floor jacks

My floor jack broke.

I hated it anyway. I could probably fix it, but I don't really want to.

It's an older 3 ton Craftsmen. Over the years, the handle has ceased to stop you from turning, leading you to sort of guess where tight and loose are. It leaks and drops the load slowly, the two piece handle is one short piece now that sometimes falls out of the jack, and yesterday the hunk of iron that the handle connects to started to rotate back and forth when you pumped the handle rather than actually pumping the hydraulic bits.

I'd really prefer to stay away from Chinese and other iffy off-shore stuff.

I don't really care how heavy it is

I like a wide footprint

Used is A-ok, even if it means that I have to buy a cheap seal kit to get it back and fresh

What's the GRM hot ticket?

I may or may not take heat for saying Harbor Freight, but I love my 3 ton low profile HF floor jack. Its cheap, seems just as well or better made than my craftsman, I've had it for over a year already and used it a bunch. Even used it in the dead of winter in 15 degree weather with no issues. Excellent for getting under the ground effects of a lowered car. Its got wide wheels, its a large jack, very stable, and has a wide lifting pad. It also gets great reviews from other buyers on HF website...did I mention its way cheaper than the competition? As always, use jack stands to hold the car, jack only to lift.

The AL one from HF is actually a pretty good unit. My steel one from there is a pile of junk.

Again, I'd rather not do the offshore stuff. My Craftsmen was a gift that I didn't pick out when I was in high school, and I am not a fan of them at all.

Even though it is offshore, if you can't find a good used jack from a garage or shop i'd get a HF floor jack. It's at least as good as anything that craftsman or the big box warehouse stores is selling right now. I've got the high rise low profile and it's done the job for the past three years.

Going to sound like a broken record here. HF for the win! Their aluminum racing jack is awesome too.

Hein-Werner - Made in the USA:

http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/hein-werner-automotive-hw93642-P15106.aspx

^^^^^holy ish its $340

TGMF wrote: ^^^^^holy ish its $340

And this is surprising... why?

I have an AC Jacks DK20. It is from offshore, but Denmark is probably not what you were picturing when you say that. I have had it for about 15 years of hard use and it still works perfectly every time, and I have never done a thing to it. Very sturdy and heavy and showing no signs of wearing out.

Www.acjacks.com

In reply to TGMF:

I'd bet that could survive a decade or more of professional use. If that's true that's not a bad price at all.

Ian F wrote:

TGMF wrote: ^^^^^holy ish its $340

And this is surprising... why?

apparently I'm even cheaper than I thought. I bought my HF jack for 79 bucks with a coupon. I expect name brand tools to be twice the price or so, but over 4 times more?

DK20 or HW93642.

Now to find the pennies. $400 seems to be the street price. That's a lot, but I'll look around a bit.

That Hein-Werner could more than likely be handed down to Tuna's kids and grandkids, it should easily last decades in home shop use. $349 for that jack is a bargain. My local NAPA sells pro shop tools out of their jobber catalog, their prices aren't bad either. But if you are just jacking up the family car to do a brake job or change a tire every now and again, I think the HF jacks are a good deal

NINJA EDIT: Don't you hate when folks spell brake "break" when they mean automobile brakes?

Inexpensive, light, rugged. Pick any two.

This one is light and rugged: Pimpy Floor Jack

Going to be hard to find a domestic made anything, including a floor jack.

For $110, I think it would be hard to go wrong with this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/4-ton-Steel-Heavy-Duty-Floor-Jack-with-Rapid-Pump-68056.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiMzEyMDc5NTkiLCJza3UiOiI2ODA1NiIsImlzIjoiMTA5Ljk5IiwicHJvZHVjdF9p%0D%0AZCI6IjgwNTAifQ%3D%3D%0D%0A

I have this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/floor-jacks/2-ton-low-profilelong-reach-steel-heavy-duty-floor-jack-with-rapid-pump-60678.html

and it is great. Fits under an Elise (RIP). Raises way high. Kinda heavy. I also have one of the aluminum racing jacks, and that's a good one too. I did have to replace the seals after 5+ years of use.

