Milwaukee vs. Hein-Werner jacks

[RancherRob]

Does anyone have any first hand comparison experience with the material quality, workmanship, and customer service between the two? I'm torn between the Milwaukee 40 and the Hein-Werner HW93667. The HW with air assist is really appealing as I'm getting older (gonna have to buy a tire lift/lever too for the 35"x12.5" toyos) but I like the fact the milwuakee is all American. If only they had air assist. That and the HW is around half again as much!; Not that price is a critical factor under 2k. Jacks get used for everything around the ranch but given how heavy these are, they will probably only get wheeled around the garage and driveway to work on our cars, swap snow tires on two vehicles twice a year, work on trucks and occasionally tractors. Thanks for any input

 

[6PTsocket]

The HW is made by Shinn Fu but it is totally made in USA. Only the 2 and 3 ton are assembled here from imported parts Milwaukee has not been American owned for many years. So you have two foreign companies making jacks in US plants. As to service, quality or features, that is a separate issue for you to resolve.

Does anyone have any first hand comparison experience with the material quality, workmanship, and customer service between the two? I'm torn between the Milwaukee 40 and the Hein-Werner HW93667. The HW with air assist is really appealing as I'm getting older (gonna have to buy a tire lift/lever too for the 35"x12.5" toyos) but I like the fact the milwuakee is all American. If only they had air assist. That and the HW is around half again as much!; Not that price is a critical factor under 2k. Jacks get used for everything around the ranch but given how heavy these are, they will probably only get wheeled around the garage and driveway to work on our cars, swap snow tires on two vehicles twice a year, work on trucks and occasionally tractors. Thanks for any input

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[ThomasNORWAY]

How about AC hydraulic? Not American but made in Denmark. Top notch quality! I have one myself and its perfect, the fit and finish is great.

http://www.ac-hydraulic.dk/en/products/

Heres some pictures of mine:



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[Roberts210]

Milwaukee Hydraulics not American owned??
The components are made in the U.S. and they are assembled in Milwaukee, Wisc. But to be fair all I know is M.H. is a privately held company.

http://milwaukeejack.com/index.html

I have owned 2 Milwaukee Model 20 service jacks.
I currently own 2 Hein Werner jacks--a 2-ton model and a 1.5 ton model. I actually sold the Milwaukee jacks last summer because the H.W. T-shaped handles are easier for me to use. But the Milwaukee's gave good service for many years. I owned one of the Milwaukee Model 20 jacks for over 26 years before I sold it. It never, not once, ever let me down.

 

[Roberts210]

According to this GJ Thread Milwaukee Hydraulics is family owned by a Wisc. family.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=358283

 

[paulsomlo]

According to this GJ Thread Milwaukee Hydraulics is family owned by a Wisc. family.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=358283

Milwaukee doesn't do near the volume to make them attractive to any foreign entity.

 

[drtyler]

Milwaukee Hydraulic is not the same company as TTI / Milwaukee power tools.

The HW is made by Shinn Fu but it is totally made in USA. Only the 2 and 3 ton are assembled here from imported parts Milwaukee has not been American owned for many years. So you have two foreign companies making jacks in US plants. As to service, quality or features, that is a separate issue for you to resolve.

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[Roberts210]

Milwaukee doesn't do near the volume to make them attractive to any foreign entity.

I doubt if it's the volume a Chinee jack company would be interested in, but the name. Milwaukee Hydraulics has an extremely good reputation for the quality of their jacks, and has for many decades. It would be disheartening to see Chinese models of the Milwaukee Model 20 all lined up in Harbor Freight, selling for $179. I can just imagine the level of crappy engineering they'd build into them. Ugh.

 

[Wamerjamer]

I have both a Milwaukee 20 and a 40. They are both very high quality. One thing though, the handle when lifting engages fairly low maybe at 25 degrees or so. Hope it helps.

 

[RancherRob]

How about AC hydraulic?

Looks like a really nicely built jack. However, I can't find much about them or a convenient place to buy one.

 

[RancherRob]

So, I called Milwaukee Jacks using the toll free number on their website. I kept getting, "please press 1 to continue". After 3 or so rounds of that, I got a live person that was very difficult to understand and didn't speak English very well. So I tried the alternative listed 414 area code number. That got me to a voice mail box that said I could Not leave a message! So the milwaukee was crossed of my list. Sad to see that happen to yet another well reputed american company.

Hein-Werner on the other hand, when I called, I was connected with a human pretty quickly and he clearly answered my questions so HW it is!

Turns out O'Reilly Auto Parts carries the HW brand and the local shop is going to order me the HW93667 and match the price I found online so I am excited. The benefit is giving the profits to a local company as well as I'll have a place to easily return it should there be a problem vs. having to mess around with shipping on such an awkward and heavy item.

Thanks for the info guys and I'll try to post more later after I've had it for a while in case anyone else in a similar situation comes across this thread.

 

[paulsomlo]

Looks like a really nicely built jack. However, I can't find much about them or a convenient place to buy one.

That's why you don't see many of them. The only retailer I know of is Pelican Parts, an online seller that caters to German car enthusiasts.

 

[paulsomlo]

So, I called Milwaukee Jacks using the toll free number on their website. I kept getting, "please press 1 to continue". After 3 or so rounds of that, I got a live person that was very difficult to understand and didn't speak English very well. So I tried the alternative listed 414 area code number. That got me to a voice mail box that said I could Not leave a message! So the milwaukee was crossed of my list. Sad to see that happen to yet another well reputed american company.

As someone stated, Milwaukee Jack is a small, family run company. I seem to recall that they close the office at noon or 2pm local time. My sense is that their volume is so low at this point, that they may be keeping irregular hours.

At any rate, I'm sure you'll be happy with the Hein-Werner.