Harbor Freight Aluminum Floor Jack?

[imagineer]

What’s the buzz on Harbor Freight Aluminum frame/Rapid Pump floor jacks?

I’ve been lugging my only floor jack, and insanely heavy steel one, between the garage and workshop long enough and am looking at buying a 2nd floor jack.

The gravity altering model I’ve been using for over 15 years was bought at HF. It’s still working fine, so I’m not concerned about picking up another from them, although I not tried one of the Rapid Pump floor jacks yet.

In looking at their website, they have aluminum framed jacks for not that much more than the comparable steel units, but are about 1/3 lighter.

Anyone have good or bad experience with one of these aluminum floor jacks?

 

[JBradley500]

I have one in the trunk of my car that I bought with one of the online coupons. I've changed tires multiple times, brakes, and fuel line (all with help from jackstands obviously) with the littlest one in the last month. It is quite short at full extention so its probably useless with anything other than a standard car. Also mine had one part that was rusted so i would check before you leave the store. No complaints from me.

 

[woody6904]

I have a HF jack, but like the Costco 3 ton hybrid aluminum jack I bought last year for $99. Not saying the HF jacks aren't good, but the Costco jack is just a little nicer.

 

[CSRPenFab]

I've had the low profile "racing" jack from HF for about 5 years. No issues at all. Heck, it easily lifted the entire from end of my now gone 1997 BMW 740il off the ground.

 

[whateg01]

If you are really wanting an aluminum jack, I have no experience with anything except the expensive ones - and those didn't belong to me. But if you are wanting a jack that you know will last nearly forever, and aren't just replacing one, have you considered a used old USA jack? They tend to be heavy, but if it isn't being lugged around, I have never been disappointed. Plus, 50 years from now, they'll still be worth money. The HF jack won't be worth anything then.

Dave

 

[crguy]

I have one in the trunk of my car that I bought with one of the online coupons. I've changed tires multiple times, brakes, and fuel line (all with help from jackstands obviously) with the littlest one in the last month. It is quite short at full extention so its probably useless with anything other than a standard car. Also mine had one part that was rusted so i would check before you leave the store. No complaints from me.

What kind of **** vehicle are you driving that you need to carry a floor jack all the time?
I've had absolutely no need for a jack for any of my drivers for as long as I can remember.
My Walker floor jack stays in the shop where it gets used on the street rods.

 

[JBradley500]

You'd want a floor jack too if you ever get a flat tire on the highways around here. It's not a place to waste time. You'll end up road kill.

 

[Soslow]

I have one of the 1.5 ton racing jacks that I used exclusively for maintenance on my vehicles for about 7 years with no complaints

 

[hancock1701]

I have the little 1.5 ton and it's been fine. One time it came in pretty handy when I had to fix a tire at my sister's house. Just tossed the thing in the trunk.

Since I started working more on cars and owning a low one, I've been using my other HF 3 ton low profile "gravity altering" jack. Now I usually use the little aluminum one for supporting the engine.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[jallyn]

I needed a new jack a couple years ago. I spent $70 on one of the HF 1.5 Ton aluminum jacks. Weighing in at just under 30 pounds I pick it up one-handed by the knurled part of the handle and put it where it needs to go. Definitely not going to throw my back out using this light weight of a jack. My heaviest vehicle is a Honda minivan and it doesn't seem to mind picking up any corner.

 

[zendriver]

What kind of **** vehicle are you driving that you need to carry a floor jack all the time?
I've had absolutely no need for a jack for any of my drivers for as long as I can remember.
My Walker floor jack stays in the shop where it gets used on the street rods.

I used to carry a lighter weight, small 1.5T floor jack, in the pickup, for any occasion, with my vehicle, others or utility trailers.

Much safer and a lot quicker, than any screw jacks, that come with the vehicles.

 

[Roberts210]

My buddy dropped off his aluminum racing jack for me to use a few years ago. It was nice and shiny and light weight. The third time I jacked up the right rear of my '53 210, the jack failed. Feeling responsible, I took it to Voris Hydraulics for an estimate. http://www.vorishydraulics.com/
They didn't think the chances of rebuilding it were very good. For one thing the jack frames and elements are made by a central factory in Asia, and then sold to various jack builders who all use their own internal parts. Voris said some Chinese jack builders just use O-rings on the ram instead of a cup. Another thing is the valve body is a solid aluminum block, which is light weight all right, but the seats for the ball valves don't last very long. All in all I'll stick to my heavy jacks--one Milwaukee and one Hein-Werner. Both are not easy to lift or tote around, but I know I'm safe when using them.

 

[zendriver]

What’s the buzz on Harbor Freight Aluminum frame/Rapid Pump floor jacks?

I’ve been lugging my only floor jack, and insanely heavy steel one, between the garage and workshop long enough and am looking at buying a 2nd floor jack.

The gravity altering model I’ve been using for over 15 years was bought at HF. It’s still working fine, so I’m not concerned about picking up another from them, although I not tried one of the Rapid Pump floor jacks yet.

In looking at their website, they have aluminum framed jacks for not that much more than the comparable steel units, but are about 1/3 lighter.

Anyone have good or bad experience with one of these aluminum floor jacks?

I'd love to get one, but hard to justify, since i already two of their 3Ts, the old orange monster and a rapid pump low profile.

No problem with either of them, except they are slow, when it's really cold. They should just use synthetic oil in them from the get-go.

Those aluminum ones get high user ratings. Not that that difficult to build a good hydraulic jack..

 

[Zeke]

Satisfied use here but the 2 T model has a tough time on bigger vehicles. I mean you have to put some weight on the handle whereas a good ol' 3 T steel jack will let you pump with one hand while you watch underneath what's happening.

I use the AL jack to get lower cars started and then switch.

 

[dalejrfan88]

I have 2 of the 1.5 ton aluminum ones. I haven't treated them the best over the past few years but they still have never let me down. They are super light compared to the steel ones which is a plus if you have to take it somewhere besides your garage. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one!

 

[Elginz]

1.5 t A couple of years now and no complaints, but the rapid pump means it takes some power to put the handle down. I still get it out most of the time. the rapid pump is also nice when placing the jack, making sure it lands in the right spot.

 

[betsy325e]

What kind of **** vehicle are you driving that you need to carry a floor jack all the time?
I've had absolutely no need for a jack for any of my drivers for as long as I can remember.
My Walker floor jack stays in the shop where it gets used on the street rods.

I often chuck my heavy steel jack in the back of my beater to go across town and help out friends, family, friend's family, etc...and uhh, it *****. Lighter would be better. OP has my sympathy.

I'm sure if you thought about it for any amount of time you could think of situations where it might be handy to have a lightweight jack around/maybe keep in your vehicle.

Never had to change flat tire on your super reliable cars AND you just had to mention your awesome STREET RODS? You're the coooooooolest, dudebro!

Super helpful comment.

 

[ADSR]

I have a HF jack, but like the Costco 3 ton hybrid aluminum jack I bought last year for $99. Not saying the HF jacks aren't good, but the Costco jack is just a little nicer.

I bought one from costco as well. It's a quality jack for the 99 beans.

 

[CJM8515]

Use the 2 ton (or is it 2.5 ton?) AL ones at work. We tried the 1.5 ton ones and they all failed miserably. Same thing happened multiple times: The one little ram at the bottom (there are two) usually failed. Spring broke.