What size Jack do you need..

||What size trolley jack would be required to ||jack up a medium size American car. || ||1 ton or 11/2 ton ||2 ton or 21/2 ton || ||I'm sure that the average person does not know ||what a car weighs so how do you really determine? || ||Is there a formula you use or just good old common ||logic?

The formula is determine what the GVW of your vehicle is, and make sure your jack is rated for at least half that.

Medium-sized American car varies greatly depending on decade. In the 1970s we'd be talking about a 3800-lb Chevelle in the 21st Century we might be talking about a 2500-lb Malibu

Smallest trolley jack I've seen was 1.5 ton, which is big enough to lift half of any of today's passenger cars. Hard to go wrong on capacity. Rex in Fort Worth

I like to carry a 2 1/2-ton - It's massive overkill on my little beater-mobile, but I want to *KNOW* that my jack isn't going to whimper "Too much for me, boss" and crap out on me when I'm sitting in the middle of nowhere with a flat tire at three in the AM! Besides... the jack will probaby outlast the car, and there's no telling what kind of replacement vehicle it's going to have to lift sometime in the future.

||I like to carry a 2 1/2-ton - It's massive overkill on my little ||beater-mobile, but I want to *KNOW* that my jack isn't going to whimper ||"Too much for me, boss" and crap out on me when I'm sitting in the ||middle of nowhere with a flat tire at three in the AM!

For roadside use, I'd suggest one of the retailer jacks that come with a carry case. O'Reilly also has a nice canvas carry baag for these that will hold your other tools - torque wrench, gloves, etc. Also, be sure you have a stout piece of 3/4" plywood, as wide as the jack's footprint and about 6 inches longer. You will need it when you use it on soft ground. Also, most trolley jacks will not get under some cars when they are down on the rim. You may need the OE scissor jack to get it high enough to use the trolley jack. And remember that trolly jacks need to roll forward as they lift. That's the other reason for the plywood. If the jack can't roll, the car can slip off the jack pad. THEN you have a problem. I think the best all-around emergency jack is the laydown ratchet jacks that come in a lot of GM cars and light trucks. If you have one of those, that should be good enough. Rex in Fort Worth

I'd say a medium sized car weighs about 3,000 pounds and a 1.5 ton jack would be fine. You are only lifting one corner of the car anyway and never more than half. The smaller jack is easier to carry and store. Watch out for those Chinese jacks with the bad welds that I've seen (not recently). And don't trust any jack with your body under it. Always have back-up. Personally, I also use a scissors jack with a

4"X8" top and bottom plate that seems very safe.

Yep. Three chunks of that, 12 by 24 inches, in the trunk (bridging the "hollow" where the mini-spare lives) along with the jack. Learned the hard way a couple-three years ago when I had to do a 3AM front brake job before I could come down the mountain.

Of course, with the kind of work I do for a living, I carry one helluva "survival kit" - I'm basically unstoppable by anything short of the engine exploding into six bazillion smoking pieces, or the car suddenly shaking itself apart somehow.

My normal kit that's packed into the trunk:

- 2-1/2 ton trolley jack and *TWO* handles (Once got stuck with a jack, but no handle - NEVER AGAIN!)

- two jackstands rated for 3 tons

- the three chunks of 3/4" plywod discussed above

- four-way lug wrench AND OEM tire-iron

- OEM screw/scissor jack and handle

- 3 "normal" spares (identical in every way except amount of tread on the tire and the brand name on the sidewall to my regular wheels) plus the OEM mini-spare, *ALL* kept up to pressure any time I notice them getting soft - This item is definitely overkill, but I *CAN* pack 'em in, so I *DO*, on the theory that "if you've got a replacement, it won't fail"

- a 12 volt compressor/inflator rated for 135 PSI that plugs into the cigarette lighter (takes 20 minutes to blow up a tire from dead flat to

35 PSI, but gets the job done)

- tire-plug needle, reamer, and a supply of plugs

- two cans of fix-a-flat

- a mini-toolkit with wrenches/other tools that will let me turn almost any bolt/nut/screw on the vehicle that I can physically reach

- an Altoids tin with four of each size fuse the car uses

- a small roll of #12 insulated wire

- a couple hanks of baling wire

- wire cutters

- a spare set of front brake pads and a C-clamp that fits my calipers

- 2 quarts of brake fluid

- a gallon jug of Delo 400 15W40 (AKA "The universal motor oil" :) )

- a 2 gallon jug of (drinkable) water

- a gallon jug of antifreeze

- a 1-1/2 gallon gas can

- a quart of power steering fluid,

- a funnel with a 3 foot hose on it that will get to and fit any "pour liquid in here" orifice on the car

- the last set of spark plugs that was swapped out of the engine

- two or three of the best-condition spark plug wires from the previous set that was on the car

- a set of 12 foot long, #2-gauge jumper cables - I've jumped a semi with them before...

- tire chains

- a 2-ton come-along

- two 20-foot tow-straps rated for 10 tons each, plus removable chain hooks

- an army surplus "PET" (Personal Entrenching Tool - AKA "Collapsible shovel")

- half a dozen railroad flares

- basic first-aid kit

- "Rambo" style survival knife - including magnesium fire starter and fishing gear stowed in the handle

- two or three Bic lighters (besides the 3-5 that are in the glovebox, center console, door pockets, or the pockets in my jeans)

- a couple of those mylar/aluminum survival blankets

- 20 feet of 3/8 inch clothesline rope

- several MREs.

