Cheap auto-parts-store floor jacks are good to have around in a pinch, but if you’re serious about your DIY, you should own a heavy-duty low-profile floor jack. In addition to helping you get your car up in the air quickly and safely, a quality floor jack makes other repairs quicker and easier. If you don’t have one in your arsenal, you’re doing it wrong.
As much as full-on two-post automotive lifts help with wrenching, most people don’t have the space or funds to own one. Finding access to a lift isn’t easy either, unless you happen to know a guy. Ramps are a good way to get easy access to the underside of your car for basic stuff like oil changes, but they limit the sort of work you can do. With a real jack, and of course a couple of trustworthy jackstands, you can do almost anything you can do on a lift, though admittedly with a lot less space. Suspension, brakes, wheels, engine, you name it: a jack makes so many things possible.
A good floor jack can be used for more than just lifting your car. Use it right and it can be an extra set of hands while working with heavier stuff during whatever DIY job you tackle. With a little creativity, floor jacks can raise or lower suspension pieces during maintenance, assist with exhaust, support transmissions, and help out with differential removals and installs. This tool’s uses are only as limited as your imagination.
Daytona 3-Ton Steel Heavy Duty Floor Jack
While a high-quality jack isn’t the easiest item to carry around, having one in your car can be a huge help in a pinch. Keeping it alongside a good impact wrench means an emergency roadside tire change might take minutes instead of hours. And having a jack with you at track days or autocross events means tire swaps happen in no time. And if something goes wrong while you’re away from your garage, having a jack means you can get under your car, diagnose it, and potentially fix whatever’s broken.
The only downside of having a great floor jack is the price. The one I use all the time, Daytona’s three-ton steel heavy-duty unit, is priced at $179.99 on Harbor Freight's website right now. That’s a good deal more expensive than the basic jacks at Autozone, it’s true. But jacks like the Daytona, with their higher load capacity, lower profile, and bigger lift pad, can be used for a wider variety of work. Pair it with the right jackstands, and the opportunities for easy maintenance and effortless upgrades are endless.
Brian Silvestro is Hearst Autos' former lead deputy editor for rankings content. He spent over seven years as a staff writer for Road & Track Magazine where he contributed car reviews, industry interviews, and more. He has a taste for high-mileage, rusted-out projects and amateur endurance racing.
