It's time, I need a floor jack. I've always had to borrow one, but I need my own. My dad wants to give me one of his 30 year old jacks, but I don't want one.
I know harbor freight has some, but I don't know how good of quality they are. I don't really know who else carries them besides HF and Sears.
I've been using my HF jack for about 4 years with no problems.
Costco had a nice one. 3 ton for $99
I have two of the harbor freight ones. A lightweight aluminum and one of those low profile grey ones. Both work fine after 5 years of heavy use.
I've had good luck with my Harbor Freight aluminum jack too.
Sams club usually has a good one. 80 bucks when I bought mine. was branded michelin but same jack Ive seen branded other things. 6 ton I think.
Go to any autocross and count how many racers use the HF aluminum jacks.
I'm one of them.
I have an aluminum craftsman one. I've had it for 11 years now. A few years back I (twisting the handle too hard in the wrong direction because I'm an idiot), I managed to break the universal joint to raise and lower it. Now I just jam a screw into the valve release and do it that way. Jack still works great though....a tiny leak started last year but I just top it off every couple months. Have lugged it to at least 100 autocrosses/rallycrosses as well. Figure got my money worth. Not sure if the new ones are better/worse.
auctions
I have a 15 y/o craftsmen that looks horrendous and leaks and doesnt have a fast pump-up but i still use it occasionally. I use my 1.5ton HF aluminum jack for almost everything. One of the pump pistons is getting sticky after a year and a half, but ive messed with it enough to keep it working and when it breaks i will probably buy another one.
I think between the tiny aluminum jack and the larger T-handle low-pro high-rise steel jack that HF sells, i would never need anything else. If i had to have just ONE jack i would get the larger aluminum jack and be done with it.
I bought a two ton aluminum jack at Costco about five years ago and it's been fantastic. I believe it's an Arcan.
you can get one of the 30 year old ones for free and you are asking about buying modern junk?
there is a flaw in your logic...
I have the aluminum sears "Racing" jack as well. 6-7 years? and still going strong.
It's red. I like it.
Get the old floor jack, look in yellow pages for hydraulic jack repair, get seal kit, reseal old jack. I don't know how much I'd trust any harbor freight junk, give me an old tool and a rebuild kit for under the price of new and made from real metal.
i have a craftsman that is not aluminum. works great but heavy as E36 M3. buy an aluminum one.
Alternative solution:
Get one of your dad's AND buy one of the Pep Boys/HF aluminum jacks new. I've never regretted having an extra jack...
I hate the lightweight aluminum HF jacks when I've borrowed them from my friends, but I like my heavy duty HF one. It did crap out once after almost two years but I had bought the warranty so it was okay.
When they say that they don't make them like they used to they are talking about floor jacks.
Except for weight the 30 year old ones will be better.
Harbor freight can't be beat for the price. Got two, one's a spare. It's still unused after 4 years
Take the 30 year old one. It is probably much higher quality than anything you can buy for a reasonable price today. My favorite jack is probably 50 years old!
Another vote for HF, it's been to 4 challenges.
bgkast wrote: Take the 30 year old one. It is probably much higher quality than anything you can buy for a reasonable price today. My favorite jack is probably 50 years old!
My thoughts exactly. I have my grandfather's jack, probably 65 yrs old and still works like a champ. But for portability, I did buy a HF aluminum 1 1/2 ton several years ago and it still works great.
The reason I don't want the 30 year old jack is that, is that I have used it numerous times over the years, so I know what condition it's in. First off, it's ridiculously heavy. I've have used newer steel jacks that didn't weigh as much as this one. The next reason is that my dad had teeth welded back on the pressure release after some had broke off. Thats fine and dandy, but now the handle binds up when you try to lower the jack, so it's hard to lower something slowly if you need to and the handle in some positions won't even turn, so it gets aggravating using it, especially when trying to lower the drivetrain out of a Corvair, which is what I will be doing.
Yeah free is always good, but I want to buy something new.
Thanks for the input. I will probably be looking at HF.
http://www.harborfreight.com/rapid-pump-15-ton-compact-aluminum-racing-jack-68053-html-7814.html
I have the orange HF jack- steel, and 2 ton I think? It was $50 15 years ago. I topped it up with hydraulic fluid, once. Still kicks. I call that quality. That said, I'd probably get this long reach, low profile one if I can get mine to break:
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