Anyone got a QuickJack?

[aaronyuri]

I decided to punt for one of these recently as I've always wanted one but never bit the bullet until now.

Costco are currently selling the 7000TL for £1150 versus £1450 and I couldn't say no at that price!

Mine was arriving today so I watched the videos, read the manuals, etc. and expected a fairly involved setup process. I got them out the boxes and nada. The lines and fittings were joined together and installed already; all I needed to do was add hydraulic fluid and bleed the system. Easy! The quick disconnect fittings are excellent and don't spill a drop of fluid.

The jacking height is about the same as you could achieve with a trolley jack but this would mean multiple times lifting each side until reaching maximum height. On cars like mine, where there are only 4 jacking points without taking off an army of covers, it's a godsend. Up and down times are super acceptable for what it is.

My biggest gripe is that they are pretty heavy to cart around, but they do slide pretty easily on my PVC floor. I don't think it would be a pleasant experience on concrete...

After faffing around with the rubbers that sit between the jack point and rail, I have marked out where they should be placed for my car and hoping that will cut that alignment time down significantly.

Without further ado, here are some pics. Yes, my car is dirty. No, I don't care.

 

[aaronyuri]

I have always fancied a set, but never pulled the trigger.

Do they have a mechanical lock/safety pin/ safety bar to lock them in the raised position?

They do indeed. They have a fixed low and high position. You just need to walk around and lift the arm/cam back into its sliding position when dropping the car. Once the arms are locked in, you can disconnect the hoses and move those out of the way.

They look great, and still a fair bit of room for moving about under the car once it's secured with stands.

I jack up in a tarmac drive and it does take 20 mins or so by the time I've got everything done:

Get out jack, stands and hockey pucks.
Chock grounded wheels
Jack up one side and secure on a stand.
Jack up other side and secure on a stand.
Go back to first side to jack and lower again to relieve any sideways pull.
Place second set of stands under car as emergency back up.

It's a faff but I'm not going under there unless it's secure.

You could definitely get these up in quicker than 20 minutes. I would look into the castor wheel add-ons that some people do for concrete and less sliding friendly surfaces.

 

[aaronyuri]

I fancied a set of these a few years ago when I first saw B is For Build using them. Quick and easy to set up and can be put away when not in use, pretty good for driveway tinkering such that I was doing back then. I never did get them though.

However, if you have a garage with the space I think a dedicated 2 post lift would be better and you can get them for a few hundred more than a QuickJack.

If you don't have a Costco near you, Machine Mart do a clone or rebadged (Clarke) QuickJack for the same price.

2 post lifts get a lot more complicated... You need a thick enough slab to mount them to, they can't be moved once they're in, and you also need a significant height clearance to maximise their benefit. You can get low rise ones, but squatting under a car that's 800-1100mm high is going to be awful as it's too high up for a creeper.

My garage is integrated into my house and I was never going to get the vertical space needed for a 2 post. However, if you can tick all of the boxes, a 2 post lift is a no brainer.

 

[aaronyuri]

After not enjoying the frame alignment at all my first two uses, I bought some significantly bigger rubber blocks. I recently put those to use and it was definitely worth it. No faffing around with getting the frames and blocks in just the right position. These are 120x160mm blocks and they fit in the QJ frames perfectly as you can see. The shortest block that I could get in and still clear the frame was was 50mm. The shortest blocks that come with it are 54mm. I definitely wouldn't go any lower than 50mm on the 7000TL.

With the new, larger blocks, aligning each frame with the jacking points is a doddle. I highly rate the QJ, they just need some casters to make manoeuvring them around less arduous. That's next on my list.

 

[aaronyuri]

Mine has casters at one end for exactly that reason.

It does have wheels on the one side but they are pretty useless besides moving it over long distances. No good at all for finer adjustments.