After years of renting and moving about I've bought a house with a good size garage (24'x36') complete with a smooth concrete floor. As such I'm in the market for a replacement for the funky little Wal-Mart floor jack I've been carrying around for years.

I want to find a decent "full-size" floor jack that works well and can be expected to remain in that state for many years. Is there such a thing on the market today?

I don't mind paying for a good one. What worries me is spending a pretty penny a well known brand but getting the same Chinese crap as Harbor Freight Tools but with a different paint job. Can Hazard Fraught's offerings be considered as good enough?

Suggestions?

Muchas Gracias,

Will
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XC60 / Odyssey

My old Craftsman 3ton floor jack is leaking.

I have heard good things about the Harbor Freight Daytona jacks, so will likely go that route when I finally replace it.

I bought a jack from Sears that has a built in jack stand. You jack it up and set the stand - then you can remove the jack and use the pad that replaces the stand.

My son-in-law wanted a high rise jack for his truck - I checked the lift on quite a few so called high rise jacks and found that a 5 ton jack beat them all. He later told me that he loved his high capacity jack.

Good luck finding a Jack not manufactured in China.....Remember to use jacks stand everytime. I have a heavy truck floor Jack that was made.in America.....South America.

I've had good luck with a steel Harbor Freight jack. To be honest, anything not made of plastic has worked well for me from there - I did take the screws out of a torque wrench for the pawl and add some loc-tite one time. I also had that torque wrench for like 5 years before it needed even that.

If you find a good one, I'm all ears.


Main reason I commented was to suggest you paint the floor with an epoxy like Arts floor. It keeps oil from soaking into the cement, and is nice... other than the insane tire squeal you may get.

Sure I run the risk of ridicule, but this HF jack has done me right for 17 years now. I wore out the pad, that's all.





--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

"Keep in mind that random processes can fluctuate in such a way as to mimic a signal when no signal exists." --Ransom Stephens

Your floor? It looks nice.

I have Snap-On (made by Lincoln in the USA), Mega, (Spain), and AC (Denmark). All are different designs, and top quality. I don't know who the USA importer of AC is. Griot's Garage, in Tacoma, imports the Mega jacks.
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john

Nothing wrong with Harbor Freight, All brands are made in China these days!
Dan

"All brands are made in China these days!"

Yep. I have a mechanic friend off the internet grid who bemoans this fact at every opportunity. He is a former inventor in the lighting field who, for some years, had his products manufactured in China. The modules for his products were encapsulated, meaning, to analyze failures the encapsulant needed to be dissolved.

What he found is his Chinese partners would take it upon themselves to substitute components at any opportunity to save a penny. He learned how the best US firms doing manufacturing in China needed to manage the factories to preserve the quality the US designers specified. Think Apple.

Couple days ago I needed to remove the dipstick tube from an AW-71. I hunted down the 15/16" crowfoot flare nut wrench I'd put aside for this 6 years ago. I'm under the car with a 30mm open-end holding the pan fitting, the crowfoot on the tubing nut driving its 3/8" using a 1/2" ratchet and reducer. Put a pipe on the ratchet and, nice, it broke the nut.

Nope, it broke the tool.

Said friend and I had a text conversation about this. Told him I abused a Proto crowfoot. He said "never heard of Proto." Made in China? I looked it up and pasted a concise history of Proto into his flip phone. He said "Aha, Stanley China." after the latest corporate owner of Proto. (Black and Decker/Stanley) I said, no, made in US. Abused by me.

Remember when Japanese toys and electronics were considered junk? That was a long time ago.




--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” -Socrates

Made in China today is just like Made in Japan in the 50's-60's. Until the Chinese people demand quality for goods they buy, Chinese shops will continue to make inferior goods.

The Chinese are starting to 'outsource' parts to cheaper countries. Perhaps this will be a lesson for 'quality' parts?

Manpower is cheap, quality costs money.
--
Keeping it running is better than buying new

Just like our Volvo parts, it's all about the specifications with Chinese products. If it's a good spec it will be a good piece, that is hard to tell until you use it for an extended period of time.

Dan

Thanks for all the good suggestions.

