Harbor Freight Air/Hydraulic conversion first test
#12
#13
Here are pictures of what I did and parts I used. I bought the lift when it went on sale for $250 with coupon. But while I was there they had one in a damaged crate and sold it to me for $100.
I thought, cool, 2 lifts in the garage right? That was short lived when I realized that I cant work on both bikes at the same time so I sold one of them.
Ok on with it. These are the newest model of this lift. They jack and foot peddle set up is different on these than on the older model.
so any information You see here will do you no good unless you are converting the newest model.
so here is what I started with
you need to buy three things. A hydraulic pump, single acting welded hydraulic cylinder and a flow contral valve.
The only modding to be done to the lift is to cut or grind off the mounting tabs for the cylinder and redrill the holes closer to the frame.
It is possible to do this with no modding at all to the lift. But you have to find a cylinder that is EXACTLY the same length from the center of the mounting holes to the end of the cylinder.
there is almost to room to fudge. A proper length cylinder will be about 1/8" from bottoming out on the frame fully lowered. And most cylinders this size only have 6" of stroke. So if you have any more piston sticking out fully lowered, you will run out of stroke before it is fully raised. Not much play room with the length.
so this is what I came up with........
I removed all the hardware and peddles for the manual pump, no need for it and its invthe way.
here is the cylinder
here is the pump.......
and here is the inline flow control valve.......
I thought, cool, 2 lifts in the garage right? That was short lived when I realized that I cant work on both bikes at the same time so I sold one of them.
Ok on with it. These are the newest model of this lift. They jack and foot peddle set up is different on these than on the older model.
so any information You see here will do you no good unless you are converting the newest model.
so here is what I started with
you need to buy three things. A hydraulic pump, single acting welded hydraulic cylinder and a flow contral valve.
The only modding to be done to the lift is to cut or grind off the mounting tabs for the cylinder and redrill the holes closer to the frame.
It is possible to do this with no modding at all to the lift. But you have to find a cylinder that is EXACTLY the same length from the center of the mounting holes to the end of the cylinder.
there is almost to room to fudge. A proper length cylinder will be about 1/8" from bottoming out on the frame fully lowered. And most cylinders this size only have 6" of stroke. So if you have any more piston sticking out fully lowered, you will run out of stroke before it is fully raised. Not much play room with the length.
so this is what I came up with........
I removed all the hardware and peddles for the manual pump, no need for it and its invthe way.
here is the cylinder
here is the pump.......
and here is the inline flow control valve.......
#14
that is where a set of auto drive up ramps work great. set one on each side to put your feet down.
#15
Nice job on the project. I got about 3/4 of the way through the conversion with an older HF table.
Got as far as having the triangle piece that the ram fits into cut down and rewelded. Had an air/hydraulic pump & foot pedal from Redline and a proper jack base from Titan. Never could properly get the jack bled to do any serious lifting.
Got pissed off and put the whole mess on Craigslist and sold it. Probably lost $3-400 on the deal. Bought a brand new Titan and called it good. But again, congratulations on seeing the project through and making it work.
Got as far as having the triangle piece that the ram fits into cut down and rewelded. Had an air/hydraulic pump & foot pedal from Redline and a proper jack base from Titan. Never could properly get the jack bled to do any serious lifting.
Got pissed off and put the whole mess on Craigslist and sold it. Probably lost $3-400 on the deal. Bought a brand new Titan and called it good. But again, congratulations on seeing the project through and making it work.
#16
Nice job on the project. I got about 3/4 of the way through the conversion with an older HF table.
Got as far as having the triangle piece that the ram fits into cut down and rewelded. Had an air/hydraulic pump & foot pedal from Redline and a proper jack base from Titan. Never could properly get the jack bled to do any serious lifting.
Got pissed off and put the whole mess on Craigslist and sold it. Probably lost $3-400 on the deal. Bought a brand new Titan and called it good. But again, congratulations on seeing the project through and making it work.
Got as far as having the triangle piece that the ram fits into cut down and rewelded. Had an air/hydraulic pump & foot pedal from Redline and a proper jack base from Titan. Never could properly get the jack bled to do any serious lifting.
Got pissed off and put the whole mess on Craigslist and sold it. Probably lost $3-400 on the deal. Bought a brand new Titan and called it good. But again, congratulations on seeing the project through and making it work.
Actually not a problem because it makes for a bolt on conversion with the proper length cylinder.
But rather a lack of any info on anyone converting the newer model. I kinda had to just jump in and do it.
I have about $375 total into the whole thing including the purchase of the lift ($100)
Even if I paid full price for the lift, I would still be under $500 for the whole setup.
People can say what they will about Harbor Freight products. But if you like to tinker and like saving money, you can fix the poor quality things and make it your own.
The rest of the lift aside from the jack that comes with it is rock solid. Im always doing something to the bike and used the hell out of it with the manual pump. Once you have one in your garage, you wont be able to live without it.
I will never go back to crawling around the garge floor again!
#17
#19
#20
Compact floor jack, 2x4's, 4x4's and work your way back down a little at a time, been there done that on a buddies "HANDY" lift that had a failed air cylinder. Not for the faint of heart............LOL !!!!!!!