Jack envy

[Jobbo]

It wasn’t until I used my new SGS jack that I realised the handle didn’t rotate. It’s also very long so would be a pain if lifting your car in a garage. That looks really useful.

[mik]

My old Halfords 2T low-entry (with a suspiciously similar shape) does this too. It’s definitely a useful feature.

[Sundayjumper]

How's everybody's jacks doing ? My Costco/Arcan one has finally pissed me off enough that I want to replace it. The main cylinder leaks and the small one keeps sticking so I have to prise it back out with a screwdriver almost every time. Because all my cars are shit and broken all the time I seem to need a jack on a regular basis, and my fleet obviously includes high/low/big/small cars so it's going to be moon/stick finding something perfect for all of them.

In addition to a regular trolley jack I'm quite tempted to try a pneumatic one as well e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315256281496. Fairly small footprint and straight vertical lift sounds like it could be useful.

[mik]

Never tried one, but the 150mm low-height would put me off (and the 400mm fully-raised height isn’t that impressive either).

My SGS jack is doing great. It’s performed duties on the Evora, my son’s Civic and Mrs mik’s weight-of-a-small-moon-eTron.

[Mito Man]

Same, I can’t tell if Arcan is a shit brand of if it’s a case of they all wear out eventually. Went to Costco last week to buy the Hilka Jack but they didn’t have it in store. They did have a low Arcan Jack for £135 so…

Only thing is that it’s a steel construction rather than aluminium so it weighs a tonne even moving it across block paving. Another thing is it doesn’t have grab handles on the side. You don’t realise they’re actually useful until you’re lying on your side looking for the jacking points whilst blindly searching for a place to grab the jack and fine tune its positioning

[Sundayjumper]

Never tried one, but the 150mm low-height would put me off (and the 400mm fully-raised height isn’t that impressive either).

I meant in addition to a regular jack, not instead of. Times where you need to jack something in the middle of the car and don't have room to crank a normal jack handle up & down.

[Sundayjumper]

This is my front runner atm:

https://www.primetools.co.uk/product/fa ... lley-jack/

[Jobbo]

That looks pretty decent and Facom are a good brand, aren’t they?
What’s the red pedal-type thing behind the lifting handle? Foot operated release?

[Beany]

Think it'll be a quick lift pedal - press it down and it lifts the arm faster, but with almost no pressure behind it, so it'll stop when it hits the bodywork.

[Sundayjumper]

Beany is correct.

That looks pretty decent and Facom are a good brand, aren’t they?

I think so. Rightly or wrongly I think of them as semi-professional, a step up from DIY grade. @V8Granite is my tool guru, I'd appreciate his opinion on this

[Mito Man]

I remember Facom sometimes having a stand at goodwood, seemed like a professional choice. I only remember because I wanted a torque wrench but Wera and Facom stands there were about 30% more than the same tool bought online - I thought the point of trade shows was that they’re cheaper

[Beany]

My dad was an engineer for knocking on 50 years. He used all sorts of high end pro stuff for work that I can't remember the name of.

He had Facom gear in the car and on the boat.

So "Good enough for a journeyman pro to use at home" seems like a reasonable recommendation for their mainline stuff - I'm assuming they aren't just slapping their brand on cheap shit for stuff outside their wheelhouse like some brands do.

[mik]

Never tried one, but the 150mm low-height would put me off (and the 400mm fully-raised height isn’t that impressive either).

I meant in addition to a regular jack, not instead of. Times where you need to jack something in the middle of the car and don't have room to crank a normal jack handle up & down.

Fair point. Much better than a bottle jack. <shudders>

Trolley looks good - not the lowest entry but a good profile.

[V8Granite]

Beany is correct.

That looks pretty decent and Facom are a good brand, aren’t they?

I think so. Rightly or wrongly I think of them as semi-professional, a step up from DIY grade. @V8Granite is my tool guru, I'd appreciate his opinion on this

Facom are good, no issues with stuff at work.

Also you should be able to get seal kits forever.

Dave!

[Carlos]

Beany is correct.

That looks pretty decent and Facom are a good brand, aren’t they?

I think so. Rightly or wrongly I think of them as semi-professional, a step up from DIY grade. @V8Granite is my tool guru, I'd appreciate his opinion on this

Facom are good, no issues with stuff at work.

Also you should be able to get seal kits forever.

Dave!

As a Facom tool owner SJ pretty much owns a McLaren F1

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295806021520 ... media=COPY

[Sundayjumper]

Update & a PSA. I never got around to buying a new jack. Needs and priorities didn’t align and I struggled on with the old one. The jamming problem only seemed to happen when the weather was hot.

I was in Halfords during the week and spotted their 3 Tonne jobbie looked alright, £160, made a mental note. Yesterday evening I went on the website to check the spec and they have a 20% promo right now *and* a further 10% for ordering online. £160 becomes £115.20. Nice.

I bought two

IMG_2141.jpeg (129.99 KiB) Viewed 729 times

CLICKETY-JACK

[Jobbo]

That’s quite low profile and I like the foot pedal to lower rather than twisting the handle. Might have to get one; does it fit under your lower cars?

[Sundayjumper]

Foot pedal is to get it up quickly with a couple of pumps; you achieve release by twisting repeatedly.

That's what Beany told me, but now I think about it I'm not sure we were both talking about the same thing.

Not tried the new trolley jack yet. Spec says 75mm minimum which is very low indeed. The Facom was 100mm.

[Jobbo]

Ordered. There’s a 10% discount for my online order so £115.20.

[mik]

Looks like a good deal, and 75mm entry is excellent.