Looking for a good floor jack

my old Sears jack has come up missing after almost 35 years. Now I'm going to have to find a replacement.

Looking for a 2.5 to 3 ton jack. No fancy stuff needed like one pump or aluminum. Must be reliable.

Anything actually fit those requirements today?

Northern Tool has floor jacks. I think the Hein Werner jacks are made here?

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_automotive+jacks+floor-jacks

hein werner and most of the other well known Jacks from years ago are all made by SHINN FU mfg and some of the assembly is done here allowing them to claim made in the USA. (I think they put the stickers on here LOL). Shinn Fu bought the rights to the names and consequently you have junk jacks at a premium price.
How did I learn all this ?? It was a frustrating 1-2 years with at least 10 different "brand name" jacks that all failed within 1 day to 3 months.There are only a couple that still are one of which is the Milwaukee [url=http://www.milwaukeejack.com/products.html] LINK TO THEIR SITE[/url They have been making the exact same jacks since the mid 40's, but be prepared to pay for QUALITY!!!!
I finally did after several go round with name brand jacks (like HW) purportedly being made in the USA..
I know have 3 Jacks, and 40+ year old 1-1/4 T Hein Werner, An OTC 3T Floor boss that is no longer being made , It was and is a USA made jack. and a Milwaukee model 20.
On a side note a very good friend owns a Mom and Pop tire store locally. they have been in business since his Father opened it in the 20's. They do nothing but tires PERIOD!!!!! and a lot of them. Better than 70% are done with floor jacks he was buying Snap OFF jacks and they would make it a year if he was lucky.
He happened to be be in harbor Freight just after they released their Daytona jacks. The manager talked him into trying 2 of them with a no questions asked money back guarantee. He said he gets 3-4 years out them at less than 1/3 the price of the Snap OFFS. If i were looking for a jack I'd buy one of them. HE should be a Jack testing station as they get USED and abused. 3 years at his place would easily exceed 20-30 years at my shop.

I bought pretty much the cheapest I could find when I got both of mine. They were both under $100. The last one came with 2 jack stands. They're all import stuff these days anyway.

Such a shame...Hein-Werner was a big employer here for years. About 15 miles from me. Their jacks always had a great reputation

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI94404#:~:text=Hein%20was%20born%20in%20Germany,pumps%20for%20the%20automobile%20business.

I have the Harbor Freight Daytona 3 ton jack. The Jack that Snap on Tried to sue them over, and lost. It was about $189 a year or so ago and it has been really good. It has a great lifting height. What surprised me the most is this thing rolls beautifully, never have I had a floor jack that rolled so well.

I also have one of the small harbor freight aluminum jacks. It was $89 8 years ago. I bought that thing to go in my car for when I go to the races and change tires. It has held up surprisingly well, i kind of figured I would have to replace it every few years but its been great.

I recently bought the Daytona 3-t low profile jack (even though I no longer need the low profile since I sold my BMW). Regular price at HF is just under $150. I used the 15% off everything coupon. Then HF put it on sale for under $120...Oh well. I've used it about three times since I bought it. Seems to be very well made. I also have the HF 1-1/2 ton aluminum. Works great except for lack of height all the way up. It's a few years old now. My other aluminum jack (18 years old) finally gave up a couple of years ago. Got that one at O'Reilly's, I believe.

Looking like it's coming down to a Daytona or Milwaukee. I'll do a little investigating.

Edit, looks like the Milwaukee 20 might be out of production. Also forgot to mention a removable handle so it can be tossed in the trunk easily.

i bought a hobo fright 1st generation aluminum jack at a flea market for $20 about 5yrs ago, and it has held up very well !
it rolls reasonably well, and is light, which comes as a great plus to me.

AC Hydraulics. Made in Denmark. I’ve had mine for about 15 years. It’s fantastic.

You can buy them here: https://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/shopcart/TOOL/POR_TOOL_ACHyd1-detail.htm

There is a line of floor jacks that are made in Michigan - though I can't remember the name of the company.

Here you go: https://www.usjack.com/products/hydraulic-floor-service-jacks

Their 2-ton is made in Taiwan...

I think the choice comes down to roll the dice on whatever off shore crap is on sale or hunt down something old school and throw a couple parts at is as needed. There are companies out there selling parts and rebuild kits for old Hein Wiener jacks which are pretty much just the seals and according to youtube university, not that hard to rebuild. Craigs, FB, etc and be patient until the right deal comes along.

My straight up best snag was a 1 owner NAPA branded (probably HW built) manual end lift jack with a 36 inch lift. Takes up a bit of floor space but it's worth every square inch.

Also scored a HW high lift trans jack from the 60s for a C note. Should have beat him down over the leak but thought it was just an o-ring. Turned out to be a $50 valve and another $10 or $15 for a knob. An equivalent HF pittsburg is like $600.

Any idea what model they are using? HF has over 15 Daytona jack models.

at the VW dealer body shop where i work. we have had this jack for 4 years without problems with it.

https://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton...l-rapid-pump-floor-jack-green-64785.html

This is the one you want, the DL3000 super duty jack:
https://www.harborfreight.com/autom...-rapid-pump-floor-jack-yellow-63183.html

I have one, the only thing I would say is that at least mine came with brass grease fittings and one of them snapped off, so be aware of that. I put steel ones in but otherwise after about 2 years it seems very high quality to me.

Don't know for sure but it was yellow as I recall. I can call him and ask if need be

FWIW, I bought a Hein Werner jack (that I believe is one of the Shinn Fu ones) about 10 years ago and I haven't had any problems with it yet. I admittedly don't use it daily or anything like that, but so far it has held up to a good bit of abuse. Of course, I've never owned one of the older Hein Werner jacks, so I can't compare.

I went through this a few years ago looking for a replacement for a mid '90s 3 ton Craftsman I have. Still haven't picked one up yet as my smaller 1 ton units have been holding up okay. Glad to hear the less expensive Daytonas are doing okay for some of you.

In all honesty, the failure point of these jacks are in the ram assembly. Maybe we should ask the question around what jacks have replaceable ram assemblies in them instead of which ones hold up the longest. Funny thing is, trying to look this up, I find plenty of places that sell parts and rebuild kits but I'm not having much success in locating a complete ram assembly. Obviously jacks are built with these as a component, but finding someone who list them as a replacement part seems impossible. Maybe I'm not searching with the best terms.

In that vein, I notice Summit sells a Sunnex replacement ram for $100. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...GmtKq7QIVCuWzCh1-DAomEAQYASABEgL3JvD_BwE

Looking up the compatible jack I find this: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sxt-66037 for $255 and a low profile for $320 (on sale for $288): https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sxt-66035sj?rrec=true

But if you can replace the whole jack for $120 with a Harbor Freight unit, is it worth the hassle?

As much as I hate recommending the Chinese crap at Harbor Freight, I have had good luck with the one I bought about 10 to 15 years ago.

It was the highest lift with the lowest profile affordable jack I could find at the time and it is still serving me and several neighbors kids who borrow it outta my garage on a regular basis.

Costco has heavy steel ones from time to time, usually around $100. I have one for a few years now and no complaints. It's an Arcan XL35R, 3.5 ton.

Dang RWG, those are two bada** jacks you have! Love them!

I need a jack to change out trailer tires.
When I am on the side of the road quality matters.
Harbor Freight aluminum low profile 3 ton racing jack.
For at least 5 years that is what I depend on.


Jim