question What Type Of Trolley Jack To Purchase ?

[Vulture]

Hi guys

 

Your wise counsel is sought on the subject of trolley jacks. I'm minded to get a trolley jack to use with my CCKW352 (weight 4.5 ton). I want to be able to lift the front axle up in one easy motion to then put in place the axle stands.

 

Any suggestions regarding type and specification would be much appreciated.

 

Kind regards to all

 

Vulture

[Tony B]

Assuming you don't want to lift all the vehicle in one go, a 3 ton should have the lift capacity and enough spare for safety.

Toolstation do a number of weight bottle jacks at reasonable prices, I have one in each vehicle. Your local motor factors could well be the best place to start looking. Though I got an excellent 3 ton trolley jack from an auto jumble for £25. Looking about £60 from screwfix.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Tony B

[Richard Farrant]

Hi guys

 

Your wise counsel is sought on the subject of trolley jacks. I'm minded to get a trolley jack to use with my CCKW352 (weight 4.5 ton). I want to be able to lift the front axle up in one easy motion to then put in place the axle stands.

 

Any suggestions regarding type and specification would be much appreciated.

 

 

 

A long bodied jack will be preferable for this size vehicle as you will find the stroke of the handle will be restricted otherwise, especially when jacking up any point on rear axles.

[Sean N]

'One easy motion' might be pushing it! Several pumps more like it, even with a quick lift jack. In my experience the quick lift or 'rocket' jacks often only take the arm to the point of contact quickly and then can be heavier to pump than normal ones as you're trading mechanical advantage for speed of lift. Don't forget if your diffs aren't central on the axle you may find it difficult to lift evenly on a trolley jack anyway.

 

I would not mess about with any of the consumer market jacks with small pads and pressed side members - they may claim to be 3 tonnes (or even more), but aren't really beefy enough or big enough to be stable and reliable. Get something with a good wide heavy duty chassis, wide wheels and track and a large saddle.

 

As Richard says, a long chassis is useful to get under vehicles without having to grub around on the floor or risk not having enough movement on the handle.

 

Make sure what you get has enough lift - you can find even long chassis jacks have very short lift arms so you'll struggle to get a large vehicle off the ground sufficiently. Conversely, don't forget to check that it's low enough to get under the vehicle / axle in the first place!

 

I'd have thought 3 tonnes would be the minimum you would want to give yourself a margin and make lifting fairly easy - the less 'industrial strength' the jack is, the more marginal it will be and the harder you'll have to pump even if it claims to be the same capacity.

 

Most professional jacks have the release valve operated by the lift handle which is much easier than a separate release.

 

If you're worried about the paint on your axles get a rubber saddle pad.

 

If you're buying from one of the large tool suppliers (Sealey et al), remember they regularly have this sort of thing on offer. Don't buy Snap-On - their jacks are the same as other people's at three times the money.

 

For the new cost of a decent Chinese made jack from the likes of Sealey you may find you can buy a good second-hand or MoD surplus unit made by the likes of Epco or one of the other traditional workshop equipment suppliers. If you can, and it's genuinely sound, get it - you won't regret it - everything about them is so much better quality.

 

In my experience trolley jacks are really workshop equipment only and best on good hard (concrete) floors. The wheels can tend to sink into tarmac. If you're jacking away from the workshop, forget the trolley jack - get bottle jacks instead, with good plates or blocks to spread the load.

[paulbrook]

I love a decent trolley jack (and am looking for another 5t one at the mo) but I also love the air-operated bottle jacks, easy to stow on the truck and big capacity (20 tonne). They run from the truck air or a compressor or good old fashioned lever action.

 

I think I paid about £60 for my 20 tonners.

[Tony B]

I've got 8 ton bottle jacks from Toolstation, they were about £17. Them plus a couple of good solid wooden base plates have lifted evrything I've got easily for quite a few years. Whilist were on the subject. Anyone ever used the ehaust filled lifting bags?

[Lauren Child]

Weber seem to do some nice large capacity/large vehicle jacks and engine cranes. I think I came across them looking at some army surplus axle stands. I bookmarked them as a handy company to remember. (Weber UK, not the US company that make barbecues).

[redneck]

I recently purchased a pair of 6 tonne axle stands from these http://www.sgs-engineering.com/garage-equipment/trolley-jacks

Can't comment on their trolley jacks but their axle stands seem to be good quality and cheaper than many mainstream suppliers, quick delivery too.