Jack lift height recommendations

[jives]

Hi all;
Looking to buy my first floor jack. it will be used on my kid's cars (low slung compacts) and my E350 van. Tired of scissor jacks, and ramps that are too steep. Anyway, you get the picture. Will be used to change tires, but mostly, to raise up the front or back of the vehicle for better under-car access. Yes, they will be used with jackstands and wheel chocks.

I'm looking at long reach, low profile, high lift jacks. They are not cheap, but does getting 4-6" inches of additional height matter that much? If we use HF Daytona jacks for comparison, a 24" lift height, 3 ton, jack is $189, while a standard 20" lift is $129, and 18" lift is $119.

So, does lifting a car up to 24" matter that much more than 20"? In my mind yes, but I've got no real comparison. What say ye all?

 

[Bad Habit]

Finally just got the Daytona Long Reach myself. Very happy with it. Kids cars are relatively low slung, while I have 4Runner, Jeep, and F350. So far has been able to handle all of them. Definitely not light, not something you're gonna want to haul with you. For me it was worth it to spend the extra

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

It depends on which vehicles. The jack I used to use for all of my vehicles won't work with any of my current vehicles. It's too tall to get under modern sedans, frame length isn't long enough to reach jacking points and it won't lift high enough to raise the wheel on a stock 4x4 truck.
I have a old long frame jack that works for the truck. It is heavy and takes up a lot of floor space and isn't easy to move around.

Last year I bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007G83T16/?tag=atomicindus08-20

The long length is great to reach under vehicles. Raising it the last 4 inches for the truck or SUV makes me a little nervous. My old long frame jack is better on those vehicles.

 

[Tynee]

The extra 4” could be the difference between the jack being tall enough, and having to ise a wood block or something to gain the additional height, especially with the lower clearance compact cars, it’s be worth the rxtra money to me.

 

[catron44]

I'm a HF Daytona convert here. The Cman pro floor jack I had for a long time (20" lift) was plenty of lift for my Avalanche. Then I got a Ram 1500 and the Cman became a waste of space. I went with the yellow Daytona and have been very happy. The extra 3 inches of lift made all the difference when working on my Ram.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Nineeightyone]

I love the HF Daytona as well, I have the long reach low profile and it's been a dream. Most everything I have is lowered, and it's a fantastic fit for getting to an appropriate lifting point. It's definitely heavy, but I think it's well worth it as a decent quality jack for garage use (as opposed to mobile use). I got the extended warranty on it for peace of mind, but my HF Pittsburgh jack has been around for about a decade and still hasn't given me any issues.

 

[JulianMorrow]

Spend the extra money and get the 24" floor jack. A quality floor jack will last a decade or more (depending on use). Divide the $189 price tag over 10 years, and it comes to very little money. I'd recommend a minimum 3 ton jack. Below is an buyer's guide from Floorjacked:
https://floorjacked.com/buyers-guide-choosing-the-best-floor-jack/

 

[dacan23]

I have the HF long reach low profile jack prior to it being rebranded as the orange Daytona one. I have maybe used it to lift at least 20" to get jack stands under a certain part of the car. With jacks I want the lowest longest reaching highest lifting one. Its my fourth jack and jack #3 & #4 were bought because the prior one no longer met my needs for one of the 3 criteria mentioned. Had I just bought the $180 jack 15 years ago I would probably only own 1 jack.

 

[56Safari]

I like having 2, especially when it’s time to rotate tires... I use the arcan 2 ton most often because it’s only 69 lbs, has 18.5” lift. And the arcan 3.5 ton which is 23” lift when I have bigger stuff to lift


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Bacon!]

Extra lift is nice but may be largely wasted money if your jack stands aren't tall enough to make use of it, and if they are, they may be too tall for non-high-lift jacks (depends on vehicle/situation). Typical 6 ton a-frame jack stands only go up to about 24" and I generally don't like using their max lift height if I don't need to. Sub-6-ton stands, no way I'd use them higher than 20" and most only go to 16"-17".

On the other hand, it is possible to just not use the max capacity but is impossible to safely add to max capacity. You can throw a block of wood or a saddle extension on a floor jack just to lift, but not so much for safe use of the jack stands. Towards that end, buy as much as you can afford as you're not likely to regret it over years of ownership.

I'd go for at least the 20" but the 24" depends more on how old and big you are. A smaller flexible person can do repairs easier with 4" less lift. If you're on a creeper then add a couple inches more clearance for that (or measure it).

 

[Ign]

The difference between the ubiquitous ~19" lift height and 24" is significant if you work on trucks or even vans like, oh say.... an E350

The Sunex 6602LP is another contender, although more $ than the aforementioned HF:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1ZCN0I/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Bacon!]

