Recondition a trolley jack?
Discussion
Hi all
I was doing some work on a car with my brother the other day and he wheeled around my trusty old (approx 7 years) Clarke 3 tin trolley jack and started jacking the car.
It got the wheel about 5 inches off the ground and they suddenly sunk a couple if inches. Then proceeded to work fine again. I can't see any fluid or anything leaking from it.
Needless to say we were exercising caution anyway and using stands, I'd never dream of being under a car on the jack. We managed to finish the job with no more incidents.
So, does this mean it's time to splash the cash on a new jack? If his one can be overhauled I would prefer it. It's a nice old thing and I've grown to love it. It also fits under all my cars nicely and I have a few custom bits like rubber pads/ blocks that may not fit a replacement.
Cheers in advance for any help.
I was doing some work on a car with my brother the other day and he wheeled around my trusty old (approx 7 years) Clarke 3 tin trolley jack and started jacking the car.
It got the wheel about 5 inches off the ground and they suddenly sunk a couple if inches. Then proceeded to work fine again. I can't see any fluid or anything leaking from it.
Needless to say we were exercising caution anyway and using stands, I'd never dream of being under a car on the jack. We managed to finish the job with no more incidents.
So, does this mean it's time to splash the cash on a new jack? If his one can be overhauled I would prefer it. It's a nice old thing and I've grown to love it. It also fits under all my cars nicely and I have a few custom bits like rubber pads/ blocks that may not fit a replacement.
Cheers in advance for any help.
Bit odd. I had one that would slowly sink. Stripped it and put in new o ring seals. Fine afterwards. I've also had the valve that you open to lower not shut off propely. Again, a strip and clean fixed it. Any chance air has got into the hydraulics ? I'd cycle it up and down off load a few times. Some new hydraulic oil might help.
E24man said:
It's holding one to two tonnes up and preventing it from falling down and crushing you like a fly. I should think your life might be worth the purchase cost of a spanking new jack, don't you?
Nope. NEVER NEVER NEVER get under a car with ANY jack. Always substitute axle stands, but leave the jack in position if possible as a backup. Had a friend killed by a car falling on him.robinessex said:
E24man said:
It's holding one to two tonnes up and preventing it from falling down and crushing you like a fly. I should think your life might be worth the purchase cost of a spanking new jack, don't you?
Nope. NEVER NEVER NEVER get under a car with ANY jack. Always substitute axle stands, but leave the jack in position if possible as a backup. Had a friend killed by a car falling on him.Krikkit said:
robinessex said:
E24man said:
It's holding one to two tonnes up and preventing it from falling down and crushing you like a fly. I should think your life might be worth the purchase cost of a spanking new jack, don't you?
Nope. NEVER NEVER NEVER get under a car with ANY jack. Always substitute axle stands, but leave the jack in position if possible as a backup. Had a friend killed by a car falling on him.Having been under a car (on stands) that got reversed into, I advocate having as many things under it to stop it dropping onto you.
Dave^ said:
I've always used just a standard jack whilst clambering under my car.However, £17.10 for a 2 Ton Trolley jack is a billy bargain.
Good link that. Nice one.
It might just have air in the system. Had this with a Sealey jack I‘d only had a couple of months. Topped it up with hydraulic oil, bled out the air and it‘s been fine since. Can‘t remember how I bled it, but there‘s a procedure online somewhere that I used.
There‘s something else online I saw too - a big list of local news stories of people being crushed by their cars whilst working on them! The list is more than big enough to make you think twice about getting under a car held up with nothing more than a jack.
There‘s something else online I saw too - a big list of local news stories of people being crushed by their cars whilst working on them! The list is more than big enough to make you think twice about getting under a car held up with nothing more than a jack.
Dave^ said:
I've got thru a number of trolley jacks including Snap-on,Sealey,Clarke etc.To be honest they are all much of a muchness.I had the Snap-on one reconditioned twice at great expense.It's finally gone in the scrap.
My latest is an SGS 3 tonner,80 odd quid.
I wouldn't say it was any better than the others.It squeaks quite a bit and the punp up ratio is poor.
If you only use a jack occasionally it should last for years though.I have another smaller trolley jack ( can't recall the make offhand,maybe Halfords ) that I bought about 15 years ago.It only gets brought out for particularly low cars in order to raise them enough to get my main jack under and it's still going strong
Those SGS guys look pretty good. And they are not that far from me either so might go and visit and take a look at the different options before taking the plunge.
Will try and service mine too first, those who suggested changing seals, will they be easily attainable off the shelf type affairs?
Will try and service mine too first, those who suggested changing seals, will they be easily attainable off the shelf type affairs?
Halfords currently have their own brand 2 tonne low profile trolley jack on offer for £24.99. I bought one the weekend to replace my trusty Aldi 2 tonner that has just started dropping a few cm's under load.
No brainer to me, not even worth the hassle of beginning to think about reconditioning at that price
http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/...
No brainer to me, not even worth the hassle of beginning to think about reconditioning at that price
http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/...
giger said:
Halfords currently have their own brand 2 tonne low profile trolley jack on offer for £24.99. I bought one the weekend to replace my trusty Aldi 2 tonner that has just started dropping a few cm's under load.
No brainer to me, not even worth the hassle of beginning to think about reconditioning at that price
http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/...
I bought that one with some Axel stands from them, and it's a really good jack, the tyre fitters struggled to jack mine up (resorted to using wood chocks on jack ends) to get to a jacking point, cause they're far back and the sills/side skirts are quite low. No brainer to me, not even worth the hassle of beginning to think about reconditioning at that price
http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/...
If it was perhaps stored vertically air may have got where it should not have. Or perhaps it may have drained to the reservoir.
If it's working fine now, no leaks, then no worries. As previously pointed out, you never trust any jack anyway and always assume it's ready to collapse. Do that and you will always be fine.
If it's working fine now, no leaks, then no worries. As previously pointed out, you never trust any jack anyway and always assume it's ready to collapse. Do that and you will always be fine.
Dave^ said:
They do - I had one of the Arcan low profile jobbies from Costco that (along with most of my tools) was stolen.I replaced it with one of these....
http://www.sgs-engineering.com/hydraulic-jacks/tro...
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