Thinking about getting a Motorcyle lift from CT or PA | GTAMotorcycle.com

Thinking about getting a Motorcyle lift from CT or PA

sburns

sburns

Well-known member
I had one of these lifts, the CT one. It really depends on the configuration of your bike as to how useful it will be. you'll have to find out whether the engine is flat enough to provide the base that can be supported by the jack. That base has to be at the centre of gravity of the bike so that it is laterally stable (i.e. balanced front to back as opposed to side to side) On my bike I was lucky enough to find a way to bolt on outriggers on the engine that provided a very stable base. I supported the bike using straps once it was lifted in the air. That will be a necessity. If you bike has exhaust headers or pipes that run below the oil pan, then this jack won't be good for you. These are good jacks. I used mine for 4-5 years before I bought another jack that suited my requirements better. This type of jack would get in the way of an oil change for example and wouldn't work for that application. These jacks come up on Kijiji from time to time for a very good price.
 
Hey @robmack thanks for the info! Based on what you have said the jack will work for me, it would lift at the bottom centre part of the frame, which is level on both sides. It's like this jack had Harley's in mind for the design. I would be using it to do some wheel work, oil changes and such can be done while on the bike stand.
 
sburns said:
Hey @robmack thanks for the info! Based on what you have said the jack will work for me, it would lift at the bottom centre part of the frame, which is level on both sides. It's like this jack had Harley's in mind for the design. I would be using it to do some wheel work, oil changes and such can be done while on the bike stand.
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DM'd you
 
I have that lift. It's good, and it's bad.

It's completely useless for oil changes as when the bike is balanced at the CofG it blocks pretty much the entire bottom of the motor and prevents you from getting a catch pan anywhere near the stream of oil even if you can reach the plug.

For service work, it's decent, but not perfect. On my old VTX the frame rails were juuuuust close enough that it worked. On my Vulcan, not so much. I ended up finding a piece of wood kicking around in my garage, about 24x36 that used to be the lid to an old kids toybox, made out of pine. I slid it in between the arms of the jack and the bottom of the bike width wise and it made a world of difference - jacked the bike as high as the jack would go and it felt pretty decent, certainly more stable than without the extra support. Pulled the rear tire off and did a bunch of work with it up in the air at various heights and it felt decent, although I didn't keep it at the full extension when it wasn't necessary for wheel well clearance.

I know a lot of people with these jacks have width issues on the arms - they really should have made it an extra 8" wider and it would completely solve the issues people have with them.

YMMV.
 
I have used the CT motorcycle lift for maintenance work on my (now, sold) Suzuki M-90. It was definitely better and more safe than the scissor jack that I had attempted to use. I have even moved the bike when it was on the lift.
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I have the Princess Auto one. Having the foot pedal of the Big Red allows you to hold the handlebars and/or rear of the bike while you're raising it to check the balance. You'll need to heavily duct tape, or cover up the two bolts on the lift platforms because they can dig into a Harley frame. As others have said the bike must be balanced and strapped. Some people use a 4x8 piece of 1" plywood on the floor and put eye hooks in it to attach straps to.
 
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