Thread: another busted scissor jack -- ideas?

Hi all,

Bent my standard scissor jack a while ago when changing a tyre in the shop. Glad it happened there on nice level conc, not out on the road somewhere.

Anyhow, picked up a sml bottle jack. No worries.

Prob is now I'm replacing the ute for something thats somewhat lower. Of course now the bottle jack is too high.

Its the second scissor jack I have had issues with, the first happened years ago with another car.

Anyone come across something else that would work out on the road without resorting to carting around a trolley or high lift jack.

Thanks in advance,

Jatt

Originally Posted by jatt

Hi all,

Bent my standard scissor jack a while ago when changing a tyre in the shop. Glad it happened there on nice level conc, not out on the road somewhere.

Anyhow, picked up a sml bottle jack. No worries.

Prob is now I'm replacing the ute for something thats somewhat lower. Of course now the bottle jack is too high.

Its the second scissor jack I have had issues with, the first happened years ago with another car.

Anyone come across something else that would work out on the road without resorting to carting around a trolley or high lift jack.

Thanks in advance,

Jatt

I know what you mean about the scissor jacks. I cut up several recently to get the screw out and tossed the rest. I do not trust them. I do still have one in my wagon tho. How low are you talking? I have found that the next best thing for compactness is the old holden type screw jacks. Some of them are not much higher than a scissor jack.

I have had the nut strip out on a scissor jack. Like you it happened at home. I found the screw was dry. Lubrication is essential for these to reduce the friction. When just starting to lift and they are still spread out wide, there is massive stress on the screw. The higher they go the less is the force. If used under a vehicle with a lower than standard height the jack may be subjected to forces above what it is rated for. I am not a big fan of them.

Dean

Depends how much money you want to spend.

Masada make a two stage bottle jack which is subsequently much lower than a standard single ram bottle jack.

I have one of these, and also a similar three stage Lightburn jack ( no longer made).

Scissor jacks are not great, and if the ute has a load on it, they are not up to it IMHO.

Hydraulic jack is the way to go.

Cheers

Rob

I've had a scissor jack failure once. I had just finished changing a wheel and had started to lower the van when the thing just locked up solid.
Since I couldn't make it go up or down I ended up driving forward to tip the jack so that I could get off it.
I agree with the comment about lubrication. The replacement was as dry as a bone. So was the locked up one but since it had never been used
up to that point and never checked.

Had a Air Jack at one stage. It wood lift 4 Ton, in those days.
Good idea to lay it on something smooth & lay something else over to top, so as not to puncture the bag.
You just hook it up to the exhaust.
The Bendigo Swap Meet is coming up, & you just might pick one up from there.

The Volvo 240 series and others use a screw jack that has a folding lift tube that connects to a receiving tube below the car sills. Old Cortina's had a mechanical ratchet jack that connected to similar tubes under the sills, and a lot of pom cars had tubes set into the the sills. Both jacks mentioned are tall but compact and easily stored in a car, but need the receiving tubes to work.

My uncle bought a near new Pug 504 many moons ago and the supplied sissor gave up on his first roadside tyre change, so he bought a 1.5 ton bottle to carry with it. Worked really well for 20 years til I unherited the car and had a roadside flat, and discovered that with a flat tyre, the bottle was 75mm too high to fit under the suspension. Could get it under the bodywork near the wheel, but it wouldn't lift enough to allow fitting an inflated wheel. Eventually solved by jacking the body and packing the suspension, dropping the body and rejacking the suspension, fitting the tyre, and dropping everything back down. It had a mini trolley in the boot from the next day till it was sold 10 years later.

Originally Posted by malb

My uncle bought a near new Pug 504 many moons ago and the supplied sissor gave up on his first roadside tyre change, so he bought a 1.5 ton bottle to carry with it. Worked really well for 20 years til I unherited the car and had a roadside flat, and discovered that with a flat tyre, the bottle was 75mm too high to fit under the suspension. Could get it under the bodywork near the wheel, but it wouldn't lift enough to allow fitting an inflated wheel. Eventually solved by jacking the body and packing the suspension, dropping the body and rejacking the suspension, fitting the tyre, and dropping everything back down. It had a mini trolley in the boot from the next day till it was sold 10 years later.

The other alternative would be to use the jack handle to dig a hole to lower the jack into and make it fit

Rob

Originally Posted by nearnexus

The other alternative would be to use the jack handle to dig a hole to lower the jack into and make it fit

Rob

Maybe? Sometimes?

When moving to my current property back in 2000, I lost a wheel on the lefthand side of a borrowed 10 x 6 trailer while overtaking one of those weirdly painted old buses converted to a motor home and travelling slow. The trailer had a load of chipboard. Rather heavy. The wheel has never been found. When I finally skied to a halt on the side of the road I made sure I was in a safe position off the road for repairs. The owner of the trailer said his brother inlaw had changed the wheel and probably left it loose. Sigh. I unhooked the trailer and turned around to go home and get the stuff I needed. One thing I got was a shovel to dig a hole as the trailer hub was about 10 ft from the edge of the road (soft dirt) and very low. When I started digging I found bitumen just under the gravel. Next idea! Propped the rear, lifted from the drawbar and worked back.

I have however managed to dig a hole on numerous occasions to fit the jack. Last time I lost a wheel one of my neighbours turned up a couple of minute later with his tractor and lifted it for me. Great to live in the bush sometimes.

Dean

I'll put my hand up as another victim of scissor jack failure - the nut managed to dethread the rod while trying to lift a car. No, I haven't found what I'd call a decent replacement either.

My scissor jack failure was at the gears stamped in the ends of the arms to attempt to have the arms move in unison. Very weak design when they use thinner and thinner material without changing the design - which was OK when jacks were cut and folded from 3/16th inch plate....

Originally Posted by malb

My uncle bought a near new Pug 504 many moons ago and the supplied sissor gave up on his first roadside tyre change, so he bought a 1.5 ton bottle to carry with it. Worked really well for 20 years til I unherited the car and had a roadside flat, and discovered that with a flat tyre, the bottle was 75mm too high to fit under the suspension. Could get it under the bodywork near the wheel, but it wouldn't lift enough to allow fitting an inflated wheel. Eventually solved by jacking the body and packing the suspension, dropping the body and rejacking the suspension, fitting the tyre, and dropping everything back down. It had a mini trolley in the boot from the next day till it was sold 10 years later.

What has got me out of trouble several times in this situation is to lie the spare on the road and move the car so the flat tyre is sitting on the sidewall of the spare. This lifts the car enough that the jack can be properly positioned, and used to raise the car enough to slide the spare clear and change the wheel.

Frank.