I had the opportunity to participate in the Demo Day heavy duty vehicle lift manufacturer Stertil-Koni held recently at its U.S. headquarters in Stevensville, MD. The town is located across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Queen Anne's County, MD.
The event was intended to highlight Stertil-Koni’s line of lifts to potential customers and customers, as well as to distributors and distributor salespeople.
On display were four models of lifts: the Diamond Lift high-pressure telescopic piston lift, Earthlift wireless mobile column lift, ECOLIFT ultra-shallow, full-rise, in-ground axle engaging lift and SKYLIFT platform lift.
I’ve been around vehicle lifts before, but not like at this event. First of all, the lifts were brand new and the two in-ground lift models were on the ground so there was an unobstructed view of each entire unit.
Plus, I had a chance to learn about each particular type of lift and even got to talk with several of the engineers who designed them.
What became quite clear to me was that when purchasing a vehicle lift, one has to sort through various designs, capabilities, options and accessories to build a lift that will best suit an operation’s needs. In addition, there are others considerations, including type of lift, floor space required for the lift, vehicle setup procedures, ceiling height, safety features, does it have Automotive Lift Institute certification, terms of the warranty, etc.
For the un-experienced, this can be a confusing task because of the many choices and numerous factors that need to be taken into account.
In talking with Stertil-Koni customers and prospects I learned that when it comes to vehicles lifts these days, the name of the game is flexibility and productivity.
The objective is to get a lift that will be able to handle a variety of vehicles and allow technicians to spend less time positioning vehicles on the lifts so they can get started and finished with the repair or maintenance faster. All of this helps improve shop productivity.
Thanks to my learning experience at Stertil-Koni, I look at vehicle lifts differently now.
