Floor jack advice

[domer]

I know it's a long shot but a wheel on my floor jack broke off and I'd like to replace the busted wheel.  Only problem is that the identification label peeled off sometime ago and I don't know the tonnage or the proper wheel replacement. If I can't repair it, then I'm looking for recommendations on a good floor jack to lift my 59 and 94 caddy. I prefer one with a long/extended handle. 

[TJ Hopland]

Ebay and Amazon come up with several hits searching floor jack caster.      If you like that one I would just stick with it.   Lots of the cheap jacks these days can be pretty hit and miss quality wise especially when it comes to how well you can control them when lowering.    There is also the safety question. 

I currently have 2 jacks that size and both seem to be decent.   One I think I got at Sears about 20 years ago but I don't think it was actually a Sears brand.   The other I really don't remember much about when or why I bought it.  Before that I had a few others that even 25 years ago were junk.   About 10 years ago I got tired of the 1" pump stroke you got working under big cars and wanted to make sure I had some headroom so I went out and bought this :
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200318917_200318917
I don't remember what I paid I don't think it was that much but maybe.   Its been a decent jack.  The air part doesn't like to work when its below freezing but when its warm its nice to sit back and squeeze the trigger rather than being bent over pumping.

Check Craigs list,  jacks are pretty common on there and you can usually find something older that was decent quality that had light use.

[David Greenburg]

I recently decided to replace my ancient Sears floor jack and did quite a bit of research.  I wound up with the Alcan 3 tons. It's available various places, although I got it from Costco, which had free shipping.  I'm very happy with it.  It's plenty hefty,  but much easier to move and position than my old jack, and easy to control.

[67_Eldo]

That looks exactly like a family of jacks sold at Harbor Freight. Here's a link to their 2.5-ton model:

https://www.harborfreight.com/25-ton-aluminum-racing-floor-jack-with-rapid-pump-62309.html

Maybe they have jack parts at HF as well?

I've been looking for a floor jack that I can haul, full time, in my car. These jacks look nice but I'd rather have one that weighed less than 50 pounds.

[TJ Hopland]

It can be so hard to identify jacks by a photo these days.   Harbor Freight got threatened a few years ago because they were selling what looked like an exact copy of a Snap On or similar high end brand jack.    I'm sure you can find the story online, lots of people covered it.   It wasn't slightly similar, especially looking at photos they looked identical.   

"Portable" is an interesting question.    The typical quality(ish) 3 ton (ish) steel floor jack tends to be pushing 100 lbs.   Aluminum doubles the price at least and only cuts the weight maybe in half so you are still talking 50 lbs which I agree can be a lot to lift in and out of a trunk.

For portable in my older cars I have either got a scissors style jack from a junkyard from a newer truck or found the 80's jacks that looked like the 70's bumper jacks but laid horizontal and had an arm that lifted on the frame.   Both styles sometimes need a modified cradle since they were often designed to fit special spots on their original cars but I have found these seem to work better on the side of the road than most other options.    A floor jack isn't very good in sand or grass.   Bottle jacks are not good on uneven surfaces.   Those horizontal jacks are nice and stable but hard to find these days in good shape.   The last scissors one I got out of an F350 truck I think.  It was a pretty solid piece.  I figure if it could handle a heavy truck like that a Caddy should be alright.   

[David Greenburg]

The  Alcan is a hybrid; some aluminum, certainly easier to lift if you have to.  But I agree for roadside any kind of floor jack is likely useless. It never occurred to me that those universal heavy duty scissors jacks aren't still available.

[TJ Hopland]

The universal scissors jacks I have seen new don't appear especially strong and don't have the long handles that the OE ones seem to have which can make them difficult to use since on old cars you usually have to slide them fairly deep to get under an axle or something like that vs on new cars where you are on the edge of the unibody. 

[SixDucks]

My advice is to buy the best floor jack that can be found.  Your life may depend on it. Safety first.

Terry

[domer]

So a 3 Ton jack or higher is the way to go when lifting these ol Caddies of ours?

[SixDucks]

A floor jack capable of a 3 ton capacity is adequate, but high capacity does not always mean quality or reliability.  As an example is the wheel failed while your jack was at nearly full lift, the results could be catastrophic. 

[David Greenburg]

For years I got away with a 2 ton jack lifting a '59, figuring there was always more than 1000 lbs on the ground even when lifting the front end.  But I (and family) are much more comfortable w/ 3 ton. I agree quality is important. If it let's go, it won't matter if it's rated for 10 tons.

[67_Eldo]

A scissors jack does seem to be the best portable compromise, but I haven't found one that seems study enough yet.