I got impatient and ordered a 2-ton model from Amazon, "Arcan 2 Ton Low Profile Quick Rise Steel Floor Jack A20015 / XL20", based on a trusted coworker's recommendation.

At 70lbs, if the UPS driver didn't hate me before then they do now.

It appears to be of similar type and quality construction as the Hazard Fraught offering. So far performing quite nicely.

Wishing I were planning a road trip... (or any trip for that matter)

-Will
--
XC60 / Odyssey

Sounds like a nice garage! I bought a Torin 3 ton jack from Pep Boys a number of years ago and still getting good service out of it.
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94 940 n/a 320k+ and rolling, owned 18 yrs; 05 XC90 2.5t for the wife; sold 92 745T; sold 88 764T

hi sages- bought first floor jack in 73 from sears craftsman. a 2 ton. made by torin which was then a japanese company. think it is now chinese. very good jack used it many times on my fleet of jalopies: wheels, brakes, clutch jobs, engine swaps. mostly frequent heavy duty jobs. never needed fluid, never leaked,and most important never slowly lowered the car while i was under it(figure leaking cylinder seals/o rings). started doing that in 05 after 32 years of use. at that time bought a 3 ton husky on sale at home depot and got a free 3 ton sears craftman when i cashed in my accumulated purchase points at sears. both new jacks have worked perfectly since then. all 3 are the single pump piston models and the hydraulic power units look very similar .never had a dual piston HF- dont like that design. would like to buy a power unit for the 73 or get it rebuilt. lazar has rebuild kits for many models including the 73. the only difference seems to be the extension length of the units ram. any one here know who could rebuild this power unit . all the sources i have tried have disappeared or perished. looked at the rebuild instructions on you tube and seems above my pay grade and patience reserves. anybody done here done this job? what think- can you help with a source. thanks tons oldduke

Much searching via the i-net?

Sometimes public libraries would collect repair manuals on microfiche.

The manufacturers would sell rebuild kits. New o-rings and such with instruction so long as the piston and bore are not heavily scored. And new hydraulic fluid.

On the craftsman 3-ton trolley jack I have, it was a leaker when in the stored position. Fluid came out the large bore hole the piston rams into for the lift.

On the jack assembly are adjustable valve I guess for fluid in and fluid out. I tightened these. No more leaks. Yet the o-rings are not forever.

I imagine with a search using Bing and Google maybe you could find rebuild kits with good instruction?

I've yet to rebuild a trolley or floor jack. Merely replaced the old fluid in prior jacks. Had to use Ford "Type F" in a pinch for fluid.

Else, jacks I guess are disposable also including quality-made jacks that have some service on them. Not seen a rebuild kit in some time and that was images of the kit.

Hope that helps you Old Duke!

Happy Friday!

My best to the shining sea fishies and the next bottle of ripple.

I've been quaffing the 32-ounce cans of Miller High Life light.

MacDuffy
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Woo.

hi kit -good to hear from you. been doing a lot of wrenching on cars, appliances and bicycles lately. sadly this has dramatically increased cr (cuss rate) probably to at least 5%. should i feel guilty? intrigued about how you find instructions from manufacturers of floor jacks on how to rebuild hydraulic power units that leak and lower by themselves. currently have my 73 craftsman jack in the corner of the garage. it is a two ton and was made by torin when they were in japan. now they are in china. used this jack hundreds of times . contacted torin after much research and they said parts and instructions no longer available. still hold out hope. sad note maytag A108 used weekly since bought in 77 finally gave up the ghost and died (but not from transmission failure. bottom frame badly rusted out and of course like the the trans , nla. had to curb it and it was gone in 6hrs.even the outer tub top was rusted through and leaking. i believe art ben and i were the last two in america, maybe the planet too with an ancient working maytag. bought a new basic roper and picked it up in the 92 volvo 240 wagon when vendor tried to shyster me for delivery and installation fees( $65). son helped but cussed a bit. mutha slaughtered him for bringing up moe forker. do you know that guy? must think moe is related to roper. seems all leads to the jack fix have dried up. kit and my otha brick bruthas have a good holiday week. thanks tons oldduke

Hiya Uncle Old Duke!!!

Happy Christmas and hope all's aces for you and everybody!!!

You and Uncle Art sure know your Maytag appliances!!!

