Vehicle Lifts
Truck Lifts
Moving a loaded HGV between levels is a structural problem before it is a lift problem. The load is enormous, it arrives off-centre, it stops and starts, and on most urban sites the ramp that would otherwise do the job consumes more plot than the building can spare.
SERAPID Truck Lifts push the vehicle from below on interlocked rigid chain columns. The load path runs straight down into the foundations, the shaft head carries nothing, and capacities run from 10,000 kg to 60,000 kg as standard — with six catalogue sizes that can be adapted to any shaft dimension.
Where a truck lift earns its place
- Urban distribution and last-mile hubs where an access ramp would consume developable plot
- Multi-level workshops, depots and vehicle test facilities
- Basement service yards beneath mixed-use and commercial schemes
- Port, ferry and rail freight terminals with constrained footprints
- Sites where the road surface itself must lift to give access — see below
Three ranges, three compliance routes
| Series | Configuration | Directive and standard |
| TC | Fully enclosed car | Lift Directive 2014/33/EU |
| TO | Semi-enclosed; man riding | Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC |
| TP | Platform lift, not man riding | Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC |
The choice is rarely aesthetic. A TC series lift gives we a fully enclosed car and an unrestricted speed, at the cost of the pit and headroom EN 81-20 requires. TO and TP deliver the same load performance in markedly less structural envelope, which on a tight basement is often what makes the scheme viable.
Discuss your truck lift project with SERAPID
Move heavy lorries safely and efficiently with a lift system engineered for commercial use.
Lifting the road above the lift
Where there is no room for a conventional headhouse or landing arrangement, SERAPID has delivered systems in which the section of road above the lift rises with it. The vehicle drives onto what appears to be ordinary carriageway; the surface and the lift move as one. It is an approach that only works when the drive is stiff enough to hold position under an off-centre vehicle load without compensation — which is precisely what the rigid chain column does.
Duty cycle, speed and running cost
Truck lifts spend most of their life travelling short distances at low speed, and this is where the arithmetic favours Rigid Chain Technology. Without pressurisation dwell, pawl operation or re-levelling, a SERAPID system delivers a lower door-to-door cycle time at a lower travelling speed than a system that has to pause at each end of the journey. Lower speed means smaller motors, which means less electrical infrastructure to install and less power to buy.
Frequently asked questions
The standard range extends to 60,000 kg with the TL-60. Higher capacities are engineered as bespoke systems — the technology scales without a catalogue ceiling.
No. All drive equipment is housed in a shallow pit, which removes both the machine room and the borehole from the design.
The rigid chain columns are continuously interlocked, so eccentric loading produces no differential movement between them. No compensation or re-levelling system is required.
Yes. Systems have been delivered in which the carriageway section above the lift rises as part of the platform, giving vehicle access where a conventional landing arrangement will not fit.
Between 900 mm and 1,700 mm depending on capacity and compliance route. Machinery Directive schemes are generally shallower than EN 81-20 equivalents — see the dimension table above.
Contact SERAPID to define your scope of supply
Discuss your lift project with our engineers and choose the right level of support, from Drive Train to fully commissioned Turnkey Lift.