Hmmm...

I'm thinking that I ended up with one of the trolley designs then. Crap! As I said, just assumed that was the nature of the beast and you have to be careful. Going to have to go check out the proper design. Anybody want to buy a used, well maintained trolley jack?

Mostly 3-4 pumps. Very nice feature.
You'll have hieght concerns with any jack. My exposure to them is carrying them on/off the trailer, over pit wall and to the golf cart. On the hiegh thing, we have to take body work off the car to even get under it but we have insert tubes on the side of the car and lift it left to right. For street cars w/ my standard heavy metal jack I usually have to lift the bumper by hand far enuf to wheel it under, the aluminum one is low enuf to slip in unassisted.

Hell I always thought a 2-ton jack was what it weighed, not what it lifted! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

These jacks from Harbor Freight lift up to 31" high! Most jacks are around 18", which won't even reach my frame. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> I wouldn't want to have to carry one though.

That harbor freight 31" jack is great DH. My friend used one to pull the tranny/T case in his 1/2 chivy with 39.5 SX's and a ton of lift. He said it was night and day easier than the old 3 ton floor jack.


I think what people are refeering to as trolly jacks are what I call cheap floor jacks like this
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/


These are the better floor jacks notice the arm length and the lower center of gravity along with a wider stance
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I used junk from the sears page but harbor freight has both types as well.

The top jack is actually rated a bit higher for capacity then the bottom jack if you can believe that. I guess its the same rating system thay use for those 1000watt amps you buy at flea markets for 29.95 <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the clarifying photos, Ganoid. Went out to the garage and played around with my HF 3 ton model. It has the parallelogram design and the longer arm. I can see that it makes a difference in the first part of the lift, but as you go from about 2/3 to all the way up it still pulls back towards the operator.

So I guess that I have the better design after all!

Thanks for the info folks. Looks like I will cough up some coin and go with a good one...

I just got a 3.5 ton floor jack from Sam's. It has a 22" lift and only cost $59 dollars. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> The thing that I like best is that the handle doesn't have to be removed and fumbled around with to release the pressure. And the handle doesn't come out all the time while you're moving the jack around.