How big of a floor jack do I need to lift my car? I don’t need stands nor do I want any other type (I.E. bottle jack, scissors jack)
If you are going to have any part of you under the vehicle then you do need stands. The floor jacks all have a rating as to how much they will lift and how high.
1 Like
You could get by with a 1.5 ton, but with the small price difference might as well get a 3 ton, who knows you may wish to change a tire on a pickup or trailer one day.
1 Like
1.5 is OK, 2.5 ton is better.
Like @VOLVO_V70 said, I’ll reinforce here… You ABSOLUTELY DO need stands. They are cheap, buy at least 2 and better 4.
If you lift it, it needs a jack-stand under it before you do ANY work under it or even around it. I don’t even change a wheel without a stand. If the jack fails while you are removing the tire, the car can pin your hands or worse… way worse!
2 Likes
If you have a jack, you need jack stands. I remember just one time I was going to do some work on a wheel or something outside of a vehicle so I didn’t use a jack stands. It took one time to realize that if I jack a car up in the garage, I am going to find or see something that gets my head underneath it. So now if there’s a jack, there’s a jackstand. The only exception would be a flat tire on the side of the road. You may get grilled on this thread, but most of these guys know the vulnerability of jacks and treat them like loaded guns for a reason. Anyway, if you are planning on working on your own vehicles, I would recommend a fairly good 3 ton jack and 2 to 4 jack stands.
1 Like