Please forgive my sloe (gin) reply.

Do not know Moe Forker. Same as Uncle Moe you mention occasionally?

Art can pull the Maytag washer agitator spindle using the same hardware to lift and hold the engine like when replacing 240 motor mounts!

You used to be able to get a seal kit from Sears for Craftsman jacks they sold, so I was told.

As for your 1973 Craftsman floor jack, and you have another leaky floor jack (?), if no go from the manufacturer, you can find other resources.

You may find a store that sells industrial o-rings. The o-ring carrying groove in the cylinder bore and / or on the piston can be measured and a learned person can suggest an o-ring made of a material useful for the application. The bore and piston surfaces should be somehow acceptable.

Else, I'm unsure of disassembly. I found many videos on You Tube. What Torin documentation I found was this site (copy and paste) and all of it is new and no service doc:
https://www.hcrcnow.com/drawings/torin-big-red

An article on rebuilding a floor jack, with a link to a supplier of kits:

Rebuilding a Hydraulic Floor Jack
https://www.instructables.com/Rebuilding-a-Hydraulic-Floor-Jack/

The article mentions Backhawk Hydraulic Parts to buy a seal and rebuild kit for the jack. Yet the jack in the article is a new or recent Harbor Freight?

https://www.blackhawkparts.com/

May be other hydraulic parts vendors for floor jacks?

I bought a used Craftsman jack in 2008 or so. I had a heavy duty jack that was orange or red from the 1970s yet that got left behind in Oregon. Wah. Boo. Hoo.

My trolley / floor jack bought used a decade ago.



It would leak more so at rest than in use. Like a clogged PCV and an old back of the overhead camshaft seal leaking. You can get hydraulic jack fluid yet I had bottles of Ford "Type F" to refill it.

I imagine different floor and bottle nose jack makes and models use different hydraulic fluids.

The fluid would drip out at the bottom of the piston bore when in the relaxed or fully lowered position. I close the fluid release to lower the lift after it filly lowers.



I did not look up why you should not, yet I tightened both of these needle valves to nearly full stop. Doing so increased resistance to both lift and lower about the same whether loaded with Volvo 240 or unloaded.



The leaking stopped.

Sure Happy it's the eggnog holidays!

Miller High Life Light today, in 32-ounce cans for 99¢ each, and more eggnawg.
--
Beh.

hi kit g- just caught your inquiry today with your info on the jack seal kits. uncle moe and moe forker are different characters. uncle moe hit the beach at omaha in 44 with an engineers group that fixed shermans and jeeps. after the big one he assisted me in wrenching cars. moe forker was a polite euphemism offered when aggravated to the max by mechanical conundrums on vehicles and appliances as in you low down high smelling no good etc. sure youve heard of that moe in your wrenching. since its Christmas movies time you might have noticed ralphies father using those polite euphemisms as he worked on the house furnace which belched black smoke. ralphie used one when he dropped the lugnuts in the snow while helping pop change a flat. regards oldduke

--
Will I buy another Volvo??? We'll see....

Holy Jamoly - 99 cent 32 ouncers! That’s something out of the history books in my neck of the woods...:)

Best of the Holidays to all!!
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Will I buy another Volvo??? We'll see....

What makes terrible Saint Louis great.

Yet Miller High Life Light in 32-ounce cans for 99¢ from those "On the Run" or like Mobil stores. I get 7 cans or so at a time. Lasts awhile.

Happy Holidays, Mr. Walker!
--
Beh.

Duke -

Maytag A610---new 1979.

GE side by side fridge --- came with the house when I bought it in 1983 with matching elec stove and oven.
Won "Best Supporting Appliance" in Anne Hall - Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, GE Frigidaire.

Clip - Winning Scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWtgUq9mfx0

Not a Volvo guy in those days. BMW 1600, 2002, Peugeot 304, Ford F100---Rust neva sleeps...and all now -- iron oxide dust.

Cheers

Uh oh.

