Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[Mars]

Can anyone recommend the holy grail of trolley jacks?

>Aluminium - any weight saving would be good
>High lift - for an SUV
>Quick lift / raises to the point of contact with the underside in a very few pumps
>3-tonne... Or at least 2.5T anyway.

If the high lift component was removable or could be reduced by screwing it in, to give a low access, that would be tip top.

[dscam]

Arnold Cunningham said:

I don't think that's what he said at all? It is interesting who owns what though.

Yes, not making any inference of one brand better than another but simply that Makita only owns Makita whereas other brands are part of a wider portfolio. Quite understandable that companies may want to cater for budget/DIY and professionals under different brands etc but agree this graphic says nothing about who manufactures the tools.

[NextSlidePlease]

dscam said:

I’ve posted this before I think and it’s interesting that only Makita make Makita tools. This taken from PopularMechanics in 2017 but I believe it’s still accurate:

It is quite strange how they have managed to avoid being either swept up by a bigger force or that they havent set about expanding into other brands/countries themselves.

Only gripe with Makita is that their name is slapped over the budget diy'er clobber all the way up to their professional range, and takes a while to decipher what's what, somewhat dilutes the brand and their perception of quality. They have a bewildering range of 18v impact drivers for example, whereas the likes of Milwaukee have 2, and use other brands to target other segments, Ryobi for example seems to be aimed at the average diy'er.

[Arnold Cunningham]

Looking at the makita site (only because I ordered an impact driver last week), yes, I agree, it looks like there's 5 different impact drivers with nothing much to compare many of them. However, what's available? Toolstation list 2 impact drivers (with another 2 "screwdrivers") and of those 2, 1 is while stocks last. The remaining one is the the replacement model.

Screwfix had 5 or 6 I think - but filtering down to the bigger torque ones & brushless motors came down to just a couple - the 153 & 154.

Point being, what looked like a bewildering list ultimately came down to "that one" : a DTD153Z. I agree that many of the others seems a bit of an excessive choice list, it still ultimately wasn't hard to work out which one was the right one.

I guess the other way is to look across brands - but when trying to compare, that makes it tougher to compare like for like. Plus battery compatibility becomes an issue.

So I don't mind the way they've done it.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Tuesday 21st June 08:24

[CorradoTDI]

That's a good diagram but is missing Dolmar who are a German brand which is owned by Makita and also makes LXT compatible tools.

https://www.dolmar.de/produkte/neuheiten/index.htm...

Edited by CorradoTDI on Tuesday 21st June 09:38

[RicksAlfas]

Mars said:

Can anyone recommend the holy grail of trolley jacks?

>Aluminium - any weight saving would be good
>High lift - for an SUV
>Quick lift / raises to the point of contact with the underside in a very few pumps
>3-tonne... Or at least 2.5T anyway.

If the high lift component was removable or could be reduced by screwing it in, to give a low access, that would be tip top.

SGS do some decent looking jacks and are helpful if you need advice/spares:
https://www.sgs-engineering.com/garage-equipment/t...

My Clarke Pro has served me well over the years, bought back in the "VAT Free Sale" days!

[Mars]

RicksAlfas said:

Mars said:

Can anyone recommend the holy grail of trolley jacks?

>Aluminium - any weight saving would be good
>High lift - for an SUV
>Quick lift / raises to the point of contact with the underside in a very few pumps
>3-tonne... Or at least 2.5T anyway.

If the high lift component was removable or could be reduced by screwing it in, to give a low access, that would be tip top.

SGS do some decent looking jacks and are helpful if you need advice/spares:
https://www.sgs-engineering.com/garage-equipment/t...

My Clarke Pro has served me well over the years, bought back in the "VAT Free Sale" days!

Thanks. My bottle jack came from them. Their aluminium range is currently not in stock (I can wait) but they don't quite fulfil my requirements. They are close. Currently looking at their largest version against a Draper one on Amazon and the Halfords one. They're all good but none are high lift. I have height adjustable air springs on my car. Recently, I needed to change a tyre and although I could jack it up with enough clearance, it was marginal. I think all of these are probably OK but as I have seen high lift variants (in steel only - very very heavy) I had hoped I might find an alloy one too. However, I as I said I think these will probably be OK and at about £200 they're all good.

