Trolley jack maitenance
Trolley jack maitenance
Author
Discussion

Drew106

Original Poster:

1,585 posts

162 months

Tuesday 5th December 2017
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Just wondering whether to do a little maintenance on my trolley jack.

How often does anyone else do this? What do you do and what products do you use?

The jack I have is this one: https://www.drapertools.com/product/31481/Low-Prof...

Great jack btw. Would recommend.

Thinking about cleaning and re-greasing the moving bits and perhaps changing the oil as per the manual, but unsure what grease or oil would be best.

The manual doesn't state how often to do this or the products to use.

Drew106

Original Poster:

1,585 posts

162 months

Tuesday 5th December 2017
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Fecking spelling mistake in the title which I cannot edit! That's annoying.

227bhp

10,203 posts

145 months

Tuesday 5th December 2017
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It depends on how much use it gets, ring Draper for oil spec, but generally and amazingly something labelled as 'Trolley jack oil' or 'hydraulic jack oil' will do.

Drew106

Original Poster:

1,585 posts

162 months

Tuesday 5th December 2017
quotequote all
227bhp said:
It depends on how much use it gets, ring Draper for oil spec, but generally and amazingly something labelled as 'Trolley jack oil' or 'hydraulic jack oil' will do.
Ah OK. Didn't know specific trolley jack oil existed tbh, but probably should have Googled that in hindsight lol.

Just light home use I guess. Two cars, general servicing, oil changes, brakes, swapping wheels, some other tinkering with the MX5. Maybe out once or twice a month on average. More in the summer.

I'm sure with this light use it probably can go a long time without maintenance, but just curious really how often others do it (if at all!).

227bhp

10,203 posts

145 months

Tuesday 5th December 2017
quotequote all
Drew106 said:
227bhp said:
It depends on how much use it gets, ring Draper for oil spec, but generally and amazingly something labelled as 'Trolley jack oil' or 'hydraulic jack oil' will do.
Ah OK. Didn't know specific trolley jack oil existed tbh, but probably should have Googled that in hindsight lol.

Just light home use I guess. Two cars, general servicing, oil changes, brakes, swapping wheels, some other tinkering with the MX5. Maybe out once or twice a month on average. More in the summer.

I'm sure with this light use it probably can go a long time without maintenance, but just curious really how often others do it (if at all!).
Always look after your tools and they'll look after you thumbup

I think changing the oil is a bit far at this stage, but it'll do no harm and greasing the joints won't go amiss. Usually people wait until the jack indicates to them it's low on oil and then top up.

sidgolf

163 posts

207 months

Wednesday 6th December 2017
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On my trolley-jack i just use engine-oil on the pivots from time-to-time.

CarsOrBikes

1,151 posts

201 months

Saturday 9th December 2017
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I've had my 2.5 ton jack for about 25 years, the seal failed once and let a VW Beetle down on me which was novel, that was over 20 years ago, I rebuilt it, took a while to find a seal, used jack oil then, but subsequently it's been convenient to use others, I have used engine oil haha, I used Dextron transmission oil more because it was at hand, and currently top up with it, it has always seeped some oil, but it's great really. Should have bought two (Kamasa)

GreenV8S

30,956 posts

301 months

Saturday 9th December 2017
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CarsOrBikes said:
let a VW Beetle down on me
On you? I hope you gave yourself a severe ranting for being so stupid as to get under a vehicle that was supported by hydraulics.

sgtBerbatov

2,597 posts

98 months

Tuesday 12th December 2017
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GreenV8S said:
On you? I hope you gave yourself a severe ranting for being so stupid as to get under a vehicle that was supported by hydraulics.
This.

You have to be severely lacking in any sort of intelligence to ever think it's a good idea to go under a car with just a trolley jack holding it up. No matter how quick you think you're going to be.

Super Slo Mo

5,371 posts

215 months

Tuesday 12th December 2017
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sgtBerbatov said:
GreenV8S said:
On you? I hope you gave yourself a severe ranting for being so stupid as to get under a vehicle that was supported by hydraulics.
This.

You have to be severely lacking in any sort of intelligence to ever think it's a good idea to go under a car with just a trolley jack holding it up. No matter how quick you think you're going to be.
think I told this one on a thread a few months back, but a few years ago I turned up at my parents house to find my brother and his mate working underneath a Land Rover 90 that was supported solely by a hi lift jack (might have been two but I don’t think it was).
I gave them both the mother of all bkings then went home and fetched my 6 tonne axle stands.
Jacks can fail quicker than you can move, it’s a very easy (and avoidable) way to get maimed or killed.

sgtBerbatov

2,597 posts

98 months

Tuesday 12th December 2017
quotequote all
Super Slo Mo said:
sgtBerbatov said:
GreenV8S said:
On you? I hope you gave yourself a severe ranting for being so stupid as to get under a vehicle that was supported by hydraulics.
This.

You have to be severely lacking in any sort of intelligence to ever think it's a good idea to go under a car with just a trolley jack holding it up. No matter how quick you think you're going to be.
think I told this one on a thread a few months back, but a few years ago I turned up at my parents house to find my brother and his mate working underneath a Land Rover 90 that was supported solely by a hi lift jack (might have been two but I don’t think it was).
I gave them both the mother of all bkings then went home and fetched my 6 tonne axle stands.
Jacks can fail quicker than you can move, it’s a very easy (and avoidable) way to get maimed or killed.
I don't get how people think it's OK. Just because it can lift the car doesn't mean it can't be pushed down and out of the way.

The only time I nearly got caught out by a trolley jack was when I was changing a wheel on my car. By the time I had rolled the wheel away and came back with the new one, the jack had collapsed. I wasn't under it at any point, but it was enough to show that, like what you said, they can fail quicker than you can move.

I didn't even hear my jack fail, that's the scary part.

phillpot

17,393 posts

200 months

Tuesday 12th December 2017
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A drop of power steering fluid will work fine if it needs a top up.

Martin350

3,797 posts

212 months

Wednesday 13th December 2017
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A mate of mine used brake fluid in his trolley jack for some years, to my knowledge he never had any issues with it.