Heads-up: Floorjack (low-profile) from Sears

G

GP20

Senior member
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... +Equipment

Picked up this floorjack from Sears today for $49.99. I previously bought another floorjack on sale from Sears for $19.99 (price now back up to $39.99). The problem was my car's lowered on coilovers and that floorjack wasn't low enough (5 & a half inches tall at the lowest) to get under my car. What I did was I used the BMW OEM jack to raise the car high enough for the floorjack to get under the jacking point - until the OEM jack got bent and completely broke into pieces (literally) after 7~8 uses. So here's another heads-up to those who use OEM jacks while working on their cars (wink Flycaster wink :D ), DON'T USE THE OEM JACK & RISK LOSING A FINGER- it's a piece of crap!

So today I picked up this new low-profile floorjack from Sears. It's 3 & 1/3 inches tall at the lowest point and just enough to clear the jackking points. :D
 
And this one is pretty light-weight at 31lbs. I had one from Costco that cost $99 and it weighed like 50~60 lbs. It was an elephant.
 
Yesterday must have been "buy a jack day." I just picked up this one yesterday for absolutely no reason other than I thought I should have one ;-) http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=91039

My friend has the same jack and we used it on my Z (lowered with Sport). My car is new (to me) and so is my attempt to work on any car for that matter...so I thought I'd try it...but I haven't even taken it out of the box yet. Can someone with some experience compare the two or provide some input? From my first view I've determined that the U.S. General one is a bit lower, goes a bit higher, a bit more expensive, lighter, doesnt' lift as much, seems to have a bigger contact point, and looks cooler. But would one really be better than the other???
 
The US General jack is a nice tool and I have had one for years that has worked quite well. Nice given that it is fairly portable as well although our 2 seaters don't offer a lot of space to carry it along for track events. I originally bought mine when I was heavily tracking Audis and had lots more space dragging tools like that along.

If you are in the market for a more serious garage lift, consider a jack that will let you lift the whole front/rear of the car at once:

http://www.tooltopia.com/index.asp?Page ... odID=11737

These suckers can reach all the way the the center of the car underneath which makes it a lot easier to get jack stands under the proper lift points on the sides for underbody work on the car.

Nice twist - free shipping from these guys. This is not a lightweight jack - almost 100 lbs and it's delivered on a pallet in a freight truck to your doorstep so this is not a trivial freebie.
 
GP20 said:
. So here's another heads-up to those who use OEM jacks while working on their cars (wink Flycaster wink :D ), DON'T USE THE OEM JACK & RISK LOSING A FINGER- it's a piece of crap!
Click to expand...

Hey GP, nice of you to think of me. You are absolutely right. Every time have to jack the car up with the OEM jack, I make sure that the will, finances and insurance policies are in order. My scariest jack up was when I had to dislodge the rear quarter panel to put in the alarm siren...I must have been nuts to do it with the OEM. I'd love to have a good jack as I could then perhaps tackle some more advanced DIYs, for me that is (like change my fuel filter). But, my problem is that my garage is just jammed full and I don't think I would have room for it. Furthermore, I'd probably start to tackle projects that may be beyond my ken, and I would really f/k things up. And of course, all my firends in retirement would start to call me gearhead insted of dunderhead.
 
Hey GP20, so now that you have a new jack ... what's on your to-do list?

Any new how-to's that we could expect to see from you soon?
 
templed said:
Hey GP20, so now that you have a new jack ... what's on your to-do list?

Any new how-to's that we could expect to see from you soon?
Click to expand...

Don't really have anything planned. I have coilovers on my Z4 so I play with the settings from time to time and it requires a floorjack.
 
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