[RicksAlfas]

Mars said:

Thanks. My bottle jack came from them. Their aluminium range is currently not in stock (I can wait) but they don't quite fulfil my requirements. They are close. Currently looking at their largest version against a Draper one on Amazon and the Halfords one. They're all good but none are high lift. I have height adjustable air springs on my car. Recently, I needed to change a tyre and although I could jack it up with enough clearance, it was marginal. I think all of these are probably OK but as I have seen high lift variants (in steel only - very very heavy) I had hoped I might find an alloy one too. However, I as I said I think these will probably be OK and at about £200 they're all good.

Is the weight of a jack a problem? How often do you pick up a jack and carry it?

Can you lower your car before you jack it up?

[Mars]

RicksAlfas said:

Mars said:

Thanks. My bottle jack came from them. Their aluminium range is currently not in stock (I can wait) but they don't quite fulfil my requirements. They are close. Currently looking at their largest version against a Draper one on Amazon and the Halfords one. They're all good but none are high lift. I have height adjustable air springs on my car. Recently, I needed to change a tyre and although I could jack it up with enough clearance, it was marginal. I think all of these are probably OK but as I have seen high lift variants (in steel only - very very heavy) I had hoped I might find an alloy one too. However, I as I said I think these will probably be OK and at about £200 they're all good.

Is the weight of a jack a problem? How often do you pick up a jack and carry it?

Can you lower your car before you jack it up?

Is the weight a problem?... no, not really. and in fact even the alloy ones aren't exactly "light" but I do like to "buy once" and get it right. When I go touring, I do take a load of tools and spares with me, and I will take this jack so having it more "handle-able" is nice.

After looking at options a little more, the high lift requirement seems to be a bit of a non-event too. I was unaware that the high lift component is an add-on pillar to some jacks, so I could potentially purchase something to bolt onto the lifting pad. I don't need low-height access on my current car but it's nice to buy an all-purpose jack if I can. The alloy ones have incredibly low height access, and with an add-on pillar, I can adapt it for high lift when needed too.

So, having looked at the 3-options, the SGS one seems to win. All three (Halfords, SGS, Draper) lift to within 1cm of each other, weigh about 26Kg each, and have an initial quick lift. The Halfords one is 2-tonne, where the other two are 2.5-tonne. Nice to have the extra capacity as my car is 2.4-tonnes (and I know I won't be lifting the whole car in one go). I'll go with the SGS one as I've been happy with their service in the past.

[RicksAlfas]

Ah. Didn't think about you taking it out and about with you, rather than just left in the garage.
Hope it's a good one!

[Slow]

Mars said:

RicksAlfas said:

Mars said:

Thanks. My bottle jack came from them. Their aluminium range is currently not in stock (I can wait) but they don't quite fulfil my requirements. They are close. Currently looking at their largest version against a Draper one on Amazon and the Halfords one. They're all good but none are high lift. I have height adjustable air springs on my car. Recently, I needed to change a tyre and although I could jack it up with enough clearance, it was marginal. I think all of these are probably OK but as I have seen high lift variants (in steel only - very very heavy) I had hoped I might find an alloy one too. However, I as I said I think these will probably be OK and at about £200 they're all good.

Is the weight of a jack a problem? How often do you pick up a jack and carry it?

Can you lower your car before you jack it up?

Is the weight a problem?... no, not really. and in fact even the alloy ones aren't exactly "light" but I do like to "buy once" and get it right. When I go touring, I do take a load of tools and spares with me, and I will take this jack so having it more "handle-able" is nice.

After looking at options a little more, the high lift requirement seems to be a bit of a non-event too. I was unaware that the high lift component is an add-on pillar to some jacks, so I could potentially purchase something to bolt onto the lifting pad. I don't need low-height access on my current car but it's nice to buy an all-purpose jack if I can. The alloy ones have incredibly low height access, and with an add-on pillar, I can adapt it for high lift when needed too.

So, having looked at the 3-options, the SGS one seems to win. All three (Halfords, SGS, Draper) lift to within 1cm of each other, weigh about 26Kg each, and have an initial quick lift. The Halfords one is 2-tonne, where the other two are 2.5-tonne. Nice to have the extra capacity as my car is 2.4-tonnes (and I know I won't be lifting the whole car in one go). I'll go with the SGS one as I've been happy with their service in the past.

Not a Range Rover is it? Try a mercedes sprinter bottle jack as thats the go to upgrade due to the air suspension making it needed to be jacked into space.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354114333478?hash=item5...

