Busted a brand new drywall lift on my first job in Denver last Tuesday

3 comments

3 Comments

Add to that the Denver altitude making the hydraulic fluid act thick and foamy, the cold weather just makes it worse. I bet that lift was fighting itself right out of the crate if it was shipped from a lower elevation. Letting it sit and warm up before use is key, but also you might need to check the fluid level and maybe use a different weight of oil for high altitude work. The factory fill is probably set for sea level, so a quick fluid swap could save you a headache next time.

allen.ivan18d ago

Rented one from Home Depot a few years back and it had a slow leak in the hydraulic line from day one. The Denver altitude makes the oil act funny, it aerates different than sea level. Could be your lift just needed a bleed before you took it out, the cold weather up there thickens the fluid and puts extra strain on everything. Might save you next time to let it warm up in the garage for ten minutes before you start cranking.

nguyen.tara17d ago

Wait, have you guys ever tried bleeding a lift at altitude before? I feel like the air bubbles themselves are way more stubborn up there, almost like they get stuck in the fluid different than at sea level. I mean, @allen.ivan bringing up the cold weather makes total sense to me, my buddy had a similar issue with a truck lift in the mountains last winter and it took forever to even get the thing to move. He ended up just switching to a thinner synthetic fluid and running it for a few minutes before every use, which seemed to help a lot with that foaming problem. Idk if that's the official fix but it worked for him, so maybe worth a shot if you're dealing with the same thing.