Need to buy a trolly jack

Strider590

red_eye wrote: »

i'm curious why a bottle jack as well?
good choice on the brands but you get a free gift with sealey:p

Because they're cheap and useful in a tight space.

maxheadroom

I bought a £10 cheapy from lidl and the matching axle stands for £5 when i was a student, did the job ok, and kept me going for about 5 years but developed a leak on the seals so slowly descends.

So I upgraded to a Sealey 3003CXQ Rocket lift on a deal for about £80

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SEALEY-3003CXQ-ROCKET-LIFT-TROLLEY-JACK-3-TONNE-/260742939076?pt=UK_Lifting_Moving_Equipment&hash=item3cb57d81c4

The only problem it weighs a ton, which living in a terrace and fixing cars in the road is a pain. So bought another trolley jack the Halfords Advanced 2.25 Ton 4x4 trolley jack on one of their regular offers when it becomes half price (and as store was reopening aftre refurb an extra 10% off). This is a compromise but is lighter to lug about 18kg, has a good lift range but has a seperate descend valve and has a narrow wheel base so can be prone to toppling to the side if there is a slope.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_254057_langId_-1_categoryId_255207

This appears to be the same as the halfords one with a different brand (about the same price as the trade card price)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Liftmaster-2-25-Ton-High-Lift-Long-Reach-4x4-SUV-Trolley-Jack-/170916892946?pt=UK_Lifting_Moving_Equipment&hash=item27cb70d112

This looks a good deal if you need the axle stands as well

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3010CX-3-Ton-Trolley-Jack-FREE-Axle-Stands-VS1003-Sealey-GO-NEXTDAY-JUST-3-99-/190610219913?pt=UK_Lifting_Moving_Equipment&hash=item2c61412389

Guess this may be a current Sealey deal

forgotmyname

I have a similar one to the top one in the picture. It will lift a lot higher
than the smaller jack and its stable.

Buy a decent brand and it will last. Mines about 18 years old...
And i would trust it more than a brand new smaller jack.

Well worth the money.

mcjordi

i always used axle stands aswell.. i value my life lol

colino

If you are an occasional user,I see absolutely no point in you using a pro model, at realistic prices for such infrequent use. Crack on and buy a 1.5-2 tonne (these are safe lifting loads, the factor of safety is much higher) sub £20 model. Supplemented when you need them with decent axle stands you will have no problems.
A decent semi-pro, low entry, 3 tonne trolley jack will set you back around £120. Then you will curse its considerable bulk and the floorspace it takes up the rest of the 99.9% of the time you are not using it and it is quietly rusting away in your garage.

pendulum

Sounds like you're going to be an occasional DIYer, so there's no real point getting a pro jack, unless you want one.

I nearly bought a pro because I wanted a jack that could lift the car high enough to put it on the highest setting of my axle stands for an exhaust change. But a jack that would do that would've cost a lot. Seemed to me I was paying a lot of money for a few extra cm's lift. In the end I bought two cheapie jacks and I use the "block trick". You could lift a car a mile in the air with just two cheap jacks if you have enough blocks It's time consuming but considering I very rarely require the car to be at maximum height, it's fine.

skivenov

TrickyWicky wrote: »

You want: The top / big jack.
You don't want: The lower smaller jack. These are the type you find in Halfords for £20 - £25.

Different tools for different jobs in my opinion. My big jack's a 3 tonne sealey (£70 off a sealey dealer on ebay). Spot on for getting enough height for getting under cars (together with axle stands of course). Fine for working on the big van, but for doing minor jobs like brakes on smaller vehicles or ones with small, tucked away, jacking points, it's size and weight makes it a pain in the !!!!.

My old little jack died, and I needed one there and then, so I bought one of the yellow Halfords ones about a year ago. I use it a fair bit (not all day every day) and it's been fine.

For a lot of servicing jobs, you'd be as well to get a pair of drive up ramps so long as your front bumper is high up enough to clear them.

TrickyWicky

skivenov wrote: »

For a lot of servicing jobs, you'd be as well to get a pair of drive up ramps so long as your front bumper is high up enough to clear them.

Thats where I disagree with you having been there and done that. I had a pair of drive up ramps and IMO they're dangerous unless you can fix them to the ground.

The slip forward with incredible ease meaning that you can not only do damage to your car but also the ramps and anything else in the immediate area. If you don't want them to slip you have to use an incredible amount of accelerator to get up them and then (as I've done) it's very easy to go over the front (despite the stopper) and end up with the ramps under the sills. I don't understand the ramps that have ladder style rungs, they should have a smooth plated ramp to drive up and a runged top to stop you slipping. Additionally you can't use ramps with an automatic as you don't have any clutch control - just the gas and brake whicih rely on superfast foot switching.

Again as I posted earlier the cheap jacks are ok for lifting but I would never trust them to hold any weight for a prolonged period at all. My neighbour did this and broke my jack (consequently tried it on with my big one too but I caught him at it and now he's not allowed to use it ). If the op wants to hold an engine with a jack then they really need blocks underneath it if there is no axle stand space. Even wooden planks cut into short lengths will do the trick.

Just remember to put a long one in under the whole sump to protect it otherwise you may end up with a whole in it.

Tobster86

Have a small trolley jack (virtually identical to lower one in Tricky Wicky's photo).

It was supposed to be reduced from £20 to £12 in Lidl, but scanned through at £6!

I've had it for four years, it's had a lot of use and been fine. I have a large Clarke strong-arm trolley jack that I can rarely be bothered to get out because this cheap one is smaller and more convenient. It also seems to have a better action (more lift and less required effort per lever actuation). The Clarke one comes out when the cheap one won't lift high enough.

I wouldn't trust my life with it, but you shouldn't trust your life with ANY jack.

Joe_Horner

Been happily using a cheap (£19.95) 2 tonne one for the past 5 years or so on ours. There's no problem with them for what most people might want to do as home maintenance and they do have huge advantages in terms of weight and small size.

Mine's been used for everything from brakes to engine changes and never been a problem except for a couple of times where its maximum lift wasn't quite enough. A decent block of wood soon sorts that though. I've also left cars supported one end on it for over 2 weeks at a time (obviously not working under them) without a problem. The workshop I use also has 3 or 4 fully pro ones but the only time they've been needed is when I've wanted to jack two things at once.

Honestly, for the avarage occasional use, you're more likely to have seals fail from inactivity (no machines like sitting idle!) on a pro jack than have them fail from use on one of the cheapos and, if they do, you just buy another jack for cheaper than getting the good one resealed.

You could go through 5 or more of the cheapies for the price of a better model, which you'll never use to its capacity. Even if they only last 5 years each that's 25 years to break even!

It does surprise me how, on a moneysaving site, so much advice is aimed towards "over buying" for an OP's stated requirements!