Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) A car jack comparison to failure

I'm never using a scissor jack again!

As my Mog only weighs about 750kg total, I think a scissor jack will be OK!

(although would only use it for a roadside tyre change - at home it's trolley jack and axle stands)

Yep, scissor jacks are absolutely fine for tyre changing, I've used one several times over the years with absolutely no problem at all. You're only lifting one corner of the car and you're never actually under it.

that trolley jack was rubbish.

I've recently bought a couple of those cheapo 2t bottle jacks, just to tweak heights and stick the axle stands in the right place - interesting that it took well over 7t to fail and even that was progressive

BTW, the jacks with a U or Y top should have been packed to the proper load point before testing, as seen with the old screw jack which snapped it's locating 'ears' and then continued to take a huge load

I wonder what my 3 ton? professional trolley jack would ultimately take . Bought reconditioned in the 70's it has a U section lifting arm fabricated from 7mm thick steel. I know, without my prior knowledge, it was used to lift the front end of a vintage half cab bus.

Plastic Jack did really well and at only 1kg would be a good to have in the boot compared to another type of jack.

Pity he wrecked the nice old jack from the 1970's. It also did really well.

The only type of jack worth carrying around is one that is capable of being squeezed under the car to a safe jacking point when the tyre is completely flat and there's bugger all clearance available. In my experience bottle-style jacks are always too tall to get under a Morgan chassis in such conditions.

Good point, that makes the basic Scissor the easiest touring option - I managed to get an alloy one (thick it was Porsche) from a scrapper a few years ago, considerably lighter and very compact

The quality alloy Scissor jack from Porsche 944 are an absolutely superb item worth sourcing.