Floor jack recommendations?
 

Hey everyone!

I need to buy a floor jack soon and was wondering if anyone had recommendations. I had a Craftsman that honestly didn’t last as long as I thought it should of. That isn’t enough to deter me from buying another Craftsman, but the reviews at Sears online look horrible for most of their models.

Do you think I should try AutoZone, or Advanced Auto, others?

I used craftsman for years now with no problems.

Go onto Google and just do a little research. You can find a decent amount of reviews for any product. If a product has bad reviews, well obviously that product is bad. Has good reviews then it must be good. Make sense?

Yeah thats what I have been doing this morning and it seems like Sears is really slipping in quality over the years.

harbor freight

Harbor Freight Tools

Floor Jack with Rapid Pump®, 2.5 Ton Heavy Duty Steel

I've used the "Black Jack" low profile one for about 4 years now and it has been solid. Wife got it for me for Christmas. All the way down it sits at like 2-3" tall but goes up quite a bit. Really good for lowered cars, I know after using mine a buddy went out and bought one for his lowered Porsche Cayman S. Can't remember the price but it was around $50 I think.

I've had the harbor freight 2 ton racing jack for 8 years now. It works great, I think I paid $120 for it which is money well spent!

i have to agree with the harbor freight jack ,not very expensive and its been fail free for about 3 years.

Ive had the same autozone jack for 8+ years. The wheels barely even turn on the mother fucker anymore but its fucking reliable. The only draw back with it is its not a low profile. My uncle has a harbor freight low profile and will afree with eeryone that it to is a good jack

Thanks for all the great info! I think Harbor Freight is the way to go. I will also order some of their rubber jack stand pads while I am at it.

Just use the scissor jack for everything

doubles as a jack and a stand!

Its failproof.

I have the blue anodized aluminum racing jack from harbor freight. Got it on sale for 60 dollars. It's low enough to get under a low car and its actually a quality jack. I wouldn't buy any other.

I have the blue one too, but mine is bent. Just don't jack on asphalt and you'll be fine. The jack dug in and couldn't follow as the car shifted a bit. I still use it, just doesn't want to go down all the way.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

make sure to use a harbor freight coupon if possible

Got one of these, couldn't be happier...

Aluminum Floor Jack - 1.5 Ton Aluminum Racing Jack

2 1/4 ton kobalt floor jack, it isn't low-pro, but it has gotten the job done on my four cars for 2.5 years so far and only cost $45 at lowes iirc.

Damn that sucks. I usually put it on a sheet of plywood if the ground it rough. Never thought of that happening on the soft asphalt.




Yeah this is the one. Great price still. And I think you can get coupons online.

Costco has an arcane low profile jack for around 100, great jack but heavy.
It was awesome,just too heavy to autocross.I actually returned it for an aluminum otc jack on Amazon for autocross. 48lbs, lifetime warranty and rebuildable.

Have you ever looked at the angle of your scissor jack when in use? Looks like the leaning tower of Pisa! No way do I trust them. On a car whose frame didn't put it at an angle, maybe. But not for the 3s.

I been using this craftsman flooor jack for years and still works great no issues at all.
Craftsman 3 Ton Aluminum Floor Jack: Get Deals on Tools at Sears

I've seen lots of complaints on the craftsman Jack. I have a three ton all trade that has been great. They all seem to be hit or miss, honestly. If you buy from harbor freight, sign up for the email list. They send out coupons for them periodically.

Probably sent from a toilet

+1 for this jack. nice quality and fail free for over a year

i'm not endorsing any of these jacks. i'm just passing along the coupons i have.

3 ton steel jack (expires at the end of the month)

http://images.harborfreight.com/cpi/...b/images/1.jpg

Coupon Display


1.5 ton aluminum jack (expires in a week)

http://images.harborfreight.com/cpi/...a/images/3.jpg

Coupon Display


3 ton aluminum jack (expires at end of the month)

http://images.harborfreight.com/cpi/...a/images/5.jpg

Coupon Display

Get jack stands too. Never trust a jack with your life.

While they are on the topic of jacks; we have a "Hot Deals" section where you can post things like this up if you care to share with the rest of the class.

And no one here is going to assume you're endorsing these jacks that are sold at Harbor Freight for your benefit. Lol. If you were a brownie with 1 post it might be a different story.

I have the $139.99 jack in the coupon. Pull the car up on (2) 1' 2x6s and it fits right under. After you set it on jack stands borrow wifeys brightest fingernail polish and paint the factory stamped X for future reference. It is hard to see when not painted. And as others have stated NEVER craw under a car on the jack alone scissor jack or not.

The 1.5 ton jack doesn't have the travel as the other 2. It really does not jack your car up that high. I have the grey first one and it works great. Its the 2nd Harbor Freight Jack I have owned and haven't had issues. My dad has a Craftsmans that he bought in the early 80s. It has a TON and I mean a TON of use and still works fine. Just my $0.02

The 1.5 ton lifts my car plenty high off the ground. High enough to install a downpipe with ease. Actually did that this weekend on a friends speed6.

But what if you want to use it on a truck or suv? My speed isn't the only car i work on. If your spending the money I'd just spring for the extra travel is all. That's just me though.

Tapatalk

This is a Mazda forum. I would imagine all these recommendations are for our cars. A suitable jack for a truck isn't even going to fit under your speed. I used to have a dodge and I sold my jack when I sold the truck because I couldn't get it underneath my car at stock ride height.

Of course its a mazda forum. But I'm sure most members here have other cars with families. Im just saying if you buy the 1.5 ton jack know that the travel isn't as much as the other 2. if the 1.5 ton fits your needs great. my harbor freight jack works on my speed and old trailblazer ext.

Tapatalk

c'mon, dude... give me a break. if you want these posted there, feel free to move and link back.

i said i don't endorse them - as in i don't give them my official stamp of approval. i have no experience with them. so if they suck don't blame me.

Cool story bro.

Mod that was just saying was just saying... I didn't mean it that way.

Easy mang, I hold no grudges from past shit. Life's too short. I even repped you, fool. Lol.

On the flip side, some of the stuff that is bigger and will work for SUVs/Trucks won't slide under low cars. Especially for someone who might have springs.

Same is true for ramps.

on the HF bandwagon. Picked up a 2.5 ton low profile jack from them this past summer. It was on sale for 80 bucks, and is low enough for me to put under the car without driving onto 2x4's. Also picked up 3 ton jackstands for 15....just sayin.....

I would suggest also getting/finding a small block of wood to put between the jack face and the car body when jacking it up. More than a few of us have found the stock "jack points" to suck and flex easily.

I used a router to cut a notch across the grain in a piece of scrap hardwood that I had laying around. It sits nicely in the pinch weld jack points so they don't get all fucked up. The pinch weld jack points suck on every car I've owned. Luckily you can't really see them on the MS3.

I have both an Aluminum Craftsman jack and a heavy duty HF low profile jack. Jack's are tools that need to be maintained regularly and as long as you do that the "cheapy" HF jacks work just fine. I like each for different reasons as the aluminum one is a quick pump jack whereas the HF is extremely low profile yet lifts much higher than the Craftsman. I've done plenty of jobs where I've need multiple jacks.

I own 2 jacks a craftsman and a harbor freight race jack.

Both have been problem free for years with lots of use.

The jack isn't incredibly important, it just lifts the vehicle. What you really want are a good set of jack stands that won't fail.

Try using a crappy jack and you'll quickly find out how important a decent jack is lol

Arcan low profile from Costco. You won't find a better jack for the price.

And the Craftsman aluminum jacks are complete turds. If the U-joint doesn't break, the valve seal will.