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Types of Jacks - Which one do you prefer?


Javier M

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you forgot to add Pajero's OEM big-red-always-leaking-jack-of misery to the list...

the nasty red surprise in the trunk of every Pajero. If older than 5 years, it's 99% shot and will cause a really messy wonder for every one who wants to replace the wheel in a hurry.

Also, one cool thing I learnt about Pajeros lately: each control arm has pre-forged spaces on the bottom side where this jack comes in and locks into position. Very handy. Totally irrelevant to the state of lift on this car...

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Check your jacks, Pajero owners.

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There were five of us that day, white horses of the apocalypse. We needed to use Bronco's jack to fix a double blow-out of one of our fallen Pajero friends.

Edited by Marek_was003
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since i got the onboard air now i was considering the air jack.
anyone got any experience in how quickly these actually lift?

im imagining it might be just as easy/fast to push the floor jack under and give it a few pumps by hand.

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1 hour ago, PAJERO petelczyc luke said:

since i got the onboard air now i was considering the air jack.
anyone got any experience in how quickly these actually lift?

im imagining it might be just as easy/fast to push the floor jack under and give it a few pumps by hand.

personally, i have eventually ended up with the air jack and it have been put to the test  a couple of times its very fast in lifting the car compared to the others  stable ( i still prefer to use the wooden board)  but keep in mind its also quite heavy  

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On 2/21/2019 at 2:47 PM, Javier M said:

Today I would like to talk about that tool that you might not think about too often until you have a flat tire or a pop out and you are on the side of the road or some place in the desert. 

There are over 8 different types of Jacks! But for our purposes we will focus on the 4 main types of Jacks

  • Scissor Jacks
  • Hydraulic Jacks – these include Floor Jacks and Bottle Jacks
  • Hi-lift Jacks – also known as a High Lift or Farm Jack
  • Exhaust Jacks

Scissor Jacks

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A scissor jack is perhaps the most common type of jack you may have encountered as these jacks come with your car!

Pros: Scissor Jacks are lightweight and reasonably small, making them easy to store and use for the average consumer / car owner. These days there are even electrically operated scissor jacks available that run off your vehicles battery. This makes jacking your car up to change a tire a very simple process.

Cons: They are incredibly unstable, they are also very slow to use as you have to turn the screw quite a few times to get any meaningful height out of them. If you have a tall vehicle or you will be going off-road then you need to look somewhere else, this is not the jack for you. 

 

Floor Jacks

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With floor jacks the arm of the unit is pumped repeatedly. This pumping action sucks oil out of the jacks oil reservoir and forces it into the lift chamber, creating an increase in oil pressure and resulting in the saddle arm of the jack rising and lifting your car.

Pros: These jacks are far superior to scissor jacks as they take much more punishment, wear and tear and rarely if ever fail, even after decades of use!. They even sell them without the wheels to be used off-road (see below). 

Cons: Look at the size of that thing! not all of us have space for our off-road equipment, camping equipment and this massive thing.

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Bottle Jacks

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Another type of hydraulic jack that you may be familiar with is the bottle or whiskey jack. So named as its physical appearance resembles an old fashioned whiskey jug or bottle. The bottle jack has a single lift rod, which acts as a piston. 

Cons: One major drawback is its collapsed height is usually only half that of its extended height, this means its unsuitable for many regular vehicles. When using on a vehicle many people like to use a block of timber to help cushion the impact on the cars body of the relatively small (in comparison to a floor jack saddle) point of impact.

Pros: Is ideal for vehicles with higher clearances, such as trucks and 4wds. The range of height is much less than a garage jack as well, but once again for vehicles that already have high ground clearance this isn’t a problem. They are usual more robust, take up a lot less space in your vehicle when compared to a floor jack and can safely take more weight.

Hi-Lift Jacks (Widow makers)

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Hi-Lift Jacks, also known as High Lift and Farm Jacks were originally developed for farm work, they are made of a pair of climbing pins, that climb the height of the jack (sometimes as high as 2 meters) by a ratcheting action, achieved by a manual pumping mechanism.

Cons: The jacks are not suitable for conventional vehicles, you need to have steel bumpers and/or rock sliders to use this jack, they will sink in the sand, they are super dangerous if you don't know what you are doing (see below). 

Pros: There are no hydraulics to fail nor cranking of an undersized bottle jack to raise your vehicle. Simply plant the jack under your vehicle, place the foot of the jack under a secure anchor point on your bumper or rock sliders, and then, using the long round lever, start cranking.

 

Exhaust Jacks

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The exhaust air jack lifts a vehicle using emissions coming from the tailpipe. A hose attaches from the exhaust to a big sack placed under the car. The air coming out of the pipe fills the bag, and voilà! The car lifts off the ground.

Cons: This is meant to be used with 6 or 8 cylinder vehicles, it may not work with 4 cylinders because there is not enough engine compression to lift the vehicle. If you have a dual exhaust you can't use this. 

Pros: The sack is placed anywhere under the chassis, so no jack points are necessary. Since the gadget is basically a big balloon, there's no need to center it under a particular spot on the car. This works perfectly on sand. 

 

Im buying a Pro Eagle floor jack, with the height and suspension travel of my truck, even if a standard jack can make contact with the chasis or control arms it still won't be able to lift the tire up off the ground, I learnt this the hard way when I bought a Big Red floor jack only for it to be completely useless. Pro eagle is the gold standard, at least for off-road trucks and its even used in some Baja race trucks, its a bit pricey but I recommend it if you have space and if it suits your needs.

Edited by Harshal
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