clarke ali trolly jack failure......with me under the car!

[bimsb6]

costco do a couple of hefty car jacks an ally low profile and a an ordinary one i believe.

[47p2]

I've bought a few Clarke products over the years only to find they have a very short life. Now I pay a bit extra and buy better quality leaving the Clarke crap on the shelves

My trolley jack is a 45 year old Epco 3 ton bit of kit which belonged to my father and although it has never let me down I always use axle stands before venturing under the cars

[Stu R]

Costco jacks are very, very good.

[irish boy]

Jacks are lifting devices not holding devices. axel stands are so necessary when going under any car. mind you i've seen one of those collapse once also!

[jamiebae]

Beedub said:

anyone have any opinions on snap on?? sealy?? Really want to spend more and buy once!! :-)

Sealey will be the same as a Clarke one, made in the same factory to a near identical spec. Just get yours swapped for another one, it broke because a hydraulic seal failed and that can happen on any jack.

[FranKinFezza]

jagracer said:

There's cheap Chinese products and then there's Chinese products. There's a massive amount of top brand stuff that's made in China, a lot of Snap-On tools being one that springs to mind. I've bought a couple of solid Oak chests of drawers that you'd think were made by craftsmen here but on looking it turns out they are made in China, just because they may pay crap wages doesn't mean that things are always made from crap materials.
I think Clarke stuff however leans more to the former.

Good to hear you are ok OP.

This is the problem with Chinese kit they can and DO make good kit when
the buyer insists on it Snap on et al however they also make a lot of
dangerously crap kit as well as the OP has found.
The moral as ever is buyer beware its cheap for a reason!

[kev b]

It is not neccesary to use a low profile jack to lift a lowered car, I drive the car onto blocks of wood (eg 2x4) which raises it enough to fit a standard jack. Safe and cheap.

[sharpfocus]

I have to drive up my ramps just to get the low entry trolley jack underneath.

[GreigM]

sharpfocus said:

I have to drive up my ramps just to get the low entry trolley jack underneath.

Then you need a "proper" low-entry jack....the one in costco is something like 75mm, and importantly long enough at the low height to get right under - if your car is lower than that it would be undriveable on the roads.

As for the Clarke ali jack - I have one and am always nervous of it.....I must confess that I've been under cars many times with the costco 3-tonne jack, but the clarke is only rated to 1.25 tonnes and feels like its struggling on a lot of cars. I know that theoretically if a car weighs 1.5tonne and the jack can move 1.25 tonne it should be fine as long as at least 1 wheel stays on the ground to take some of the load, but I still don't trust it.

[JM]

Stu R said:

Costco jacks are very, very good.

I just recently got one, not used it much yet, but yea seems very good.

I also have a 20+ year old Halfords 2Ton jack that has had lots of use and is still going strong.

[Riff Raff]

FranKinFezza said:

This is the problem with Chinese kit they can and DO make good kit when
the buyer insists on it Snap on et al however they also make a lot of
dangerously crap kit as well as the OP has found.
The moral as ever is buyer beware its cheap for a reason!

Dangerously crap? Nothing actually broke from what I've read, a seal failed. Seals fail all the time on all sorts of stuff from the taps in my house to transmission seals on my SLK. That doesn't make them crap products. If it had been one of the castings that had failed, then it would be a different story. But it wasn't.

[TRUENOSAM]

I had a similar incident with a Clarke jack. Its now redundant to jobs like supporting gear boxes and such like rather than lifting the vehicle.

My Snap-On 3 ton jack is a beast though

[DannyVTS]

There is a halfords jack on offer for £35 down from £80 I think it's 2.25 tonne

[NHK244V]

Ally trolly jacks are a gimmibk IMHO, never found one thats as good as a decent workshop type jack, i've bent 3, 2 fell appart and one bust the same as yours.
now i stick to my old bradbury when in the workshop or use a clarke 2 tonn trally jack for mobile stuff, heavy but reliable

[tr7v8]

I've a chinese made ali race type jack, which I bought with the Lotus 7 guys bulk buy a few years ago & find it too wide for the Porsche 944. It is also pretty much the same weight as my Halfords 2 tonne one! My last Halfords one lasted 14 years or so before dying, I'm hoping this one does the same.
I always use blocks of wood to spread the load & axle stands as well.

[Beedub]

ok so machine mart worryingly didnt seem suprised at all but demanded i leave my out of warranty unit with them...... he said he must send it back so they can understand why it happened and get it repaired if possible, he also said they usually fail when jacking the car and not once the car is in the air!!! lol At this point i actually decided i really dont care if i get it back, so ive lost alittle money but me and my car are in perfect working order.

so guys please please please use axle stands, i have ever since i started messing with cars.

i went to cosco and picked up a very handy 2 tonne low slung unit, very substantial unit and much wider/ longer, its made in the usa by a us company called arcan or something similar, very chuffed with it.

just a warning to you guys, yesterday i could well have been crushed, my pregnant o/H couldnt have helped!!!

im not to sure about the house of house bricks...... but i suppose with a nice section of wood it could work nicely, id be worried its going to crack and my car fall on the floor, or on top of me!!

just out of interest is their any type of trolly jack that doesnt use fluid and hydraulics??

Edited by Beedub on Monday 14th March 19:47

[LuS1fer]

Mine came from Halfords years and years and years ago and cost £20. never let me down - or indeed the car - unless it was told to.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Belt and braces IMHO - trolley to get it up there, then axle stands and wheels under sills. Most of the time I actually use ramps, and chock the rear wheels.

Good advice to have somebody around, or I have a walkie talkie so I can yell at the other half in the house if I do something silly (or need a cup of tea )

Think my trolley jack is a clarke workshop one from Machine Mart, got it with a couple of axle stands about 10 years ago.

[blearyeyedboy]

OP, thumbup to you for highlighting something really important.

[KaraK]

I had a lucky escape a couple of years ago - we were jacking my mate's S2 up to check out some damage to the exhaust using the standard scissor jack and I stuck my head under to check that we had the clearance for the axle stand (no I don't know why I did either) and had just pulled clear when the scissor jack folded like paper!