Competition -- Adjustability
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How adjustable is that car rotisserie?
Length
The rotisserie should be adjustable in length to handle anything from a pickup cab to a long unibody (about 19-20 ft.). Obviously, units with independent ends and no center tongue to connect the front and rear rotating unit meet this criteria. Our 1500 lbs. stationary unit and our 4000 lbs End Unit design fall in this category. The designs common with the some manufacturers (what I call a T-Base design) where you have 3 casters on each end and no center tongue needed also meet this criteria for their hard caster versions. If you add pneumatic (rubber tires) casters on the axles, then a center tongue is needed, as the front caster no longer touches the ground. This requires a good center tongue systems.
You need to ask specific questions about the length and quantity of the center tongue system on any unit you purchase. One of the units we purchased claimed 18 feet for long car bodies, but that was the overall length of the system, and it would only hold a 14 ft. body with the center tongue attached. Also ask the size and material thickness. We found wimpy 1/8 wall tubing of a small size. 1/8th wall tubing gives a poor fit inside the next larger size, so it pretty sloppy, compared with 3/16 wall stuff. Here again, we found 1/8 wall where we expected 3/16ths. Here is an example:
Note the lack of deburring on the inside of the tubing. I cut my hand on the upright piece while rolling it into the shop.
There are systems out there that either don't provide a center tongue (buy your own pipe) or provide two 10 ft. pieces coupled together. These systems work ok, but leave 2-8 ft. extra if you just working on a body shell. They're just in the way to trip over when you walk around the ends.
Width
All rotisseries I've seen have width adjustment. Some have gussets in the way so the minimum width is somewhat restricted. Most go out to about 60 inches. The Bottoms Up Lifts will adjust from 10" to 58"
Height
Most systems us a standard 3 ton ram for height adjustment. One system allows use of a standard bumper jack and another uses a winch. The problem with the 3 ton ram is its travel is typically 18". If the systems starts at jack stand height (15") then you can't get the car high enough to rotate the car. Some of our systems use a jack extender tube, to make the jack longer. Others depend on the balancing tool to assist in height adjustment. All of our adjustable systems will pick a car up from jack stand height, except for the 2000-3000 wheeled version, which need to be 16". Because of the large tires, the T-bar can't go any lower. All will go high enough to swing a 85" wide car, which is as wide as I've seen. Some competitors talks about 14" attach height, but that is with no casters. As soon as you add wheels, you're up to 20" or so. If you get a fixed height Bottoms Up Lift, you need to get the body up about 25" to attach to the system. Our Body Lift can help you with this task.
Balance
All Bottoms Up Lifts have a balance adjustment mechanism, which is the subject of the next page.
