There have been a number of discussion threads on jacks. All of these with the exception of some of the higher priced US made ones...are outsourced to either Taiwan or China. There is very little difference between the Craftsman, Harbor Freight, Costco, or others you see advertised in auto catalogues. I found the Costco jacks in use at Radial Tire...which is a high volume industrial tire center. I asked about how well the Costco jacks stood up under daily use...and was told that they had them for over a year of daily use and they performed flawlessly. That was a good enough endorsement for me on the Costco unit. That same performance standard doesn't apply to all these imports....there have been some that have consistently failed...in some cases the quality of the alloy in the lifting arm was deficient and broke or bent, in other cases the hydraulic rams failed. Regardless of which you buy, they are nothing more than a means to get the car up high enough to put jack stands under it.

The US made ones like AC, although they cost twice as much....are much safer.

 

I have been shopping on jacks the last few weeks. The one picture is exactly the same as the Torin racejack at Costco. I looked into the Blue Point by SnapOn tools. I called SnapOn and spoke to a technician who says it is indeed also Made In China. Numerous aluminum jacks looks the same and are all Chinese manufactured. I suspect they are all from similar plants and thus cheap in price. I don't think you can figure where they come from and what quality they are. I believe they are from similar suppliers in China and are painted to spec colors for different brands.

 

I've had the cast aluminum on these cheap jacks break on me and the whole jack fell to pieces in a nanosecond. Not fun....or safe when you are mid jack. Don't ever use one on an uneven surface...like a dirt padock area. Trust me, it ain't pretty. There are some things in life you just shouldn't skimp on, toilet paper and light weight jacks are two of them...

BTW the higher quality ones are billet and not cast....and they flew more without breaking. They also use higher quality fasteners and pumps/seals.

 

What billet jack do you recommend? What should I guy? I can return my Costco one.

 

I've been using HF aluminum jack for years,never had a problem,you can also pay additional $14 for lifetime warranty.BTW,they have a Christmas sale on that jack for $69 now ,lol

 

i've destroyed 2-3 of those blue jacks in the last 24 months. they work ok at first, but have fallen apart in a bunch of different ways, from wheels falling off to the hydro part failing, to the whole thing splitting apart and dying. i use them alot though since i go through alot of tires. i had to find some type of use for them after awhile.... hydro ebrake setup in my drift car

 

The red jack from Griot's garage is excellent. It goes very low, and
has a slow-drop feature so you don't have to worry about crashing
the car down on your jack stands or on your disks if you make a
mistake.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?SKUupsell=77739

It even has a tray for lug nuts.

It's heavy, and not for driving around in your car,
but perfect for the garage. Mine's been perfect for
7 years, and I have left a car jacked up for two
days with just the jack and it didn't drop at all.
Joe

 

I have a craftsman aluminum jack similar to that, got it on sale, its really good. just use jack stands if u intend on working under the car.

 

I had one of those harbor freight units. The key is to constantly check every bolt for tightness, or put red locktight on everything. The wheels failed on mine, and put a nice gouge in the concrete floor. Now every jack I hace is much heavier duty, but then you can't get them under the car without pulling the car up onto blocks.

Mike

 

Both Compac and AC have heavy duty jacks that are very low profile. In fact, my Compac ones are much lower than the Alloy ones. The are top quality made in Denmark.

How do you manage to put the car on stands anyway? It's too much hassel, I usually grab two jacks, one on each side and then just throw a block of wood under the tyres in case it falls. But with two decent jacks, it can't fall anyway.

 

I've got two of 'em and they're great!

 

best floor jack i've seen

http://brunnhoelzl.com/LOWPROFILEJACKS.htm


also most expensive

 

Griots usually just re-brands other makes. Does anyone know what make is this jack? I looks really nice. Griots says it is made in Spain. I can't find a similar one anywhere. Strange that if it is this good, it is not something that a car jack company would make and mass produce on their own.

 

All I can say is Blue Point Aluminum Racing Jack!!!! Cheap products have cheap results.

 

Worth every penny!
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....e&dir=catalog\