Things to Look Before Buying a Floor Jack

A yellow jack stands next to a red jeep. (No changes made)

If you own a car or any other vehicle, they need regular repairing, fixing, and other maintenance services, right? Now for having any repair every time rushing to the garage isn’t an ideal thing for any car owner. I am sure you would love to fix your vehicle by yourself, and for that, the most prominent tool you’re going to need is a floor jack. Now picking up the right jack machine for your DIY might be tricky, especially if you’re a newbie. According to TehnoGuru, There’re some things you need to consider thoroughly before shopping for a floor jack. Some of them are pretty obvious, and some of them for making the task even smoother.

Let’s go to the considering factors straight away.

Model & Specifications of Your Car

The very first thing you need to consider before purchasing a floor jack is the model and other specifications of your car. Any low-profile hydraulic floor jack will be ideal if you own a vehicle with very low ground clearance. A hydraulic floor jack is a perfect choice for almost all sedans, vans, SUVs, race cars. But, if you have any high car-like with higher ground clearance like any lifted car, then bottle jack will be more suitable for your lifting purpose.

Capacity

The maximum weight capacity of the floor jack is termed as “ton.” Now the question is, which size do you require? Here one thing you need to be clear about. Floor jack supports approximately 60% of your car weight. Keeping this info in mind, you can either choose 2- or 3-ton floor jacks. If you’ve any economy mid-sized cars, 2-ton jacks will easily suit your need. For other luxuries midsized private cars, vans, or SUVs, 3-ton capacity will be enough. In case of even bigger sizes like mini-trucks and others, 3.5 to 4-ton jacks will be required.

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Lifting height consideration 

Considering the clearance height is pretty essential while picking the floor jack. The jack should be capable of lifting your vehicle to the least height so that you can adequately get under it to maintain or fix it. Usually, most floor jacks offer to lift range from 3 inches to maximum level of up to 20 inches. But many vehicles like sports cars are very lowly designed. Again, many lifted off-road vehicles have mega tires. In such cases, your floor jack should have a higher lifting capacity, like 22 inches. Choose the jack accordingly.

Material & Weight Consideration 

A floor jack is meant to come with very resilient design and rugged construction so that it can withstand an entire load of your car over the years. So, try to pick a jack with a robust design. Cast iron or steel are the most apparent metals being used in the tool due to their guaranteed strength. But, if you need one that’s easily portable like one for your racetrack, pick an aluminum-made jack. They also provide the best quality design, yet lightweight than steel ones. You can easily lug them around with you. Here are some tips to find out the perfect built floor jack. They will have predominated metal parts on their body instead of any loose cheap plastic component. Check for the quality of the finish. If you find any sloppy pile of painting or any uneven overspray, there might be some inferior quality body spots that the manufacturer is trying to hide from you. Don’t pick that one. If you’re too confused, don’t take any risk. Go for the customer reviews and choose the highly recommended brand & model. That’ll free you from excessive works.

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Lifting Speed to full height

You can count the lifting speed of the floor jack by the number of pumps it requires to reach its full height. You can’t underestimate this factor, as the speediness of your car fixing depends on this one too. This factor is the must to consider, especially if you’re buying the jack for your racing purposes.

Platform Size

An issue that you may think is trivial, but is essential in operation is the jack’s platform size. A floor jack along with wider platform size and similar lifting arm provides much stability in the machine’s operation. Thus, look for a jack that can ensure such features.

Price

Last but undoubtedly not the least factor that every buyer has to consider while procuring the floor jack is the device’s price. Price varies as per the types and offers features of the floor jack. Jacks with more lifting capacity are more expensive. You can easily pick a 2-ton machine for smoothly running your operation within your budget. Scissor jacks are the cheapest, but they can only offer tire changing operation. You don’t want a floor jack for that one purpose only, do you?  

Final Word

You don’t need to be too mechanically savvy all the time to keep your car right. You have to follow some basic requirements. Having the right floor jack that suits everything of your vehicle is one of such conditions. If you know your vehicle better, you’ll be able to pick the right jack, now analyzing the factors mentioned above as per the car’s requirements. All the very best!

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