Lifting Equipment

Hold Up, Do You Need A Lift?

Are you an aspiring home DIY mechanic who wants to improve the safety features in your garage for working on your truck's tires? Are you ready to upgrade the support system in your garage, so that your next round of oil and filter changes is more secure? Do you need more room in your small home garage to maneuver underneath cars to replace brake pads? NAPA AUTO PARTS has all the car lifting equipment you need in your shop to work safer, easier and quicker from the most secure, reliable and durable brands like Evercraft and Carlyle, which are all ASME PASE 2014 Certified.

When it comes to heavy-gauge, welded steel, garage shop equipment, nothing is more impressive than the engine crane, often called a lifting crane or shop crane. A hydraulic engine crane is specially designed to raise, lower and transport engines, differentials, transmissions and other heavy loads with minimal effort and minimal risk to yourself or your prized vehicle.

Hey Jack, Take A Stand For Stability

There are automotive repairs and routine maintenance that must be done from underneath your vehicle, but not everyone has a hydraulic lift bay in their home garage for safe access. While many vehicles come equipped with a jack, those trunk jacks are only intended for emergencies like a simple spare tire change. This type of compressed scissor jack is perfect for fitting into the tight space to replace a flat tire. A scissor jack relies on a hand crank to pull opposite corners of the diamond-shaped structure together, forcing apart the head and foot of the jack to create lift. Never crawl under your vehicle if it is only supported by a scissor jack!

To keep you safe while sliding under your Toyota Camry for a visual inspection or to replace a clutch, ensure you have a high-quality jack with jack stands or ramps. A floor jack is specifically created to transfer your action of pumping a handle up and down to lifting your heavy vehicle. The floor jack's weight capacity must exceed the curb weight of the vehicle, ranging from 1 to 10 tons.

A floor jack is NOT designed to hold up your vehicle. Once your car, truck or SUV is lifted, use a couple heavy steel jack stands also called utility stand or lift support stand) with a triangular base to hold it up. Once the vehicle is lifted, slide the jack stands underneath, then slowly release the jack so that the car lowers just a couple inches to sit in the saddle or cradle of the jack stand.

Be aware, there are designated points underneath that can hold the weight of your vehicle. The best jack points are notches in the long structural rails on each side that run down the length of the vehicle. To remove the stands, raise the car off the stands using the jack, and pull each stand free. Before raising your vehicle, activate your parking brake, and use wheel chocks (made of durable plastic or even metal) behind the tires left on the ground to prevent rolling. Double check that the jack and stands are on firm, flat, solid ground.

From Simple To Specific

Raising and lowering a vehicle doesn't have to be complicated. Simple equipment like ramps have been used for decades. A mechanic's ramp features a slope and a skid-resistant flat top that is wide enough to fit under a tire. Often sold in pairs, lift ramps can be made of ultra-lightweight material that can hold up to 3,000 pounds or heavy steel construction that can hold up to 9,000 pounds. These large, solid ramps are safe alternatives to a jack and jack stands, but are less versatile because ramps cannot be used to remove wheels and replace brake pads.

Other car lifting options include 2-ton, 3-ton, 6-ton, 12-ton and even 20-ton bottle jacks with air assist, which are more compact than floor jacks. A bottle jack is a stout cylinder with a hydraulic ram that extends vertically to lift when the arm is pumped. Since bottle jacks have a smaller footprint than floor jacks, they may be less stable. You must still use jack stands with a bottle jack.

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