I have picked up a spare tire for the wife’s Jeep Renegade, I have a breaker bar a socket, now I need a jack. I’m probably supposed to mount a Hi Lift to the hood but they look like they’d be rough on plastic bumpers and I just waited six weeks to get a bumper cover from Italy. I would prefer something small like a scissor jack but I tried one I had laying around and it wasn’t tall enough. Is there something out there for what I want or a good suv to pick from at the junkyard? We don’t have pick and pulls here so I can’t go in and look I need to be able to ask at the counter.
I used to keep one of these in my enclosed trailer. Stupid easy and lifts 16+ inches. Slide it under the car and mash the button. No more laying on the ground trying to crank the thing up. Might be more than you want to spend though.
Electric Jack
Having been in a similar position before, I hit a self serve yard and found a similarly sized vehicle and bought the scissor jack from it (Civic in my case and I think I pulled one from a Cavalier. Been a few years).
That electric one looks pretty handy though.
That being said....the best jack, is pepper jack! 
My wife’s RDX had a scissor jack with quite a high reach/lift.
Used jack
How high are the jack points, and how high do you need to lift? Will a bottle jack work?
https://www.harborfreight.com/4-ton-hydraulic-heavy-duty-bottle-jack-69472.html
In reply to tomtomgt356 :
The last bottle jack I had leaked all it’s oil out in my toolbox so I had a box full of oil to go with my flat.
In reply to Toyman01 :
The electric appeals to my laziness, that may be the winner.
mtn
MegaDork
9/30/19 12:20 p.m.
Obligatory "scissor jacks are dangerous" post. Obviously I expect everyone here to know it, but I'll recount the two recent "close-to-home" anecdotes I have:
1: My MIL's cousin was killed when he was working under the car with one and it failed. Obviously he should have been using jackstands, but the point is that scissor jacks fail
2: This past weekend, my best friend got a flat on the way to work. He jacked his car up, with the spare underneath the car as an emergency jack stand in case it fell. It DID fail, and it fell on his spare and popped it. Probably prevented more damage though by doing that.
In reply to mtn :
Scissor jacks are only to be used to raise one corner barely high enough to change the flat tire.
Using them on soft surfaces or without blocking the undriven wheels is just asking for trouble.
Ultimately its all about paying attention to how the tools work and how they don't.
I’ve never had a problem with a scissor jack used properly and get a flat I have to change about once decades so I’m ok risking it. The wife would just call AAA as long as the tire is in there.
My S-I-L bought a Dodge Dart for her kid (w/o consulting me) that did not come with the spare tire option. I got onto www.car-part.com and searched locally for a junkyard that had a spare tire listed. I then called them and asked for the entire kit (tire, jack, tools, styrofoam trunk tray.) I think I paid $75 for it and pick it up right at the yards front counter.
This got me the real factory parts that fit in the real factory location.
In reply to John Welsh :
I’ve tried finding a spare tire kit or a used wheel off a Renegade locally and somehow not a single one has made its way to a junkyard. Sometimes AAA has a jack but with the Fiat I never bothered calling them since there really wasn’t a good way to keep a tire in one.
In reply to mtn :
That's pretty bizarre. I've never had one fail when changing a tire.
I also use them around the shop all the time to move things. Got a engine that won't quite line up and only have one set of hands? A scissor jack is just the thing to shove things over a little. Got a caved in panel or fender you need to push back out? Scissor jack. Need to hold up a axle while removing a spring shackle? Scissor Jack. The small ones will fit in tiny spaces and move whatever they are pushing against. My favorite one is a aluminum one that Curmudgeon left in my shop when he moved out. Weighs about 4 pounds. I think it came out of a Porsche.
mtn
MegaDork
9/30/19 3:27 p.m.
Toyman01 said:
In reply to mtn :
That's pretty bizarre. I've never had one fail when changing a tire.
Yeah, it is. My MIL's cousin who was killed, that was negligence on his part - he should never have been using only a scissor jack (or any jack) without a jackstand while being under it; my friends sounded like it failed though - he's a pretty sharp guy and was around mechanics growing up, he knows how to change a tire. I think it was a freak occurence, or else somehow the pavement he was on wasn't as solid as he thought, but in any case I'm not trying to say don't use them - I keep have a stash of extras just in case - just be smart about it. Like any tool, they need to be respected for their abilities and their limits.
Wally said:
In reply to John Welsh :
I’ve tried finding a spare tire kit or a used wheel off a Renegade locally and somehow not a single one has made its way to a junkyard. Sometimes AAA has a jack but with the Fiat I never bothered calling them since there really wasn’t a good way to keep a tire in one.
I have found that JYs don't list the small stuff on the web like car-part.com and a spare tire could be considered small and trivial since they probably don't move very many of them. My work around for something like a trunk part is to search for a yard with a rear bumper or rear hatch. This means they have a car that did not have a rear hit. Then, when I find the yard with the bumper, I call them and ask if that car has a spare tire, giving them the stock number of the car which has the bumper. This then requires that they call me back after they send a guy out back to the yard to check.
One yard even took down my number and then had the yard worker send me text photos right from the yard to see condition and quality.
In reply to John Welsh :
I stopped in at five area yards and came up with nothing. I’m assuming these jeeps are indestructible.
