Best Jacks?

T

Trey

Greenie N00B Member
Greenie Member
Hey All,

What are some good jacks I can use for the Speed3? I need to get under the car to swap out the under tray, fender liner, and maybe start changing my own oil lol.

Anyway, any good jacks y'all recommend that won't kill me when working on the car?
Thanks
 
If your primary goal is oil changes consider a set of steel Ramps much more secure platform for laying under the car
 
If your car is lowered at all, the issue you’re going to run into is the jack point under the front subframe (the X) is super deep, so most low profile jacks are too short to reach it from any angle other than the drivers side wheel well. I really like the harbor freight Pittsburgh 3 ton heavy duty ultra low profile floor jack specifically because the hydraulic release is smooth (not an instant drop as soon as you loosen it) but I have to use the OEM scissor jack to get it lifted high enough to shimmy the harbor freight jack in there.


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I got the Arcan XL20 low profile jack a couple of years ago. It fits under the front just barely—my MS6 is quite low.

My main complaint is that a few months ago it started getting air in it. I don’t know if that’s representative of the jack or if I have a dud, but it’s annoying because it won’t lift as fast and then I have to bleed out the air. But even with air it still works fine, just slow lifting.
 
Trey said:
Hey All,

What are some good jacks I can use for the Speed3? I need to get under the car to swap out the under tray, fender liner, and maybe start changing my own oil lol.

Anyway, any good jacks y'all recommend that won't kill me when working on the car?
Thanks
Click to expand...

really cant beat the harbor freight 3 ton low pro for like 100 bucks or less
 
I just happened to need a new jack on July 4 and I didn’t want to wait until next morning. So, I figured I could probably get something at Walmart. They had some “Blackjack” brand jacks. They had one for around $30 but I wanted lower clearance. They had one with low clearance of about 3” for $60. Seemed like a good deal. I don’t know how reliable but I assume it will be fine.
 
I built myself a set of speed ramps out of 2x10 cut into sections and stacked. Before pandemic lumber prices they were fairly cheap although a bit heavy.
I went overkill on my jackstands after the Harbor Freight recall a couple years back.

Jackstands are not the place to skimp. OTC Stinger 22 ton for me
 
When my 6 was lowered I had to be a bit creative, even with the lower profile jack my dad had it was too low. I'd usually end up using the emergency jack on the frame rail to lift it up just enough to get the floor jack under it. It was one of those Walmart Black Jack floor jacks, and it was pretty terrible. I think it would have been fine on a lighter car but the MS6 was just too heavy with it and it struggled and eventually popped the seals. Maybe it was just defective, I don't know.

One thing I would recommend is to check the maximum height of the jack, you have to get a MS6 pretty high in the air to get jackstands of decent height under it. I have one of the inexpensive Harbor Freight aluminum jacks and it can lift the car just fine, but even with a jack adapter that gives it a little more height it can barely lift it high enough to get it on the jack stand at the lowest setting. I should have bought one of the low profile 3 tons instead, but the aluminum one is just perfect for the Miata.
 
GohanX said:
When my 6 was lowered I had to be a bit creative, even with the lower profile jack my dad had it was too low. I'd usually end up using the emergency jack on the frame rail to lift it up just enough to get the floor jack under it. It was one of those Walmart Black Jack floor jacks, and it was pretty terrible. I think it would have been fine on a lighter car but the MS6 was just too heavy with it and it struggled and eventually popped the seals. Maybe it was just defective, I don't know.

One thing I would recommend is to check the maximum height of the jack, you have to get a MS6 pretty high in the air to get jackstands of decent height under it. I have one of the inexpensive Harbor Freight aluminum jacks and it can lift the car just fine, but even with a jack adapter that gives it a little more height it can barely lift it high enough to get it on the jack stand at the lowest setting. I should have bought one of the low profile 3 tons instead, but the aluminum one is just perfect for the Miata.
Click to expand...
My speed 6 sucks to get a jack under as well but I got the HF 3 ton low pro one on sale (wife got it for Christmas for me) and it has done pretty good. I would suggest the low profile + long reach one that they have though as it will reach better and might even go a bit higher if I remember right.

https://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton...sional-rapid-pump-floor-jack-black-64781.html

None the less I always use 2 jack stands and then put a small bit of pressure on the jack somewhere out of the way but where my car will be up if a stand fails
 
Extra safety but if for any reason. You are taking a wheel off I always put it under the car so that if the car falls it lands on that

And honestly I use ramps for most things that leave the wheels on
 
I use the Big Red jack stands That have the anti drop bar which slides into the side of the jack stand.

I tried to get HF stands but they were still out due to the recall at I rather get something I know won't fail in the long run.

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