I won't roll out of the driveway with anything less than that anymore. Overkill? Perhaps... But so what? Unlike "Joe Typical", *I DO NOT GET STOPPED* by anything short of a catastrophic failure that requires a garage and/or parts store to fix. And that's just the way I like things! :)

Which is why the OEM screw/scissor jack is still in the trunk, with handle. I trust those things *ALMOST* as far as I can spit, but they do have their uses, and this is one of the few that I consider them trustable with.

Impressive.

When I go on dirt bike riding trips, I'm carrying quite the selection of tools with me. It's saved me a few times. Once I had my CAT fall apart & plug the exhaust. I wasn't able to go more than 10mph. I pulled out the cordless drill & gave the exhaust system an emergency tracheotomy that allowed me to drive into town.

-Jeff Deeney-

2004.

You forgot the toilet paper..................

Doc

May I ask what the heck car you drive where you can keep all that in the trunk and still have room for anything else? Or are you that guy I see with his rear bumper dragging on the pavement ;-)

Actually, it all fits nicely into the trunk of my Mazda 626. It does help that I've basically got no use for the trunk (other than the kit, that is...) about 99.9% of the time...

Seat upholstery and/or stray articles of clothing that got left in the car take care of that if the need is great enough and it's too dark to distinguish poison oak from more "proper" wiping foliage :)

Do you mean to drive around with it in the trunk, or use it in the garage?

Vehicles under my care range from 2500-pound compacts to a "three-quarter ton" van that probably scares the heck out of 6000 pounds loaded, so I bought a three-and-a-half ton model, with jackstands to match. Naturally this is for use in the garage.

However, when all I have to do is raise one corner a modest amount and this wonderful life simplifying machine isn't available, the little bottle jacks seem to do fine. The big one, with a LONG handle, just lets me make light work out of heavy jobs. Remember, the jack bears only a fraction of the car's weight, as determined by the angle formed

-- getting a freshman physics flashback yet? That's why your 4000 pound car doesn't need a 4000 pound jack capacity, unless you want to put the *whole* thing in the air.

Never get UNDER a car supported by any jack, however large. Jacks slip and jacks fail. I've both witnessed and experienced this. Don't get under large heavy subassemblies supported by a jack either, and mind your pinch points too. This is where the jack *stands* and/or big pieces of sound lumber come into play. Preferably the sort of jack stands made out of big solid chunks of steel, rather than sheet metal. I don't care for cinder blocks at all in this application, due to brittle failure and hidden flaws.

You can leave the jack in place with its control in the "up" position for convenience and to facilitate rescue, but the weight should be borne by something that you are very sure won't be crushed or crumpled or snapped and won't scoot or roll away. Failing this, you should not get under the car nor insert parts of your body into places that a falling car would crush.

These are not academic concerns. People really do squash themselves dead with cars and the large heavy parts thereof, or, short of that, go through life missing some appendage by running afoul of a pinch point. Exercise common sense safety precautions and working on cars is no problem at all -- neglect these precautions and you're courting disaster.

Also make sure you're applying the pointy end of the jack to an appropriate jacking point -- not something you'll bend or crumple or just poke right through. On today's cars, many parts are made of plastic or fiberglass or really lightweight sheet metal and are not at all meant to take that kind of force.

I did a quick lookup of this for another reason not long ago. The smallest economy cars commonly found in North America weigh in a bit under one ton (2000 lbs.). At the heavy extreme, the biggest pickups and SUVs commonly used by private citizens might weigh three tons plus a ton of cargo. The fleet average for passenger sedans is supposed to be around 3000 pounds nowadays. Often some nominal weight is stated on the registration form.

Finally, make sure that the jack is short enough in its compressed state to get under where it needs to go, yet long enough when fully extended to accomplish your job (or at least to admit the next bigger size of jack).

Best of luck,

--Joe

what?? no duct tape?

2004.

||Never get UNDER a car supported by any jack, however large. Jacks ||slip and jacks fail. I've both witnessed and experienced this. Don't ||get under large heavy subassemblies supported by a jack either, and ||mind your pinch points too. This is where the jack *stands* and/or ||big pieces of sound lumber come into play. Preferably the sort of ||jack stands made out of big solid chunks of steel, rather than sheet ||metal. I don't care for cinder blocks at all in this application, due ||to brittle failure and hidden flaws. || ||You can leave the jack in place with its control in the "up" position ||for convenience and to facilitate rescue, but the weight should be ||borne by something that you are very sure won't be crushed or crumpled ||or snapped and won't scoot or roll away. Failing this, you should not ||get under the car nor insert parts of your body into places that a ||falling car would crush.

Whenver I have a whell off a car in less than ideal circumstances - side of the road, for example, I always slide the loose tire/wheel under the car so it will catch it of the jack fails.

Remove spare jack up car, slide spare under remove flat, exchange that for the spare under the car Mount spare, remove flat from under car. lower car. Rex in Fort Worth

Not to mention a paddle for the creek he'll be up if he has a problem that kit can't fix.

In certain parts of the country, I'd go for insect repellent as a tool, also...