Finding Good Automotive Floor Jacks

Most people think that automotive floor jacks are all the same and when I first got into cars I probably would of agreed with them. They all had a similar shape and look.  They all came in a few popular colors.  They all even cost about the same.  The thing was after I had purchased my first automotive floor jack I started to realize that even though it looked just like other floor jacks I had used it definitely didn’t work like them.  Here are a few things to look at when picking out your first jack to make sure you get the best one possible.

1. Material – You have two popular materials that I’d say 95% of all jacks are made from, steel and aluminum.  Most cheaper jacks are made from steel because it’s a cheaper metal to get than aluminum.  The downside to steel is that it’s a lot heavier and there for a smaller steel jack will weigh more than a much larger aluminum version.  The downside to aluminum however is that because the metal costs more, aluminum floor jacks cost more.  In my opinion they are worth the extra cost however.
2. Pump To Travel Ratio – The what?!  All automotive floor jacks aren’t created equal when it comes to how much the jack will rise based on one full pump.  The more expensive the floor jack is, the more the arm will raise up with a single pump.  This comes in handy more than you could possibly imagine.  Instead of having to pump, pump, pump over and over just to get the jack to the bottom of the car you can pump once and it’s to the bottom of the car, another two or three pumps and a good automotive floor jack will already have a car or truck tire off the ground.  This isn’t an advertised number however so it’s something you’ll have to test on each of the floor jacks you look at.
3. Name Brand – This is a tough one for me because I own both a no name and a popular brand name of automotive floor jacks and mine both work great.  I have quite a few friends that that while working in their garage with a cheaper jack have found them to leak over time and eventually fail much sooner than the name brand counterpart.

The only other big thing I’d look at is to make sure any of the automotive floor jacks you are looking at can actually jack up your car.  The jacks are rated in tons of weight they can hold, most are between two and three tons which should  be plenty for any standard car.  Guys with a truck or larger vehicle though so check to see if their automotive floor jack is strong enough to raise and hold their vehicle.