I bought this about a month ago and even though I had a knee surgery 2 months prior to installing this, I was able to get it installed with help from my partner. The instructions were clear and easy to read. It did take about 2 hours to get put up but that was mostly because it took me awhile to ask for help. I have a bunch of stuff up on it and would definitely recommend to anyone who wanted to buy one of these as I am someone who does not own a ladder so this was easily the best choice for me to purchase. I plan on getting all my junk off the ground in my garage and onto one of these puppies within the next few years.

Fantastic design - typical cheap, Chinese manufacturing. I have 2 of these, the first one has been in good service for almost 3 years with no complaints whatsoever - it's been raised and lowered countless times, both manually and with a drill...very cool.

Cons are that the nuts, bolts, fasteners and screws that are included are about as cheap as can be...impossible to assemble without stripping every other nut, screw head or bolt before adequately torqued/tightened. Also, on my second one - one of the mounting holes on one of the platform support brackets was simply not punched out at the factory...easy fix with a drill, but totally indicative of poor quality control on the manufacturing floor.

Like I said, no functional issues after almost 3 years...and I bought a second one, so I'd definitely recommend it.

Do not buy...
massive liability, and dangerous product. The drive uses a flimsy plastic gear that will break. I had 45 pounds on this ( I weighed everything), I was starting to lower it, and the the rack spun out of control and crashed to the ground. The first time it happenend I thought it was a fluke, the rack dropped like a brick. But tonight I realized the problem, it happened again, and the other drive gear failed - again spinning out of control and crashing to the ground. - This first failure was a breakage of one side, but tonight the other drive failed. If my car or or child was under this, it would have caused serious harm. Everthing is steel except the achilles heal of a plastic cable drive gear. The second photo illustrates this. I used to think this was a great product, but the time degradation of the cheap plastic part will seriously hurt someone in the future.

I have a total of four of these. 2 of them were bought a 4-5 years ago and were of higher quality (Yellow worm gear) and have worked perfectly after all this time. I just recently bought 2 more and was disappointed to find out that they have cheapened some of the components (replaced real bearing with plastic grommet at other end of shaft, replaced screw and washer with cotter pin). A few more other observations: I had issues with a few nuts not threaded correctly for the screws that attach the 2 halves of the rotating shaft and for the screws that attach the T section to the arms. Also, the allen wrench supplied for attaching the worm gear mechanism to the T section was of the incorrect size! Instructions are terrible and have mistakes in them. For example, the instructions still assume you are attaching a screw and washer to the end of the shaft when this has been replaced with a cotter pin. Also, it instructs you to attach the 2 halves of the shaft with the screws before you slide it into the T sections. I can tell you this will not work! You need to first attach the 2 halves and slide them further in (beyond the screw holes) in order to position them in the T sections. Minor nuisance overall but it goes to show you that Racor have cut some corners in quality in order to cheapen the product. I echo what many of you have said. Please do your self a favor and get longer higher quality lag bolts. The ones supplied are too short and are too soft. Also, check to make sure that your nuts all thread correctly on to the screws or you'll have to replace these as well.

I live in Dallas and VERY few homes here have basements. So having something like this to use in my garage was a great option. Well-made. Installation is not difficult and it works very well. Rather than use the hand-crank, I use a battery powered drill to raise and lower the platform. Works just fine. My ONLY issue is the lag screws supplied are, in my opinion, a tad bit short and small. I simply went to my local big-box hardware store and bought larger lag bolts and slightly enlarge the existing screw holes to accommodate.

TAKE SOME TIME IN SELECTING YOUR MOUNTING LOCATION. You want your lag bolts mounted into ceiling studs. Measure twice, and cuss less later. Also, be certain that when loaded, you'll still have clearance to walk under. There are bolts that will be hanging below the bottom for an inch or so. I managed to walk into one. It did not move. My scalp and a little bit of hair did move. Oh well ...