a very impressive obstacle. I can produce obstacles using substantially less sophisticated equipment.
The part worth doing before delivery
Measure the job, the vehicles and the building
Good planning is part of appreciating the equipment. I would rather ask detailed questions before a heavy crate arrives than stand beside it discovering that my enthusiasm has exceeded my door opening. A qualified installer and the correct BendPak documentation should turn these questions into an installation plan.
Identify the actual vehicle requirements
Record weight, dimensions, lifting-point locations and relevant modifications. Check axle or wheelbase restrictions where they apply, rather than assuming total weight is the only limit. On a two-post lift, determine whether the arms and approved adapters can reach the required points in the permitted configuration.
Treat the slab as part of the machine
The building receives the load. BendPak’s concrete guidance calls for verifying slab properties and consulting a concrete specialist. Thickness, strength, condition, reinforcement and the location of joints all deserve attention. A clean floor does not tell you what is beneath it. Existing post-tensioning or embedded services must be identified before anyone considers drilling.
Check the space through the complete movement
Include the raised vehicle, door tracks, opener, lights and other overhead obstructions. For stacked parking, verify clearance beneath the runways as well as above them, using the actual locking position and vehicle heights. A plan must also allow the extra movement needed by the operating procedure, not just a static parked arrangement.
Plan access and utilities
Check the exact model’s electrical requirements, any required compressed-air supply, and where the controls will sit. Arrange delivery access and unloading equipment with the supplier or installer. Packaging dimensions, the route into the building and the work area around the lift all belong in the discussion.
Match the documentation to the unit
Use the current dimensional drawing and installation manual confirmed for the exact model, configuration and supplied equipment. If an online summary and a manual differ, have BendPak resolve the specification before laying out the installation. A measurement should be settled on paper before it becomes a hole in concrete.
These are planning questions, rather than a substitute installation procedure. They lead to a useful result: a lift chosen for the work, installed in a space capable of supporting it, with an operator who understands the equipment.
Certification and care are part of ownership
The Automotive Lift Institute’s directory is the reference for checking current ALI certification by model. Certification concerns the lift design and its evaluated configuration. It does not automatically certify your particular slab, installation or operating practices.
ALI’s lift-user guidance emphasizes training, vehicle positioning, suitable lifting points and following the manufacturer’s instructions. Its inspection guidance calls for at least annual inspection by a qualified lift inspector. Routine checks and the model’s specified maintenance remain necessary between those inspections.
I appreciate a company making its manuals available because it lets the buyer see the responsibilities before purchase. The component drawings, adjustment instructions and maintenance requirements are part of the object’s life. Keeping the right manual accessible is less glamorous than arranging the tool wall, but considerably more likely to answer a difficult question.
The machine and the people behind it
A good idea needs a long working life
A machine of this size is also a delivery, service and support commitment. BendPak’s announcement about the Donald R. Henthorn Industrial Complex describes a 33-acre Alabama development with a completed first-phase logistics and distribution center. The facility brings warehousing and quality control together with customer-facing functions.
That investment belongs in the innovation story. A clever mechanism needs parts, documentation and people who can help keep it useful. As a strategist, I look at those less visible capabilities because they connect the promise of a product to the years after the excitement of buying it.
For the person using a lift, the achievement is wonderfully ordinary: the equipment is there when the next job needs doing. That ordinary reliability is hard-earned. It depends on work performed by people the owner may never meet, from the designer considering a force path to the person making sure the correct replacement part can be identified.
The machines behind the machines deserve a place in the record
If someone looked back at our automotive culture through advertising alone, they might conclude that we spent most of our time accelerating along empty coastal roads. The workshops would tell a fuller story. Cars are kept useful by diagnosis, adjustment, replacement and the stubborn willingness to solve a problem that has returned with a different noise.
That is why BendPak belongs in my digital record of things worth wanting. A car lift preserves something about how we worked on the machines we valued. The two-post form records the importance of access. The runway form records our effort to use space intelligently. An auxiliary lifting system records the moment the job demanded control of several heavy assemblies at once.
I want that part of innovation remembered alongside the finished vehicles. There is craft in making a repair possible, and there is ingenuity in reducing the physical difficulty between a knowledgeable person and the task in front of them.
The details that hold my attention are specific: an arm that can retract farther because somebody reconsidered its internal packaging, a restraint aimed at unwanted movement, a support system that recognizes the vehicle will change during service. These are solutions you can point to. They make admiration a consequence of understanding the work.
I will still stop to admire a beautifully restored car. I may simply spend a little longer noticing what made it possible to get underneath it.
A few practical questions
Before choosing a BendPak lift
What is the difference between the BendPak 10AP and HD-9?
The 10AP is a two-post lift that supports a vehicle at its designated lifting points, leaving the wheels free. The HD-9 is a four-post runway lift that carries the vehicle on its tires. Choose around the work and the complete installation requirements.
Does a 10,000-pound rating mean every vehicle below that weight will fit?
No. The vehicle must also satisfy the lift’s support, balance, reach and dimensional requirements. Total weight alone does not establish compatibility. Confirm the specific vehicle and configuration against the manufacturer’s instructions.
Can I service wheels on an HD-9?
Wheel-free service requires suitable additional lifting equipment, such as a compatible rolling bridge jack. Its capacity and support requirements apply separately. The runways themselves support the tires.
Can the HD-9 create a second parking space?
It can provide stacked parking when the specific vehicles, lift configuration and building clearances are suitable. Verify the actual usable space above and beneath the runways at the intended locking position, including the movement required to operate the lift.
Can I move an HD-9 while a vehicle is on it?
The HD-9 manual prohibits using the optional caster kit with a vehicle on the runways. The kit is for repositioning the unloaded lift according to the prescribed procedure.
What does clearfloor mean?
A clearfloor two-post lift routes connecting services overhead, leaving the floor between the columns unobstructed by a floor plate. The installation must have adequate overhead clearance for the lift and the vehicles being raised.
Does an arm restraint replace correct vehicle positioning?
No. Arm restraints address unintended arm movement. Proper lifting points, suitable pads and adapters, load distribution and any necessary auxiliary support remain separate requirements.
Does removing a heavy component make the vehicle more stable?
Not necessarily. Removing a component changes the remaining weight distribution and can shift the center of gravity. Follow the vehicle and lift procedures for the work, including appropriate support of the vehicle and removed assembly.
How thick does the concrete need to be?
Use the requirements confirmed for the exact lift and installation. Slab thickness is only one consideration; strength, condition, reinforcement, joints and the supporting structure also matter. BendPak recommends involving a concrete specialist early in planning.
Are all BendPak configurations ALI certified?
Certification is model- and configuration-specific. Check the current Automotive Lift Institute directory and the documentation for the lift you intend to buy. A brand name alone does not establish certification for every product.
What makes OctaFlex different?
The OctaFlex 12DPS integrates primary vehicle-lifting arms with auxiliary lift-assist arms for work involving major assemblies. It addresses jobs such as cab-off service and EV battery handling. Its separate system ratings must not be added together as a vehicle-capacity rating.
How often should a vehicle lift be inspected?
ALI calls for inspection at least annually by a qualified lift inspector. Follow the manufacturer’s routine checks and maintenance requirements between inspections, and address abnormal operation before returning the lift to service.