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Floor Jacks bc obviously mine dies with car in air.

EivlEvo

Active member
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Well lads.

Floor jacks. I'll be honest. I've been using one of the HF 2 ton low profile steel jacks for about 4-5 years and it's been great. I believe I got one of the earlier models as I've heard a lot about QC on these. But it finally just blew a seal out with one of my cars high enough in the air that my little trolley jack can't get to it safely lol.

I'm debating trying to replace the seal on it, but I've heard they're not available, or that it's the price of the jack to service (no idea why it would be $150 to replace a blown seal but...) so I'm considering buying a "real" jack.

Wondering what ya'll use.

Everyone seems to get jazzed about Hein Werner, but I need something lower profile than that. The Arcan XL2T and the Sunex 6602LP look pretty much identical, and identical to the HF jack that I have.

Give me something to work with here.
 
I have the HF low profile 3 ton and the Arcan 3-ton that Costco sells and I've never had a problem with either. I prefer the Arcan because it's 12 pounds lighter than the HF jack and the build quality is a little nicer.
 
Get a used Snap-On floor jack. Search Craigslist and Steal-Bay.

My Snap-On jack is 25 years old and works perfectly with almost daily use.
 
I have the HF low profile 3 ton and the Arcan 3-ton that Costco sells and I've never had a problem with either. I prefer the Arcan because it's 12 pounds lighter than the HF jack and the build quality is a little nicer.

I just spent too much time reading about o rings and u cups and what not. I really really enjoyed my HF jack. I suppose if I'm able to get 5 years out of one @ ~$150 I'm not far off of the price of a quality unit though.

Seems that the Arcan is in the same category as it...
 
Oh man... researching jacks can make your head spin. I had a "michelin" floor jack that I bought from Sams Club for a while. When that crapped out and I learned you couldn't rebuild it I researched intensely for a couple weeks trying to decide what to replace it with. I ended up going with this American Forge and Foundry 2 ton model.

Honestly, it's worked flawlessly, and I like the low pickup... but the front two wheels are slightly uneven. This is after I returned the first one for the same reason. It's beefy and seems well-built... and it's supposedly easily rebuilt, but overall I'm not super impressed after the money I spent.

Arcan seems to make decent jacks for the money. Costco sells a 3 ton aluminum jack for 100 bucks that seems like a good buy. If I had it to do over, that's probably what I'd get.
 
Anyone have a recommendation for something that can be reasonably lifted into the back of a 240? I have a HF bottle jack right now which serves well, but doesn't go as low or as high as I would like to do everything.

Previously was using a Amazon 2 ton but the seal blew and it stopped lifting after a year or so.
 
I usually carry my little trolley jack. No idea what brand it is. I think I bought it from autozone or some such nonsense with a shift knob that lit up or some other typically 18yo sport compact car era purchase. It's pretty solid. Needs an oil change tho.

If I were to do it again or suggest something else (especially after reading a ton of jack info) I'd go with a Pro-Lift (at least I think) which is a division of ShinnFu America and get one with a center handle on it.

Anyone have a recommendation for something that can be reasonably lifted into the back of a 240? I have a HF bottle jack right now which serves well, but doesn't go as low or as high as I would like to do everything.

Previously was using a Amazon 2 ton but the seal blew and it stopped lifting after a year or so.

So I had been pretty sold on the arcan 2 ton low profile yadda yadda. But on garageforums there are a couple of hydraulics guys, and 2 who happen to be olde timey hydraulic jack repair people. They remarked about how this piston is made by this and that and whatnot. Basically, the Arcan is the same as the HF models with a different front wheel setup.

Their biggest issue with jacks has to do with how the o rings are setup. Again... my head is spinning. But, in short, if the o ring isn't braced somehow... it'll eventually get extruded out of the piston (like my HF one presumably did). The drawback with these "lower end" models is that there's no rebuild kit available. So even at $100 - $200, they're suggesting that to be able to effectively rebuild the system without access to the proper seals, you're talking the price of the jack new.

