Floor jack suggestions

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sgtowing

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Always wood on jack. Never under. The jack has to be free to roll. If you put the jack on the wood, it might roll off. Just make sure you use a piece of wood wider than the platform it sits on.

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WHOISMOOTOO

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Always wood on jack. Never under. The jack has to be free to roll. If you put the jack on the wood, it might roll off. Just make sure you use a piece of wood wider than the platform it sits on.

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this is how i do mine, I have the ac delco jackstands and 2ton jack for $50 from one of the parts stores but I use a piece of 4x4 on top of the jack. did this alot in the army on humvees with wooden chock blocks.
 

joethefordguy

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I try to never put anything other than a purpose designed extension on top of the jack. so, If I'm using some wood to get the jack start lifting higher, it goes under, and yes, it has to be bigger than the jack's footprint on the ground.
having said that, in my experience (trucks and 4x4s) lift has always been more helpful than capacity. my favorite was a 3 ton floor jack with over 18" of lift. i used bottle jacks as well, same principles apply; I even built about a foot square wooden platform to set it on when I needed the lift.
 

SomeENG

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Bottle jacks are compact and most have threaded extensions.
I have a four ton autozone branded one.
$30

It raises to 14.5 " and weighs less than 8lbs

And the footprint is small, you can boost the jack with 2x6s if you ever needed to.
 
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ManUpOrShutUp

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I've got a 3-ton. After coupons and such I paid about $75 for it from Advance Auto. It goes low enough to fit under my wife's Mazda and high enough to jack up the Expedition.
 

TobyU

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I stopped using bottle jacks years ago. To much work to keep them from denting the frame.
Why don't they all come with flat add on piece or even better a flat one with hard rubber ribs on it?
Very few floor jacks have a coated pad but they should.
Many people take the round swivel off and use the rectangular base.
I have a couple of vehicle that are nice underneath that I have to be very careful when jacking.
Just this week I was using a folded towel between the jack and the frame on one that has factory undercoating that is almost 20 years old but looks 6 month old underneath and I mad two damage spot on the frame where the edge hit the frame. It smeared the undercoating (20 years old but still not fully hard) in the spots.
Now I have to touch up the spots so it looks like the rest of frame rail.

They have floor jacks with hard rubber almost plastic pads on the part that touches. I think my future one will have this.
I am going to go get me some thick rubber mat or mudflap and cut a piece to fit my jack top.

I have an atv one that is covered and has 2 arms but it is too low capacity for my vehicles.
 
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So I have used a number of floor jacks, I really like the 3-ton Daytona (snap on copy) from HF (~$200). I'm also a big fan of the NAPA 3 ton jacks or the Hein-Werner floor jacks.

As for jack stands, again I have had a lot of brands, I settled on the Hein-Werner 3-ton & 6-ton jack stands. I have a full set of 4 stands in each size. For the trucks (my wife's expedition included) I tend to use the 6-ton for the height, and for cars, I like the 3-ton ones. All of them matching makes it easy to level the vehicles out.
 

Going_Going_Gone

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My sons and I jointly own a Hein-Werner 3.5 ton floor jack. My experience with the predecessor of this jack was one produced by Walker, and that jack was "idiot proof" to the max...it stood up to decades of teenage use and never failed to work properly and that's saying something. Current manufacturer is Chinese owned but production is in America. We've had this one for three years and no issues, but then again, it is only used occasionally.
 
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