DIY: Hydraulic Floor Jack with Hockey Pucks for $25!

[cnn]

Nothing new, but it is a beautiful Saturday so it is a short and sweet Hydraulic Jack DIY (kind of). This is the "easiest DIY" LOL!

This is built on some other threads:

Another reminder: crawling under car with jack = death!
Don't ever crawl under the car with the jack as the only support!!!
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=447995

What Hydraulic Floor Jack do you have?
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=448753

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Anyway, enough said, I went to Harbor Freight and they say they sell alot of these 2-ton Floor Jacks, PN ITEM 66725-1VGA. Regular price $29.99. On sales now for $24.95:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=66725
* Compact and lightweight--perfect for the trunk
* Lift: 4.5-15.5"
* Handle: 20-1/2"
* Twist valve release
Dimensions: 21-3/4" x 8" x 7"
Weight: 24.8 lbs.

Then I met a mechanic in the HF store, he mentioned that the Aluminum Racing Jacks look better and are more expensive ($90-150 etc.) but being Aluminum, they can bend if you are not careful.
The mechanic also recommended that I use this HF 2-ton Floor Jack, which he has owned for 8 years w/o a problem. It is made out of iron so very solid. He never needed to add hydraulic fluid. He also mentioned that rebuilding the Hydraulic Floor Jack is very easy with a few O-rings and that is it. You just have to go and find the appropriate sizes of O-rings.

So I bought this "bad boy" at HF for $24.95.
Went to local Sports store and bought 2 Hockey Pucks for $1.50/each.
FYI: Hockey Puck is basically solid rubber.

- Floor Jack: You can see my old scissor jack only goes to 12", this HF Hydraulic Floor Jack goes to 15.5".
- Hydraulic Floor Jack Metal Cup (the black part): I.D. 1-3/4"; O.D. 2-1/8"
- Using a "Keyhole Saw" (the Tool used to make new hole in the house wood door), I made 2 separate pucks as shown.



- The larger puck: I simply drill using hole size 2" (be careful re keyhole size, it refers to the inner side of the keyhole drill) to a depth of 1/4"; this creates a 2-1/8" hole. Then use a putty knife to remove excess rubber so it sits nice on the Floor Jack.



- Then I raised my 2007 Honda Odyssey Van (4500-lb), all it takes is 7 strokes and the tire is off the ground!

So all in all for those with tight budget, this HF Hydraulic Floor Jack is the winner for $25 + 2 hockey pucks!

[mattmartindrift]

I'm a little unclear as to the purpose of the puck. Is it simply a safer, more reliable method to raise the car? The hockey puck being a soft(er), maybe more stable method, compared to the toothed metal disk, supplied on the jack?

[cnn]

I'm a little unclear as to the purpose of the puck. Is it simply a safer, more reliable method to raise the car? The hockey puck being a soft(er), maybe more stable method, compared to the toothed metal disk, supplied on the jack?

You don't have to use the Hockey Puck on the E39 where ther is a jack pad already.
However, wherever you want to jack up and want a soft cushion to prevent damage (rear diff, oil pan etc.), Hockey Puck, or old radiator hose is the way to go.

[Vipsa]

I have that same jack. It does a job but it still is a little flimsy for my liking so I always use a jack stand with it. I don't feel it's wide enough to support the front to back rocking that occurs when the car is in the air.

[cnn]

1+,

Absolutely use jackstand all the time.
I always chock the tire (on the axle that I am not working on) so back and forth rocking is very very minimal, if any.

[mattmartindrift]

You don't have to use the Hockey Puck on the E39 where ther is a jack pad already.
However, wherever you want to jack up and want a soft cushion to prevent damage (rear diff, oil pan etc.), Hockey Puck, or old radiator hose is the way to go.

ahhh, gotcha, that's what I thought.


i have the aluminum jack and ALWAYS jackstand, no matter how minor the task at hand is.


my issue with the aluminum jack is the tiny back wheels are often unable to roll (I jack mostly on asphalt/plywood) causing the jack to bend and deflect as all load-bearing planes aren't facing the same direction

[Adrenalin540]

I personally do not 'like' the 'cheapo' HF jack it is WAYYYYY better than the stock one...As far as bending the aluminum jack half our suspension is aluminum? I am pretty confident the jack won't 'bend' but hey...you are far better off now than you were using the sorry BMW scissor jack...

GL and be safe

[mattmartindrift]

I personally do not 'like' the 'cheapo' HF jack it is WAYYYYY better than the stock one...As far as bending the aluminum jack half our suspension is aluminum? I am pretty confident the jack won't 'bend' but hey...you are far better off now than you were using the sorry BMW scissor jack...

GL and be safe

I have personally bent them. Under far lighter vehicles.


material doesn't matter if the design is terrible. your logic suggests our suspensions crumble like a soda can - a soda can is aluminum.


watch them flex if the surface upon which you're jacking isn't perfectly level.
Spare me the "only jack on level surfaces!" spiel - racetrack paddocks aren't always perfectly well groomed or leveled.

[Jason5driver]

That's a good buy, but still not low enough for me...
Thanks!
Jason

[billzcat1]

My personal gripe with many of the aluminum racing jacks is that the front wheels are often a single roller the full width of the jack. If your garage floor isn't perfectly swept, that stupid roller will get stuck on any tiny piece of debris, gravel, nut, socket, etc. My steel 3-ton has 4 legit wheels and I've used it in filthy dirty areas. One thing to consider is that you don't always get to pick the venue where you get to use the jack.

