UTX Scissor Lift s can be attached to a variety of utility vehicles with the process taking under five minutes and requiring only one worker. (Photo provided)

Scissor lift s can be exceptionally handy when completing a variety of tasks from building maintenance projects to trimming trees and hanging up summertime banners announcing the latest events. While helpful, such lift s can also be cumbersome, hard to store or just not in the budget. But what if you could mount a scissor-lift onto the back of the utility vehicle you already have? This dream is a possibility through Innovative Equipment’s UTX Scissor Lift.

Smaller than traditional scissor lifts, the UTX takes up less storage space; additionally, with its jacks, it is stored off the ground. (Photo provided)

New on the market, this compact scissor lift comes in two models — the UTX30 and UTX44. The UTX30 offers a maximum work height of 18 feet while the UTX44 reaches 19 feet. Respectively, the UTX30 and UTX40 have 500- and 600-pound capacities. With adaptors, both UTXs can be connected to the back of UTV vehicles in under five minutes by one worker, thanks to their jacks.

“We’ve designed it so that there is no heavy lifting,” Marc Dack, sales and product development for Innovative Equipment, said, noting that switching from the UTX scissor lift to a dump box only requires the loosening of two bolts. Also due to the jacks, Dack said, “You are not storing it on the ground, but actually up off it.”

Because of its easy removal, Wally Osswald, partner in Innovative Equipment, said, “If you don’t need it every day, you can easily put it in a storage shed until it is needed.”

Attached to a John Deere Gator, this UTX is used to perform forestry work. With its easy-to-use adaptors, the UTX Scissor Lift can be shared across city departments. (Photo provided)

The UTX Scissor Lift can be fitted onto a variety of UTVs, including Kubota, Polaris, Gators and many more.

“If you have multiple UTVs,” Dack added, “you can have adaptors on each UTV so you don’t have to use a specific one each time. The adaptors are a 10th of the cost as the UTX.”

This approach can be especially beneficial for sharing across city departments. Workers can simply go to where the UTX Scissor Lift is stored, trade out their dump box for it and then complete whatever task they need to with the lift before returning it to the storage site. The UTX’s power source is fully independent of the vehicle carrying it. While stored, workers can charge its on board battery or simply plug in while the UTX is still attached to the vehicle. Once fully charged, the UTX is good for about 120 to 150 lifts. The charger can be left on and automatically switches to maintenance mode to maintain a full battery charge.

“It’s a very new product. A lot are reluctant to try it, thinking it will be unstable,” Dack said. “We’ve registered a 300-pound side load on it, and it’s still stable. A slab scissor would have toppled over easily with a 300- pound side load, and you can’t take them on rough terrain.”

Because of its jacks — both standard and power driven jacks are available options — workers can level the UTX Scissor Lift on uneven ground, including on street curbs, up to 12 degrees. It can also go where few scissor lifts can: off-road.

“Most rough-terrain scissor lifts have a speed of 2 mph — this is as fast as the UTV,” Dack said. “We call it our 35 mph scissor lift.”

Insurance agencies love the UTX Scissor Lift because of its built-in safety features. “You cannot overload it because it won’t go up,” Dack explained. “You can set parameters so that if its not level to a certain percentage, it won’t go up. If the jacks are not applying enough pressure to the ground, it will set off an alarm and won’t go up. So if the ground is unsafe (soft and muddy), the safety features will not allow you to use the lift.” The lift also features all of the required safety standards that help prevent tip overs.

Price-wise, the UTX is an attractive option as most cities already own UTVs. “(The UTX) is well under the cost of a dedicated scissor lift,” Dack said.

Currently, Innovative Equipment is testing a pickup truck scissor lift that uses the UTX44 platform. Dack said both these products will be highlighted at the PWX show Aug. 26-29 in Kansas City.