If yours died, mine must be next.

http://www.cleanflametrap.com/maytag/slides/maytag_a608 20(04).html

But, rust in WPB?
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

hi again art ben- read that attachment about your melodrama about your maytag A608 and the attempts to remove the source of the grease staining. seems you got agitator off. surprised you didnt damage it. never had to take mine off. did you succeed with the bent tips arm puller and the hot water pour down? i looked for an agitamer so i would be prepared if i had to do the job. do you have one or have you ever seen one. looks like the grease staining problem was caused by transmission grease oozing out of the top seal of the trans. never had that happen even though i searched in vain for years for a spare transmission since new stock has been exhausted for a long time. thought it would eventually go to hell but it didnt. did you remove the top grease seal from the trans or just clean it up. btw do you have a picture of the agitamer? thanks tons for that very useful information. oldduke

Hi Oldduke,

That leaky seal just got cleaned up in 2010. That was enough, combined with a regular wipe down under the agitator to keep things clean until 2013, when the tub sprung a leak at the outlet nipple.

I replaced the transmixer bearing and seal, which was a real 4F job getting apart even having the correct tools. Then fixed the leaky nipple with POR-15. Cleaned up the rust around the bleach dispenser. Have about 50-60 photos of that fun to add to the web page when I get a round tuit.

To give this Volvo content I'll mention those old Maytags were built like our old Volvos. This one continues to take care of our laundry, but I guess the new ones, like the new cars, are more efficient.

About your question on removing the agitator, my bent-up iron did the job using the engine support bar, so I never needed to investigate the "Agitamer."


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Purportedly some of George Carlin's old stuff: "Now they show you how detergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent image there. I think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it, maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem. Maybe you should get rid of the body before you do the wash."

hi arty b- completely agree. the old maytags are very much like the 240 volvos in terms of long lasting engineering. havent had to do the nightmare job of the blower motor in the volvo yet. amazing the engineers who did an unbeatable job in most things on this car really fouled it up on the blower. most of the parts for the volvo are still available. always figured my maytag A108 would be killed by non availabilityof the transmission. but it never failed nor leaked until a few weeks ago. figured that machine ran maybe 4 times a week every week from may 1977. the badly rusted through frame and the outer tub at the top rusted through at the discharge spout, causing a major leak. that tub was unavailable from any source i tried. my approach with the cars and appliances has always been to anticipate which parts will eventually need replacement or rehab and seek a source in advance. how as that repair using por 15 worked for you ? do you think it will withstand vibration and shaking without cracking?surprised you didnt try to get it welded. came close to using it on a severely rusted 76 feather duster and a 77 dodge wagon. as i recall a can of it was about $30 10 years ago. if it permanently fixed that problem on the tank it would be well worth it. funny the seal, bearing and bushing are still available for the trans driveshaft on the maytag but not the trans anywhere. looking forward to viewing pics of your 2013 job on the maytag. i still have the shop manual for the maytag which details all the repairs in it. has a 1980copyright and covers the A108. the pages are actually flaking away like the floors in some of my old cars. thanks tons for the story. btw the old maytags were made in iowa. oldduke

hi art ben- yeh but you have to rememba, my 77 maytag spent 26 yrs in nj weather, then was transported to fla for the last 17 yrs. nj is the rust capital of america. slush/salt , high humidity, cold hot. rust rampant in fla too but more insidious. notice here tools and wrenches rust if not used regularly. se fla has more hot high humidity days than nj. so you are lucky to have a still working maytag. expect the new roper to start crapping out in 8-10 yrs. problem now is all the new ones have computer management , printed circuit boards and other nonsense mods which make them much more difficult to diagnose and repair without one of these $100/hr shysters. regards oldduke

Do a search for "floor jack rebuild kit". If its worth rebuilding it must be good. I saw kits for Sears and Napa brand jacks.

find an older US made 1 on craigslist or at an auctionzip & check youtube to rebuildit,,,& or order parts//

I have a Craftsman (sears and roebuck) Made in China.

2.5 ton(5000lb), Extra Hi Lift Sport Utility Vehicle Jack
lift range 6" to 21"

I bought it sometime in the 90s.
I think is was in the $50-75 range.

What I have also!


The yellow saddle is around someplace. Usually use it as is to lift under the engine support cross member and the differential. Helpful when replacing front struts!

Bought used in north Idaho in 2008 or so.
--
Beh.

Costco FTW

https://www.costco.com/cat-3-ton-low-profile-service-jack.product.100507254.html