Atlas 6MR: the power unit is also the trolley

Most portable lifts are portable in the sense that they can be dragged. The 6MR is portable because its power unit is mounted on a wheeled cart that is doing two jobs at once. Day to day, the cart lets you park the pump wherever it is convenient rather than wherever the hose reaches — against a wall, out of the walkway, on the side the technician stands. When the bay is needed for something else, the same cart is what you use to roll the lift out of the way, or straight out of the door onto the concrete apron outside.

That is a small design decision with a large consequence for a one-bay or two-bay shop. It means this 6,000 lbs scissor lift does not permanently claim a bay, and it means outdoor work — a hot afternoon, a paint job, a vehicle that will not fit through the roller door raised — is a matter of pushing it out rather than planning around it. There is no bolt-down, no pit and no fixed hydraulic run to design a workshop around.

It runs on 110 volt. For a home garage or a small commercial unit that removes the usual first obstacle, which is not the lift at all but the cost of getting a heavier supply installed to a bay that has never needed one.

Will It Fit?

A mid-rise scissor is bought for how high it gets and how flat the floor is, in that order.

• Lift height. Over 53 inches at the top of its travel, and the factory sheet gives it as 53 1/2 inches with adapters. That is what puts this in the mid-rise class rather than the low-rise one: it is a standing working height for body and wheel work, not a kneeling one.
• Lowered. 5 3/4 inches with arms fitted but adapters off. That is the number that decides whether the lift slides under a low sports car, and it is the one people forget to check.
• Footprint. The structure is 39 inches wide and 82 inches long. Add room to open doors and walk both sides.
• Floor. It is free-standing and needs no anchors, but it does need flat, sound, level concrete. The manufacturer's own description of moving it — rolling it from an inside bay to an outdoor apron — assumes a smooth surface at both ends. A sloping or broken floor is the one condition this design does not forgive, because nothing is bolting it straight.
• Power. 110 volt. Note the feature list states the plug is not supplied.
• Oil. 1.5 to 2 gallons of AW32 or AW46, not included. Order it with the lift; it is the item that turns a delivery day into a delivery week.

Measuring your ceiling, your floor and your circuit against those figures is the buyer's responsibility. Send us the vehicle you most want to put on it and we will confirm the fit in writing before you order.

Two cylinders, one lock bar

The 6MR lifts on dual hydraulic cylinders and holds on a solid safety lock bar with seven positions. Two things follow from that arrangement. Two cylinders share the load across the platform instead of concentrating it, which is what keeps a vehicle with an off-centre weight distribution level rather than leaning as it rises. And a mechanical lock bar means that once the lift is at a working height and the locks are set, the vehicle is held on steel, not on hydraulic pressure. Seven positions is enough granularity to find a height that suits the job instead of settling for the nearest one.

Release is single-point and manual, so lowering is a deliberate act at one place on the lift rather than something that can happen from two.

Access under the car

The platform design is what the original manufacturer copy singles out, and the claim is specific enough to be checkable: it opens up areas of the underside that other portable mid-rise designs cover. That is the trade a scissor lift always makes — it puts structure under the middle of the car where a two-post puts nothing — and the arms here are adjustable to an unlimited range of positions so the pads can be worked around the lifting points a particular model actually has, rather than the ones a generic pad layout assumes.

Perfect For

• Body shops and wheel and tyre specialists who want standing height without giving a bay over to a fixed installation.
• A one-bay or two-bay commercial shop that needs the floor back some days.
• A home garage on ordinary household power where a permanent lift is not on the cards.
• Anyone who works outdoors some of the time — the cart is the reason this one goes out and comes back.

What is in the box

The 6MR ships complete: one set of four truck adapters, a second set of sliding car adapters, and the separate motor stand the power unit rides on. Commercial grade, powder coated. Shipping weight is 1,050 lbs. Not supplied: the mains plug, and the hydraulic oil.

Certification, stated plainly

The page says this lift has been tested to meet industry standards, and that is as far as the product data goes: no third-party safety listing is named for it in anything we hold, and we are not going to imply one that is not there. Some insurers, fleet contracts and local authorities require a specific listing for a lift used commercially. If that applies to you, ask us in writing before you order and we will put the question to Atlas.

Shipping and delivery

This is a freight shipment inside the lower 48 states, quoted live at checkout rather than printed here, because freight rates move. Two things decide whether delivery day goes well. First, unloading is yours to arrange: a freight truck will not lift the crate off the trailer for you, so you need a forklift, a skid steer or a comparable machine at the delivery address, or you take the shipment at the carrier terminal instead. Tell us which before it ships. Second, inspect before you sign. Walk the crate, look for crushed corners, punctures, shifted banding and oil marks, and write anything you find on the delivery receipt before the driver leaves. A signed clean receipt is the carrier's proof that the freight arrived undamaged, and a concealed-damage claim raised afterwards is a far harder argument than three words written on the paperwork. Residential delivery is available and carries a residential fee. Warehouse pickup is available at our stocking locations if you would rather collect it.

Warranty

2 year structural, 2 year hydraulic, parts only, as published in this page's own feature list. Two years on the hydraulics is the part to notice on a portable lift, because the hydraulics are what a lift that gets moved around asks the most of. If something fails, call us before you strip anything down — a disassembled unit is the usual reason a good claim gets refused.