Eastwood’s Tilt-A-Car
By Eric Dykstra
Eastwood’s Tilt-A-Car System offers a simpler, more portable — and cheaper — alternative to installing a lift in your garage. Sure, it looks like a human-sized drop trap, but it’s also a great way to work on the underside of your car.
Eastwood claims the Tilt-A-Car will tilt a car or truck up to 6,800 pounds all the way to 90 degrees. Two rocker assemblies attach to the wheel lugs on one side of the vehicle while a threaded lift screw connects to the lugs of a wheel on the opposite side. A 3/8″ corded or cordless drill then lifts the car up by pulling the ends of the threaded rod inward.
As you might expect, you’ve got to drain fluids like fuel, engine oil, and washing fluids to avoid making a mess. This Eastwood exclusive can be had for $1,400.00 plus freight shipping.
Eastwood’s Tilt-A-Car [Eastwood Co.]
September 7th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Wow. That’s just about all I can say. That looks terrifying to work around. It’s cheaper than a 4-post lift, but not by much. The cheapest 4-posters I’ve seen are around $1700, and would be a lot more useful IMHO. I’m not sure a cheap lift would be *less* terrifying to work around, and under, though.
It does have the advantage of not needing as much overhead clearance, compared to any type of lift, though.
For my money, I’d rather spend the extra on a lift and then get/make a rotisserie for underbody paint/work.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
[…] Catalog Page [EastwoodCo.com via Toolmonger] […]
September 7th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I still have absolutely no idea how this thing works.
And yes, if you’re going to drop $1400 on what amounts to a really fancy 2×4 (that appears to still require that you jack up the car at each wheel in order to attach this insane device), why wouldn’t you just buy four high-lift hydraulic jacks and bolt them to the floor? I’m pretty sure you could buy four 2,000-lb 36-inch jacks for a grand and a half (which saves you the cost of a large glass of whisky each time you want to use this thing to steady your nerves, as the trackback poster mentioned).
cl
September 7th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
It looks safe to me. I’ll bet the metal they bent to make those curves barely stretched out. And that one bolt at the pivot point looks plenty big - its gotta be at least a grade-5.
September 7th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Hey, I figured out why this is so expensive. It’s $400 for the materials, labor, and markup, and $1000 for Eastwood’s liability insurance premium.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
That would just scare the bejevious out of me to work with that lift.
I think Chuck and Sean should get and tell us how it works.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Rigs like this are pretty common in England, where space for a lift is rare. This gives way better access to the underbody for rust repairs and repainting than jacks.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
What happens to all the fluids when the car is tilted? This whole contraption bothers me….
September 7th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I’d be worried about what kind of stress the wheel bearings are having to endure, what with having to bear the entire weight of the car at that weird angle.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
With a few tweaks, this would be a cool space saving way to store cars like record albums if you had as many cars as record albums.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
No room for lifts and double decker buses. Oh the irony..
September 7th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Ok, great, lets see, drained engine oil…check, drained trans fluid…check, drained 20 gal of gasoline…check, emptied brake master cylinder…check, drained radiator…check, drained power steering pump…check, removed battery…check, took coffee out of cup holder…check, removed tires…check, attached crazy death rig to my car…check, alrighty lets flip over that car and replace that muffler!
September 7th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I have a friend who works on everything from 69 Cameros to late-model 4-door sedans. He’s used something like this for several years and really seems to like it. I don’t know if he puts the old heavy Cameros on there, but it’s had everything from sedans to my old toyota pickup on it, to great effect.
I don’t know if i’d use it for replacing a muffler, Ray, but for sandblasting rust off of frameworks and underbodies it works a treat!
September 9th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Needing to fabricate some custom cooling lines, I recently devised a method of doing the same thing with my car and I absolutely loved it! It is much easier to work this way than always having your hands over your head and craning your neck upward. If you have back trouble, this is a lifesaver. Any vehicle worth its salt will never have any problem with the weight bearing on two wheels. I would buy one of these any day over a 4-poster, with the caveat that a 4-poster can be used to double storage in a garage.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:44 am
On second thought, I suppose that this option would be more attractive to someone who is restoring a car. Using this machine on a car that it basically a frame and body makes a little more sense…
September 9th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Adam,
I do agree that this thing could be useful for certain specific tasks. In fact for underbody welding it might be nicer than a lift because molten metal would not be dripping down your shirt collar as you weld. My sarcasm was directed at the thought of using this a general service lift replacement, which is the way the post sort of presents it.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
[…] Jeżeli lubisz dłubać przy samochodzie, motorze czy też innej maszynie która posiada zespoły mechaniczne a do tej pory ograniczał Cię dostęp do swojego „cuda” od teraz możesz zapomnieć o problemie. Ten gadżet jest tani, skuteczny i nie zagraca Twojego garażu. Oto przyrząd, która potrafi unieść auto i obrócić o 90 stopni. Podnośnik jest w pełni automatyczny i bardzo prosty w instalacji. Urządzenie mocuje się do obręczy na bocznych kołach już po zdjęciu felg. Gadżet potrafi unieść auta o ciężkości do 6,800 funtów. Jak informuje producent, przed podniesieniem auta, pojazd musi zostać opróżniony z płynów (benzyna, olej, płyn chłodnicy ect). Gadżet kosztuje 1,4000 dolarów. Źródło: toolmonger.com (http://toolmonger.com/2007/09/07/eastwoods-tilt-a-car/) Related PostsCHIP samsung SCX 4720 i inne 3560 4520 + tonerCena obecna: 15,00 zł, Data wystawienia: 2007-23-07 16:40:17 Original post by Ludwik Krakowiak and …CHIP samsung 2150, 2550, 3560, SCX 4200 + TonerCena obecna: 15,00 zł, Data wystawienia: 2007-23-07 16:40:17 Original post by Ludwik Krakowiak and […] […]
September 14th, 2007 at 9:05 am
I would like the echo Podreczy’s sentiments. That’s just not natural.
Plus I can already hear my 2 daughters with the constant “Daddy flip the car up on its ear!”
September 15th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
[…] Eastwood’s Tilt-A-Car This unique mechanism from Eastwood attaches to your car, allowing you to tilt it sideways to work on the bottom without a lift. As commenters mention, it’s scary-looking. But apparently it’s been around for years — and sometimes the right solution for a problem isn’t always the most straightforward, anyway. […]
September 17th, 2007 at 8:10 am
I think it would be good when you are restoring a car. When there is no engine, trans, and fluids in the car. The money this thing costs, you would be better off buying a lift.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I know from experience that if you ever just need to pressure wash the bottom of a car that a 4 post lift would work just fine, but you get soaked and you end up being filthy dirty. I am anxious to try to use one of these in my detail business.
September 27th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
“Ray Says:
September 7th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Ok, great, lets see, drained engine oil…check, drained trans fluid…check, drained 20 gal of gasoline…check, emptied brake master cylinder…check, drained radiator…check, drained power steering pump…check, removed battery…check, took coffee out of cup holder…check, removed tires…check, attached crazy death rig to my car…check, alrighty lets flip over that car and replace that muffler!”
Thats exactly what I was thinking?!? Sounds like a lot of wasted time just to get under the car… get a used lift. Its cheap.. and you dont have to worry so much about the car… its an interesting idea, just not practical.
October 8th, 2007 at 10:45 am
[…] Many of us questioned the utility of Eastwood’s Tilt-A-Car when we wrote about it, but TM reader and photo pool member fabridan43 gives the concept the ultimate Toolmonger thumbs-up: he made his own. […]