[rover 623gsi]

I know most of this thread is about is about tools but last month we bought an air fryer - absolutely brilliant, we’ve used it loads. Should have got one ages ago. Definitely recommend.

[LeadFarmer]

rover 623gsi said:

I know most of this thread is about is about tools but last month we bought an air fryer - absolutely brilliant, we’ve used it loads. Should have got one ages ago. Definitely recommend.

Theres an air fryer/Ninja/Instant Pot thread in the food section. I have an Instant Pot pressure cooker/air fryer.

[Sporky]

I use a Dewalt hot air gun.

[Captain Answer]

NextSlidePlease said:

It is quite strange how they have managed to avoid being either swept up by a bigger force or that they havent set about expanding into other brands/countries themselves.

Only gripe with Makita is that their name is slapped over the budget diy'er clobber all the way up to their professional range, and takes a while to decipher what's what, somewhat dilutes the brand and their perception of quality. They have a bewildering range of 18v impact drivers for example, whereas the likes of Milwaukee have 2, and use other brands to target other segments, Ryobi for example seems to be aimed at the average diy'er.

Arnold Cunningham said:

Looking at the makita site (only because I ordered an impact driver last week), yes, I agree, it looks like there's 5 different impact drivers with nothing much to compare many of them. However, what's available? Toolstation list 2 impact drivers (with another 2 "screwdrivers") and of those 2, 1 is while stocks last. The remaining one is the the replacement model.

Screwfix had 5 or 6 I think - but filtering down to the bigger torque ones & brushless motors came down to just a couple - the 153 & 154.

Point being, what looked like a bewildering list ultimately came down to "that one" : a DTD153Z. I agree that many of the others seems a bit of an excessive choice list, it still ultimately wasn't hard to work out which one was the right one.

I guess the other way is to look across brands - but when trying to compare, that makes it tougher to compare like for like. Plus battery compatibility becomes an issue.

So I don't mind the way they've done it.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Tuesday 21st June 08:24

One good thing I think is actually that the Makita batteries fit all those tools across those ranges... want a decent drill/driver/impact you've got the batteries, want a cheaper impact for the car, you've got the batteries, want a cheaper drill to keep in a caravan & you've got the batteries - where as say Milwaukee in the example you are limited to that system or using adapters or buying into other systems

The Makita site itself is fairly woeful for actually comparing the units together tho, that I will agree on

[R56Cooper]

Arnold Cunningham said:

I bought a Makita DTD153 and a set of impact tools for it last week. I can say with certainty that it made it a "shed" load easier to build this log shed this weekend. That and the air nailer, Clarke CFN34. Between the 2 of them, massive amount of effort saved.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Sunday 19th June 20:07

That looks like a really neat job. May I ask what it cost in materials?

[4Q]

Slow said:

Not a Range Rover is it? Try a mercedes sprinter bottle jack as thats the go to upgrade due to the air suspension making it needed to be jacked into space.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354114333478?hash=item5...

Lower the car down first and lock it into place then you don’t have to lift it so high.

[Zumbruk]

4Q said:

Lower the car down first and lock it into place then you don’t have to lift it so high.

The manual for my Disco 4 said to put the suspension into "High" before jacking it, otherwise the self-levelling "fights back" (as indeed it does!)

[Mars]

Thanks for the info. Mines a Merc - I don't think the suspension locks into place.

But that aside, when I recently killed a tyre, I needed to jack the car up from the deflated position enough to get a fully inflated spare on. With a bit of suspension droop as well, it equates to quite a lift.

Anyway, thanks. I reckon I've sorted it. An SGS 2.5 tonne alloy trolley jack, which I'll buy first and then work out how to implement some sort of pillar on the saddle. That seems to provide all the options I need, and only £150 plus p&p.


Another thing... In changing that tyre, I couldn't get the bloody locking wheel nut off. When I bought new tyres, the fitters must have fitted my wheels with their rattle gun, and although I managed to get the 4 standard wheel nuts off, that locking one wouldn't move until the leverage I exerted bent the weird key pattern on the wheel nut.

After lots of hammering and the use of another rattle gun, it came off - completely knackered - but it left me with no confidence in them, so I've binned all the locking wheel nuts in favour of normal ones. Do people still steal wheels?

[Trustmeimadoctor]

I've just fitted my new wheels with normal bolts and my e class only needs 130nm to get to spec not a huge amount