^ What have you worked on that needed more than 20"? I haven't anything unless it has a lift kit and oversized tires... doubt an E350 would need that, nor anything (passenger vehicle/truck) without a lift kit up to 32" tires. Granted I'm ignoring the newer breed of pickups that are set up for off-road from the factory.

 

[jives]

While I don't like spending an extra $50-60 for a bit of extra capacity, I've learned too often that cheapening out at the start causes aggravation later on. I'm old, decrepit, and need more room under the car, if for no other reason to see better. I may need to upsize my jack stands.

Good advice, folks, thanks.

 

[Ign]

^ What have you worked on that needed more than 20"? I haven't anything unless it has a lift kit and oversized tires... doubt an E350 would need that, nor anything (passenger vehicle/truck) without a lift kit up to 32" tires. Granted I'm ignoring the newer breed of pickups that are set up for off-road from the factory.

I work on 99% trucks, so yeah.

If you're ever doing more than just pulling tires ANY additional height is welcome. Sometimes if you've gotta go off a framerail even 24" won't be enough but it can be the difference between a single 2x4 or trying to source a 6x6" or bigger.

Sometimes you want to completely unweight an axle so jacking off the axle is, obviously, not productive. Sometimes you want to lower a fuel tank or transfer case.....the POSSIBILITIES are literally endless

 

[dacan23]

In regards to jack height versus stand height. When your lifting point is a foot or more in front of where you want to put the jack stands you will need the extra height. For instance on many of my BMWs the lifting point is about the middle underneath the engine, yet I have special jack stands that fit in the jacking point location about where the end of the front fender meets the door panel.

 

[Bacon!]

^ I disagree. Yes it's nice to have extra inches but not needed in the vast majority of (light/medium passenger) trucks that aren't lifted. The factory jacks themselves often don't even go that high.

You seldom really need to jack a frame rail anyway. You might want to put a jack stand there but you always have all four corners where you can find a spot to jack, unless there's some severe suspension damage and even then, you have the frame member the control arm attaches to.

Unweighing an axle does not mean you can't jack there. It means you can't put the jack stand there. Obviously you can't put both in exactly the same spot, you jack one location and put the jack stand in the other.

This is why the jack stands themselves are a more important choice than the jack, because they do often get placed on a higher up frame rail so they need the extra height and base stability. Don't even tell us you'll be jacking over 20" to get under a vehicle without using jack stands as the primary support!

 

[Bacon!]

In regards to jack height versus stand height. When your lifting point is a foot or more in front of where you want to put the jack stands you will need the extra height. For instance on many of my BMWs the lifting point is about the middle underneath the engine, yet I have special jack stands that fit in the jacking point location about where the end of the front fender meets the door panel.

Yes that's possible but we're talking exact numbers as they apply to a jack purchase. I'll bet a 20" lift there is more than enough to max out typical 3 ton jack stands in the standard unibody pinch rail points right behind the front wheels.

Thats some kind of right angle triangle calculation based on the fraction of the wheelbase length. 20" a foot forward isn't going to be but an inch or two difference depending on the engine cradle height. To simplify and generalize, suppose you have 20" lift on a 6" clearance, that's 14" rise. Suppose you're 12" forward on a 120" wheelbase vehicle. That's a bit under 1/10th the 14" rise or 1.4"difference between the two points.

I'll also bet that 3 ton jack stands maxed out on pinch rails, is enough room to work under since I have replaced car exhausts with less than that.

I get the whole bigger is better argument because it's often true, but the fact is, most people with cars and trucks have gotten along for decades with only a 16-3/4" lift floor jack. The main time I find I need more than 17" on any stock config vehicle is some Jeeps and other old body on frame vehicles with maxed out wheel and tire upgrades, definitely not anything new enough to be unibody. That's >17" jack stands, not even the jack itself.

I'm not saying don't get the biggest, highest reach, and highest quality floor jack that fits the budget. I'm just saying don't overspend for what you won't ever need and don't waste money on more lift than the jack stand you're going to use can handle. Do plan on upgrading to 6 ton stands for a 20" floor jack or 12 ton stands to get the most out of a 24" lift floor jack. Ton ratings here are approximate, different designs will vary and this is the most common A-frame type I'm referring to.

 

[jives]

Well, I guess I should conclude this thread. I ended up getting the HF Daytona low profile 3T jack, but NOT with the long reach (additional 4" lift). Simple economics; long reach was $190, the other was $110 with coupon. I used it to jack up my son's Impala to work on the exhaust, and though another 4" would have enabled a higher height on the jack stands, it worked out okay in the end.

I may kick myself for being cheap and saving $80, but when you are in the store it can be hard to justify. . .