Full disclosure: I work for an independent NAPA chain.

NAPA sells a 791-6420 3.5 ton shop jack that is just the business. I have sold over 50 of them in the last year, and not one of them has had an issue, all in shop environments including 5 tire shops. They are on sale for $199 nationwide. Starting tomorrow, they will have a "Hero" version (PN HERO-6420) that is for the Intrepid Fallen Hero Fund fundraiser. They are desert tan and $10 goes directly to IFHF.

I don't know where they are made, but they have a 2-year, no questions warranty even in commercial shops and are extremely well made. There is one in my garage next to two HF aluminum jacks.

I get that you want a Pimp floor jack, but I'll say HF one more time. I've got one of the old orange ones, 3 ton I think, it's been abused for about 12 years now, and has never had an issue. I gave less than $50 for with a coupon way back when. I'm sure there are better floor jacks, but for what I use it for, I'm not sure there's one that's worth 8x what I paid for mine.

Dr. Hess wrote: Going to be hard to find a domestic made anything, including a floor jack. For $110, I think it would be hard to go wrong with this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/4-ton-Steel-Heavy-Duty-Floor-Jack-with-Rapid-Pump-68056.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiMzEyMDc5NTkiLCJza3UiOiI2ODA1NiIsImlzIjoiMTA5Ljk5IiwicHJvZHVjdF9p%0D%0AZCI6IjgwNTAifQ%3D%3D%0D%0A I have this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/floor-jacks/2-ton-low-profilelong-reach-steel-heavy-duty-floor-jack-with-rapid-pump-60678.html and it is great. Fits under an Elise (RIP). Raises way high. Kinda heavy. I also have one of the aluminum racing jacks, and that's a good one too. I did have to replace the seals after 5+ years of use.

There's plenty of USA made floor jacks out there. The aforementioned H-W, OTC, Lincoln are just three of many that make them here. Others are Arcan, US Jack and even a company called Shinn Fu. In fact there are tons of products still made here if people would just take 5 minutes to look. I'm not sure what Tuna's motivation is, but some of us want to buy American because we don't want to end up like China was 30 years ago, and that's exactly the direction we are headed.

TGMF wrote: ^^^^^holy ish its $340

Check out the prices on Walker jacks.

In reply to spitfirebill:

Do they still make them?

bravenrace wrote: In reply to spitfirebill: Do they still make them?

Just checked. No they aren't. You would have to buy a used one and rebuild it (if it needed it). Walkers are the ones they all weak kneed about over at Garage Journal. I remember them from the shop at the meat packing plant my father worked at when I was a youngster.

In reply to spitfirebill:

They were well built, and you can still get rebuild kits for them. I'm not sure they are better than other professional quality jacks, but definitely a solid jack, and a rebuilt unit would still be better than most jacks sold now.

I like my super low-super high HF jack http://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-low-profilelong-reach-steel-heavy-duty-floor-jack-with-rapid-pump-60678.html Doesn't get used a lot since I bought my lift, but I used it a lot in the first 90 days just in case it were to have an issue.

Javelin wrote: Full disclosure: I work for an independent NAPA chain. NAPA sells a 791-6420 3.5 ton shop jack that is just the business. I have sold over 50 of them in the last year, and not one of them has had an issue, all in shop environments including 5 tire shops. They are on sale for $199 nationwide. Starting tomorrow, they will have a "Hero" version (PN HERO-6420) that is for the Intrepid Fallen Hero Fund fundraiser. They are desert tan and $10 goes directly to IFHF. I don't know where they are made, but they have a 2-year, no questions warranty even in commercial shops and are extremely well made. There is one in my garage next to two HF aluminum jacks.

Dang, those suckers are heavy. I have to pick up my jack too often to have one that weighs 100 lbs.

I have a 3 ton HF jack that weighs quite a bit less and has worked fine for me for over ten years. It isn't a very satisfying piece of equipment, though. The release mechanism is not precise and its hard to control the drop on a vehicle.