My only gripe about my jack is that it isn't a double-pumper so raising it up to meet the car sitting on jacks takes a while.

material doesn't matter if the design is terrible. your logic suggests our suspensions crumble like a soda can - a soda can is aluminum.

...and so are airplanes!

[cnn]

I have an old tire sitting around in my garage.

Last night I tried to cut the tire into chunks to be used as cushion material for floor jack etc.

Boy, it was a nightmare cutting tires into chunks, so I gave up.

[NNY528I]

I use a 3000lb Craftsman Steel floor jack that is rock solid and stable and unfortunately weighs a ton however it is very reasonably priced and usually comes paired with a set of jack stands. If you want to try aluminum then go with a better one, there appears to be a direct correlation with those jacks on price to amount of aluminum used in their construction.

[mattmartindrift]

I use a 3000lb Craftsman Steel floor jack that is rock solid and stable and unfortunately weighs a ton however it is very reasonably priced and usually comes paired with a set of jack stands. If you want to try aluminum then go with a better one, there appears to be a direct correlation with those jacks on price to amount of aluminum used in their construction.

you could also substitute 'amount' with quality, and 'aluminum' with 'pot-metal skim'

[ND4SPDLSC]

There are only a couple jack manufacturers out there. Most brands have these companies contract manufacture them. I had a list written down of brands that still are made in the US. They are not the ones most consumers would think of first. I came on all this info when I cracked the cast pivot of my friend's Craftsman aluminum jack and hard to order a replacement part from the manufacturer. They're being made by another company under contract now and litigation is pending on copyright issues. All the Craftsman jacks are imports as far as I know.

That said, I have a Craftsman 3 ton steel jack and I bought an extra long, low profile jack to try to get under my 540 from Harbor Freight. (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=67045) The car's front jacking point is still too far back to be reached by the jack pad. I will probably buy some low profile ramps to gain that extra inch or two of clearance to get the jack under the front subframe. I don't trust any jack no matter what the brand. I work on my friends' cars and I have yet to find a more difficult car to lift than a BMW. I bet Mercedes is similar. There is a serious, designed-in effort to force you to take the cars into the dealer.

[cnn]

Want your floor jack to last a looong time? Tips from a mechanic:

1. Study this animation to see how it works. It is a rather interesting device:
http://www.hyjacks.net/animation.htm

2. As soon as the car is jacked up, place jackstand under approved locations and slowly set the vehicle down on the jackstand to relive pressure on the floor jack.
Floor jack fails because people:
- Use it to lift heavier vehicle than it is rated for.
- Abuse it (leave it outside, exposed to weather).
- Use it to support the vehicle for a prolonged period like 1h, 2h or 3h etc.
BTW, this is not a good idea to use the floor jack to support anything for a prolonged period.
- And lastly, it fails because you guess it right! The seals in any mechanical device eventually fail and leak with time.

- A rebuild is always possible but with floor jack prices being so low, it may not be worth it to rebuild after 8-10 years of use.

[cnn]

Talking about Cushion Material.
I stopped by a tire shop today.
You can cut the sidewall (no steel belt in sidewall) because cutting the tread part of the tire is a nightmare b/c of the steel belt.

So they used an old light truck tire (light truck tire has thicker sidewall than passenger tire sidewall) and cut a piece of sidewall for free.
Then I cut them up in 3" x 6" pieces at home using utility knife.
These pieces of tire rubber are wonderful cushion material to be used with jackstands etc.

Free, why not?

[billzcat1]

Use a cut-off wheel on an angle grinder. I've never met a tire harder than silicon carbide!

[quattro PETE]

ECS Tuning sells specialized jack pad adapters (fancy hockey pucks) that fit the BMW jack pad shape...

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Bmw_...pter/ES251251/

[kingjames]

just picked up a low profile floor jack at cosco for $90
definitely recommend because the lift range is excellent and the pad is extra large
just extremely heavy though

[02540ico]

I use a similar small 2-ton for the car. I looked at aluminum jacks this year, but they just didn't have the capacity I needed, most are rated at 3000lbs. When I jack up one of my boat trailer's wheels, I need nearly double that, so I picked up a big, heavy, 6000lb monster from Harbor Freight, on sale for $59.

[NNY528I]

I use a similar small 2-ton for the car. I looked at aluminum jacks this year, but they just didn't have the capacity I needed, most are rated at 3000lbs. When I jack up one of my boat trailer's wheels, I need nearly double that, so I picked up a big, heavy, 6000lb monster from Harbor Freight, on sale for $59.

That boat weighs 12000+ pounds?????? that's crazy heavy for a boat and the trailers use usually 4 to 6 wheels so again that is crazy heavy for a boat + trailer. Class IV hitchs are only rated for 10000 max trailer weight. The weight of a 31 foot Fountain are 6000 to 7000 lbs, which puts axle weights in the 1000 to 1500lb range which is typical for trailer wheels and tires. Are you sure your weights are correct?

[kentd98]

ECS Tuning sells specialized jack pad adapters (fancy hockey pucks) that fit the BMW jack pad shape...

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Bmw_...pter/ES251251/

Methinks that would be a bitch to lineup, no?