Difficulty Removing Ricon Wheelchair lift

[happiinesshunter]

Hello Wonderful Skoolie Humans!

I am slowly but surely getting through the disassembly to prep for my new flooring and framing but have hit another wall in trying to remove the wheelchair lift. I have a Ricon S5008 in my '97 Thomas Vista International. I have located some of the bolts under the bus, but I am now running into some issues. The nuts will not budge! The bolt its self is too long for my deep sockets and the wrench isnt touching them even when I wail on it with a hammer. I have cleaned the bolts with a wire brush and oiled them with WD40, still nothing.

Perhaps even a bigger issue:
I also noticed that at least one, maybe two of the bolts are basically hidden above a storage box that has been attached beneath the wheelchair lift and is only accessible through a 1 inch hole and it is still off to the side. I am lost on how to remove these or get to these hidden bolts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I know I am not the most savvy and am teaching myself almost all of this, so I do apologize if this seems obvious but to me it seems impossible right now! ah!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Pics Included!

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[EastCoastCB]

Get a good fitting wrench on there, spray with pb blast, and use a bar that fits over the wrench. Or cut off the ends of the bolts and then you can get at em with an impact.
Anything in your way you could just cut/grind out with an angle grinder.
I keep going back and forth as to whether or not I want to keep my Ricon lift.
Its LOUD, squeaky, and doesn't work all that smootly. somtimes it freezes in place and has to bee shaken a bit to coax it back into action. When on the road it RATTLES badly. I've even tried stuffing pool noodles in between parts of it, ratchet straps, everything!!!

Where you located? I'll pull that sucker out for ya for nothin!

[happiinesshunter]

I can't cut whats blocking the bolt because it's an entire storage box (one I am keeping to house my solar batteries later on). I don't have an impact drill but haven't tried the PB blast. Ill give that a go. I am doing my conversion in DE! Sadly, mine has to go...it takes up way too much space.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by happiinesshunter

I can't cut whats blocking the bolt because it's an entire storage box (one I am keeping to house my solar batteries later on). I don't have an impact drill but haven't tried the PB blast. Ill give that a go. I am doing my conversion in DE! Sadly, mine has to go...it takes up way too much space.

Get a three foot bar that will fit over your wrench. Let the pb blaster soak for like five minutes or more, then use your cheater bar and they should be do-able.

You'll have to get a good pic of that box you're talking about.
I don't think mine has that.

[Robin97396]

San Diego. CB, I doubt you'll get that lift.

Lots of people give the lifts away for free, especially to families with crippled children. They only sell for about $300 to a max of about $500, and you've got to deal with all the lookeylews that want to see it work. Time wise, it's easier to just give them to someone that really needs a lift.

The alternative is you can take the lift apart and make something cool out of it.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

San Diego. CB, I doubt you'll get that lift.

Lots of people give the lifts away for free, especially to families with crippled children. They only sell for about $300 to a max of about $500, and you've got to deal with all the lookeylews that want to see it work. Time wise, it's easier to just give them to someone that really needs a lift.

The alternative is you can take the lift apart and make something cool out of it.

I don't want it, was just offering to help. I'd leave it on my curb for the old scrapper guy who lives down the street. He gets anything I leave out by the curb that's metal.

[Robin97396]

Yeah, they aren't worth much. I want to get rid of my lift too, but I can't get heavy objects in and out of the bus without it. It really is handy about every six months.

The electric hydraulic system from a lift might be useful for other applications, although I haven't thought of any new uses yet.

[Sasquatters]

It took us a while to get ours out. We didn't have the box but PB Blaster, a torch of map gas and an impact wrench finally got the thing out.

[Robin97396]

They need a cheater pipe to put on the wrench.

[Sasquatters]

It's called a physics pipe. [emoji12]

[DoubleO7]

O.P.
My Ricon is held down with 6 or 8 carriage bolts.

If I could not wrench then out due to rust and/or
access.....
I would use my angle grinder and grind the dome off the bolts from above.

[Robin97396]

Good to know. I've been thinking of taking my lift out for a long time. It's like a big bookcase that you can't move, or use.
I wanted to try to find someone that needed a lift rather than giving it to someone that would sell it to someone that needed a lift. The lift won't be pretty anymore if I put it outside. Everything rusts in Oregon.

[PigPen]

We sold our lift to a guy who immediately put it back on Craigslist.... for $2300! Poor guy

[Robin97396]

If he's lucky he'll get $300 out of it. You've got to admire the enthusiasm though.

[happiinesshunter]

We are going to try and give it a go with a breaker bar and PB Blaster! I'll let you know how it goes! As for the box...I'm still lost as what to do..Maybe cutting them from the top side?? Thanks everyone again!

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by happiinesshunter

We are going to try and give it a go with a breaker bar and PB Blaster! I'll let you know how it goes! As for the box...I'm still lost as what to do..Maybe cutting them from the top side?? Thanks everyone again!

Could always cut an access hole, then screw, rivet, or weld a piece back on to cover the hole.

[Robin97396]

The bolt heads are fairly accessible from inside the bus. Use your grinder to cut an X in the top of the bolt heads then chisel the pieces off until the bolts can be removed. Be sure you tie off or otherwise stabilize the top of the lift so it doesn't fall on someone.