This article has been heavily edited from its original form.

A few things raced through our minds when we first saw the internet’s latest car lift fail.  BendPak has been in the car lift industry for over 30 years, so this would not be the first installation mistake we’ve encountered. In this instance, however, the photo went viral, and BendPak’s name is clearly in the shot. Most of our customers are excellent when it comes to safely installing their car lifts. If they aren’t able to do the installation themselves, they hire a certified BendPak installer. This photo seemed to be a case of a customer incorrectly installing a lift. Note the “floating corners” at the bottom of the left-side post. We called this problem out to the internet in order to clear up any misconception that this is how we install lifts.

We Were Wrong.

The internet can be full of foul play. This photo popped up at least 24 hours before we decided to comment on it, and it was really gaining steam across different channels. We posted this blog (version 1.0 of one you’re reading now) as a way to clarify our position on dangerous installations, and we thought that would be the end of it. Chris, the owner of the lift, commented directly on our BendPak Facebook page. He posted this image and commented:

“Gotta love the internet. This pic must have been taken minutes before they (professional company) laid the slab concrete pedestals which can easily hold up the lift. No car ever went on this rack pre-concrete. Also worth noting that those bolts are 12″ long into the foundation plus [and now have] concrete pedestals.The rack is 100% level and we have custom ramps that work perfectly. Hope everyone can remain calm now…”

We definitely feel better now. While it’s always safest to drill anchor bolt holes directly into the flooring, his custom installation method should be fine. After all, anchor bolts are designed to fasten themselves deep into concrete. Once the bolts are turned in the concrete, they wedge themselves against the bolt hole and become part of the concrete. The force of a vehicle lifting and lowering on the lift is dispersed throughout the columns and the concrete. When the bolts are sticking up in the air, you’re not only losing the surface area of the base plate, you’re applying force directly to loose bolts that aren’t designed to handle load in that manner. It’s good to know the car lift was installed with all this in mind!

Chris, we naysayers owe you an apology! We were just worried about your safety, as well as the safety of others. You did what you were supposed to do, as did your installation team. We’ll make sure to do a better job tracking our sources in the future. You never know what’s real and what isn’t these days, and in this case, we clearly came to the wrong conclusion. Hopefully the internet helps get the word out. False alarm. This lift looks great.

Please see Step 15, Page 26 in this HD-9 four-post lift instruction manual for proper anchor bolt drilling/installation.