Also, I was hoping to find an electric (12V) one, or carry a 12V impact wrench to spin it. I'm getting lazy! :-)

I've had lots of scissors jacks with my British and Japanese cars and they've never inspired confidence. But a sturdy one would fill the bill.

I'd actually be tempted to stick with the bumper jack (for emergencies), but the jack "hook" on my left-front corner is gone, so the bumper jack is useless for 1/4 of the car (as it is now).

[5390john]

I have a Lincoln Walker 1 1/2 ton floor jack I bought about 25 years ago. Highly recommended if you can find one. Damn near nuthin it can't handle. Really heavy too, which is a good thing cuz it makes it more stable. Buy one if you can find one.
I would recommend spending the money and get a Snap On. Best of the best and worth it.
John Adams

[bcroe]

Buy a pair of replacement casters.  And DON'T depend exclusively on the jack; I
always slide some platforms (from a ramp set) under the frame, maybe with
some 4 x 4s on top, and set the car down on them.  Bruce Roe

[jdemerson]

Question for those who are experienced in this area:

What are pros and cons of using a heavy scissors jack (say from a full-sized Ford truck) with a broad base, and jacking one corner at a time? Then use a 2.5 or 3 ton jack stand and go to the other corner, and insert another jack stand. I would never crawl under a car that was not very securely supported by strong jack stands or the equivalent.

I know this is not a convenient as the floor jack.  But I can take the scissors jack with me anywhere. Weight isn't an issue. I have been doing it this way for many years with another lighter car, and haven't found it too inconvenient. But are there risks involved?

John Emerson
1952 Cadillac Sedan 6219X

[TJ Hopland]

I have never been comfortable getting more than one end of a car up on stands at a time.   An advantage a scissors has like a bottle jack is it goes straight up.   Floor jacks don't,  either they need to roll or the car does.  Most cases the jack will roll but for that to work you need a smooth hard clean surface.  I have been jacking a car up and had a small rock under the jack wheel prevent the jack from rolling so the car starts to move which could be a problem if one end is already on stands.   The other thing that can happen if the car and jack both resist moving is the jack's pad could slip off the location you placed it which may or may not be a problem. 

The few times I have had all 4 up I have raised it in stages and used very oversized stands just to get the widest base possible.    Its a lot easier to do in the rear with a typical axle because you can jack from the center and have plenty of room at the ends to place stands which happen to fit nicely on the round axle tubes.    Front can be much more difficult.   You don't always have a good central spot you can jack and finding an ideal spot for the stands can sometimes be easier said than done.   

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has experienced the small rock problem.   You could have the flattest smoothest cleanest concrete floor ever and somehow the one little piece of debris in the whole shop finds its way under the hard wheel of what ever it is you are trying to move.   It could be your jack,  it could be something tall and heavy on a dolly that does a face plant causing all sorts of issues.

[bcroe]

Buy a pair of replacement casters.  And DON'T depend exclusively on the jack; I
always slide some platforms (from a ramp set) under the frame, maybe with
some 4 x 4s on top, and set the car down on them.  Bruce Roe

[Jeff Rosansky CLC #28373]

Yep, Jacks scare the crap out of me. Call me chicken but I have even been known to use a broom handle to slide the jackstands in/out of place.

[67_Eldo]

Last night I bought a 3-ton aluminum Harbor Freight jack. It can make the front of my Eldorado go up and down, so I guess it is OK. :-)

This isn't to carry in the car, though. It is still too big and heavy. It's just that my 40-year-old $35 trolley jack finally died.

I agree with those who use jack stands. A long time ago, when I was young and spry, I had a jack fail on me while I was working on my Austin Mini Cooper. I was able to slide out of the way in the nick of time, but it scared me for life.

Another jack incident with my very rusty 1977 Toyota Celica allowed me to get completely away from the car as the rotted carcass slowly sagged around the scissors jack. :-)

Speaking of moving stuff around under a car with a stick, if you have an iPhone and a Apple Watch, you can push the phone around under the car and operate the shutter remotely with the Watch.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

The only time I will use a scissors jack is to change the tyre on the side of the road in a car that was supplied with the scissors jack for that purpose.

I use the Bumper Jack that was supplied to my Eldorado to change wheels on the side of the road, and only for the rear when in the garage to change the rear tyre.   The way the Cadillac fenders were designed, one has to raise the body high enough to let the axle sag or the wheel just won't come off.

For my Garage purposes, I use my old fashioned mechanical jack (5,000 Lb), and occasionally my floor jacks 5 Ton and 1.5 Ton), but these buggers slowly leak, and are a pain.   The mechanical one is also really good when re-positioning a car in the garage.

Jack Stands are a must.

Bruce.