Boom or scissor: picking the lift

Lifts are the biggest class in our yard, and the most commonly mis-specced. The mistake is nearly always the same one: someone sized for height and forgot about the thing in the way.

The actual difference

A scissor lift goes straight up. The platform stays over the base. That is the whole design, and it is why a scissor gives you the most platform, the most capacity, and the best price for a given height.

A boom lift goes up and out. It reaches over, around, and past obstacles. You pay for that in platform size, in capacity, and in rate. What you are buying is not height. It is outreach.

Ask this before you ask about height

Can I park the machine directly beneath the work?

• Yes, and the floor is firm and flat — scissor. More platform, more capacity, less money. Take it.
• No, because there is plant, a structure, a tank, or a garden bed in the way — boom. That is what the articulating joint is for.
• Yes, but only sometimes — measure the worst case, not the usual one. The lift you need is the one that covers the hardest position.

The families, briefly

1. 01
   Slab scissorIndoor, hard flat floors, non-marking wheels. Narrow enough for doorways and aisles. Will not cross a building site.
2. 02
   Rough terrain scissorOutdoor, uneven ground, bigger footprint. Same straight-up geometry, built for a site.
3. 03
   Articulating boomBends. Gets up and over an obstacle and back in — the "up, over, and down into" job.
4. 04
   Telescopic boomStraight out. The most horizontal reach, best where you need to get far, not around.
5. 05
   Vertical mastCompact, indoors, one or two people and tools. Where a scissor is too big and a ladder is not allowed.

The specs that decide it

• Working height versus platform height. Know which one the number is. They differ by roughly the height of a person, and that difference has embarrassed a lot of people.
• Horizontal outreach. The boom number that actually matters. Ignoring it is the classic error.
• Platform capacity. Two workers plus tools adds up faster than expected, and on a boom it often drops as you extend.
• Machine width and weight. It has to get through the door and onto the floor. Indoor slabs have limits.
• Indoor or out. Non-marking tyres and emissions are not optional details inside a finished building.

Tell us the obstacle

Not the height. The obstacle. Where you can park, what is in between, and what the floor is. We run 25 lifts across scissors, booms, atrium and vertical mast — the right one is usually obvious once we know what is in the way.