A floor jack is basically a hydraulic lift that is operated manually. There are bunch of different types of jacks and a floor jack is the thing that you’d see in every mechanic’s garage. They can easily lift small to heavily sized vehicles for repair purposes under the vehicle. They also feature turnable wheels that allows you to move it from one place to another easily.
Using a floor jack is quite an easy task if one knows what he’s dealing with. It is simply positioned under the vehicle and by pumping on the handle, it raises the lift arm until the vehicle is lifted in the air.
A floor jack will be an amazing addition to your home garage and if you already bought one but doesn’t know how to use it properly then this guide will definitely you!
Checkout our buying guide on best floor jacks
How To Use Floor Jack
Floor Jacks are pretty easy to use but that doesn’t mean that you should use it taking in safety precautions. Cars are heavier than they look and a small mistake could damage the vehicle and can cause serious injuries to whoever was working under the vehicle.
So, to avoid those mistakes, we’ve written this guide that will show you the proper way of using a floor jack.
- The first thing that you should do is park your vehicle on a plain surface and put it on parking brake.
- Put a brick or something else on the back of the rear wheels. It will help prevent it from coming back in case of an accident.
- Grab a jack stand and put it in the right position before lifting your vehicle.
- Perform few safety checks on the floor jack itself like leaks, cracks or loose saddle. Make sure that the saddle is working fine because that’s the part that lifts your vehicle.
- Find the lift points under your vehicle and if you don’t know where they are then look at your car’s manual. Position the floor jack appropriately.
- After that, pump the floor jack’s handle up and down to line up the saddle with the vehicle’s floor and then see if any adjustment is required to perfectly align the floor jack with lift points.
- By using the handle, slowly lift the vehicle in the air and do your work.
- Once you are finished working then clean the area of tools and ensure no one’s under the vehicle.
- Begin lowering down the vehicle using the handles until the vehicle is just a little above the jack stands.
- Remove those jack stands carefully and begin lowering the vehicle slowly. If you try to do it quickly then you might damage your vehicle.
So, that was our article on How To Use Floor Jack Properly. It is very crucial that you follow all the rules while using a floor jack. They are a marvel of mechanical engineering that makes lifting heavy vehicles effortless. If you enjoyed this post then don’t forget to share it with your friends. In case of any questions regarding this post then please post them in the comments section.