Greg Smith GS-14 Review: Heavy Duty 14,000-lb Lift for Trucks and SUVs

Greg Smith Equipment sells direct rather than through a dealer network, which is how the GS-14 lands at $5,799 with specifications that look like more expensive lifts. That model has a real advantage and a real cost. The advantage is price for capacity. The cost is that support runs through one company rather than a distributed dealer network, so parts and service depend on Greg Smith staying interested in a model years after it ships.

The 5-year comprehensive warranty is the direct answer to that concern and it is the strongest thing on this spec sheet. BendPak covers its 4-post lifts for 1 year, Dannmar and Atlas for 2, Rotary for 3. Five years is an outlier and it is worth real money on a lift that will see commercial use.

Capacity at 14,000 lb puts it in the commercial tier alongside the BendPak HDS-14LSX and the Rotary SM14, and the 120 in width makes it the widest of the three.

At 120 in overall the GS-14 is wider than almost anything in the category. That width has one job: accepting vehicles whose track is too broad for a standard deck. A dually pickup runs about 96 in across the rear fenders. A truck on 2 in spacers per side, a widebody conversion, or a service van with dual rear wheels all fall into the same category.

For everything else, the width is floor space you are buying and not using. A crew-cab F-150 tracks about 68 in and drives onto a 108 in lift without ceremony. If your heaviest vehicle is a half-ton, this lift is wrong on both width and capacity.

Runway length at 220 in matches the width. It handles long-wheelbase duallies and extended vans with the tires sitting well inside the deck ends rather than perched near them. Combined, 120 by 220 in means the lift needs a bay roughly 12 ft wide and 20 ft deep before you add a walkway or the approach ramps.

Maximum rise is 82 in, which is the practical target for a lift you work under. At full travel the runway underside sits above a six-foot adult's head, so brake, exhaust and driveline work happens standing rather than stooped. That is the difference between the GS-14 and heavy lifts like the BendPak HDS-14, which stops at 70 in.

For a building, 82 in of rise plus the height of the vehicle on the deck sets the requirement. A raised dually at 78 in tall needs roughly 160 in, or 13 ft 4 in, before any margin. A 14 ft shop ceiling handles it with room; a 12 ft ceiling means running the lift short of full travel with a tall truck on it.

Measure to the lowest obstruction over the entire 120 by 220 in footprint. Sprinkler heads, radiant tube heaters, light fixtures and door tracks all occupy the top of a shop, and a lift this large sits under more of them than a residential 4-post does.

The GS-14 uses reinforced columns and cross beams with a premium hydraulic power unit, and the finish is an industrial powder coat rather than the thin coating typical of budget imports. Multi-position automatic locks engage as the runways rise, so the parked load rests on mechanical pawls and the hydraulics only work during travel.

Installation is genuinely difficult and Greg Smith does not soften that. The runway sections at 220 in are long and heavy enough that a forklift or telehandler is close to mandatory, and standing four commercial-section columns plumb over that span takes measurement rather than eyeballing. Budget for professional installation.

Slab requirements exceed the residential 4 in of 3,000 psi norm, as they do for every lift in the 14,000 lb class. Have the concrete verified. Power is 220V single phase. Delivery is a full-size freight truck with a crate that a residential driveway will not handle, so confirm access and unloading equipment before the shipment is dispatched.

BendPak's HDS-14LSX matches the capacity with a longer 237 in deck, a narrower 115 in frame, an ALI listing and a 14 ft ceiling requirement, at roughly $5,500. The tradeoff is warranty against certification: BendPak gives you a third-party listing and 1 year of coverage, Greg Smith gives you five years and no listing.

The Rotary SM14 is the premium option at about $6,299, with 230 in runways, 84 in of rise, ALI/ETL certification and a 3-year warranty. It is the better lift on paper in nearly every respect and it costs $500 more. If a certified lift matters, the Rotary is the one to buy in this tier.

Greg Smith's own GS-12XLT drops to 12,000 lb, which still covers any consumer vehicle including a loaded one-ton. If nothing in the shop is a commercial chassis, that is the smarter and cheaper purchase.