This has led me to consider some of these higher end models. Specifically the AC Hydraulics stuff. But at ~$600 that's twice the price of my bloody wagon :rofl: Still though, the ability to service, rebuild, buy accessories maaaaaay make it worth it. Pelican sells them, and another tire shop I just found. The tire guys have offered me a coupon, but each of them are offering a 3 week shipping timeline because the jacks are from Denmark.

So now I'm sitting here debating "investing" in a $600 jack to be the end all be all, and last week I was debating sourcing a junkyard T5 driveshaft, or just buying some fancy new aluminum one.

Oh man... researching jacks can make your head spin. I had a "michelin" floor jack that I bought from Sams Club for a while. When that crapped out and I learned you couldn't rebuild it I researched intensely for a couple weeks trying to decide what to replace it with. I ended up going with this American Forge and Foundry 2 ton model.

Honestly, it's worked flawlessly, and I like the low pickup... but the front two wheels are slightly uneven. This is after I returned the first one for the same reason. It's beefy and seems well-built... and it's supposedly easily rebuilt, but overall I'm not super impressed after the money I spent.

Arcan seems to make decent jacks for the money. Costco sells a 3 ton aluminum jack for 100 bucks that seems like a good buy. If I had it to do over, that's probably what I'd get.
 
I was just at VIR to watch the Pirelli World Challenge, the amount of big-name race teams with harbor freight jacks may (or may not) surprise you.

I'm not surprised at all. I think those jacks are great. I quite liked mine. But they're looking to buy something that goes up and down reliably in the paddock for a season, and if it doesn't they have 6 other options. I'm looking for something to do it for 30 years.
 
I'm not surprised at all. I think those jacks are great. I quite liked mine. But they're looking to buy something that goes up and down reliably in the paddock for a season, and if it doesn't they have 6 other options. I'm looking for something to do it for 30 years.

At that point my question would be, "how many Harbor Freight jacks will I go through in 30 years"? If you get them on sale for <100 you only need to average 5 years per HF jack. :oogle:
 
At that point my question would be, "how many Harbor Freight jacks will I go through in 30 years"? If you get them on sale for <100 you only need to average 5 years per HF jack. :oogle:

Hahaha. I know, I've been doing the math. The flaw in that plan is that you'd expect HF to start cheaping out more and more (think of Sears or, well... really any consumer product). So what happens when I play that game and then in round three all the jacks are made out of that funny smelling plastic?

I'll probably die. Hell... I might be dying from that funny smell anyway!
 
Meh, just buy a nice one and be done with it. Personally I'm happy with my $60 HFT "racing" floorjack. (The cheaper aluminum one.)
 
Those HF aluminum jacks (as I mentioned) are re-branded Arcan's with a different front wheel. A solid choice IMO.

After using my HF low profile long reach for 4-5 years... I quite enjoyed it. Only complaint being that it required finesse to lower a vehicle (and of course the seal extruding itself just now).

Anyhow... I went ahead and ordered the gee dam AC Hydraulic DK13HLQ. Pretty low. SUPER long. Can jack up like... 32" or something. Great for center lifting points on low cars which is something I see in my future. Rebuildable, and should just last forever. If it doesn't. I'll post some other rant.

I'll advise on it once it arrives from Europe in (3?) weeks.
 
Those HF aluminum jacks (as I mentioned) are re-branded Arcan's with a different front wheel. A solid choice IMO.

After using my HF low profile long reach for 4-5 years... I quite enjoyed it. Only complaint being that it required finesse to lower a vehicle (and of course the seal extruding itself just now).

Anyhow... I went ahead and ordered the gee dam AC Hydraulic DK13HLQ. Pretty low. SUPER long. Can jack up like... 32" or something. Great for center lifting points on low cars which is something I see in my future. Rebuildable, and should just last forever. If it doesn't. I'll post some other rant.

I'll advise on it once it arrives from Europe in (3?) weeks.

Dang son.
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