“90 Second Know How” video explains the necessity of this important step
Before starting work on a vehicle elevated by a lift, technicians should make sure the lift is on its mechanical locks. But this doesn’t always happen. And when it doesn’t, it can be a costly mistake.
A video in Rotary Lift’s “90 Second Know How” series, “Lowering to Locks,” explains the importance of lowering lifts to their locks. Watch it here: rotarylift.com/News-and-Resources/Training-Video-Library/#video-9.
“It’s hard to believe that this simple step is one of the most important and overlooked in the lifting process,” says Ron Lainhart, manager, Service Network Excellence for Rotary Lift. “Lowering the lift to the locks is not just a safety precaution, it also helps protect the lift from premature wear. Shop managers should share this short video with their staff to drive home the importance of always lowering lifts to their locks.”
The importance of lowering to locks is one reason Rotary introduced LockLight™, a patent-pending lift accessory that shows technicians, shop managers and health/safety inspectors at a glance if a hydraulic vehicle lift is resting on its locks. When LockLight™ detects that the lift’s hydraulic pressure has been relieved, it illuminates a green light, indicating that the lift is on its locks and giving technicians a visual confirmation that it’s OK to begin work.
The American National Standard covering lift construction, testing and validation, ANSI/ALI ALCTV: 2017, requires all automotive lifts except screw drive systems to incorporate an automatically engaging mechanical load-holding device. Lowering the lift to its mechanical load-holding device/locks is a standard industry safety practice. By relieving the lift’s hydraulic pressure and placing the load securely on mechanical load-holding devices, the technician reduces the chance of the lift freefalling if the lifting system fails. In addition to protecting the technician, lowering to locks also protects the lift. Failure to lower lifts to their locks results in increased strain on the lift’s hydraulic cylinder and other lifting components, which could cause the lift to jump or chatter at restart and could decrease the life span of the lifting system.
To watch any of Rotary Lift’s 90-Second Know How videos, visit rotarylift.com/News-and-Resources/Training-Video-Library/. To learn more about LockLight, visit https://tinyurl.com/ybc4gk3h, contact your local Rotary Lift distributor or call (800) 640-5438. You can also find Rotary Lift on Facebook, facebook.com/RotaryLift, Twitter, twitter.com/RotaryLift and at The Blueprint blog, blog.rotarylift.com.
About Rotary Rotary is the leading brand of vehicle lifts and wheel service equipment in North America. Rotary was founded in 1925 by the inventor of the first automotive hydraulic lift and now offers the broadest line of lifts and wheel service equipment for use in professional automotive service, commercial truck and transit applications. Its products include two-post, four-post, inground, scissor, mobile column, parallelogram, and platform lifts, as well as alignment lifts and instrumentation, tire changers, and wheel balancers.Rotary is a Vehicle Service Group (VSG) brand. VSG is a strong, diverse and dynamic global leader in the vehicle service industry. It comprises 13 major vehicle lifting and collision repair brands: Rotary, Chief®, Forward®, Direct-Lift®, Revolution®, Hanmecson®, Ravaglioli, Elektron, Blitz, Nogra, Butler, Space and Sirio. With its American headquarters in Madison, Indiana, VSG has operations worldwide, including ISO 9001-certified manufacturing centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
