In a previous thread I posted some pic's of my 2013 JCW on a Ranger, QuickJack, and a few folks expressed an interest in learning a little more about the QuickJack, so I thought I would try to post a review of mine.

I purchased mine from Ranger, some type of a subsidiary of BendPak, last spring, and it is a BL-5000 model, rated for 5000lb. lift capacity. Mine is powered by 120vac, but there is also an option for a 12VDC powered unit for use at race settings, where power wouldn't be available.
Ranger makes a smaller, light version, The BL-3500 series, but I just can't see it fitting a Mini properly due to it's dimensions, as listed on the spec sheets. The Mini lift points are 48" center to center and 52", end to end, which looked outside the dimensions for the BL-3500.
New for this year is a 7000lb. lift capacity model, which would've been nice because I now have a Sierra Denali truck and it weighs just a little over 5000lb. My Toyota Tacoma is just under 4000lb. and I did intend to use the lift with my truck, so I bought the SUV/Truck adapters for it.
I purchased one because I got tired of crawling around on the floor positioning jacks, and jack stands, to get all four wheels in the air, and back on the ground again for brakes and tire rotations. I also haven't found a way to keep those JCW brake calipers and wheels looking nice, without removing the wheels to clean. It makes any work on wheels, brakes, or accessing the interior for cleaning much easier. The lift also brings up the engine bay, and at 6'2", that's a benefit for oil changes and such.

The system consists of two lifts, a hydraulic unit, quick connect hydraulic hoses, and a handheld lift controller.
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The lift itself is a reflex parallelogram, and is powered by a single hydraulic cylinder on each lift platform. The second, smaller cylinder you see in the first pic, is a pneumatically charged cylinder that returns the lift platform(s) to completely lowered. The unit is very smooth and not "jerky" at all. In the second pic you can see the relative size of the hydraulic power unit to my air compressor, which is set on top of a milk crate. It's not big, or bulky.
The construction and build of the unit is done well. The welding and steel fabrication is very clean. The welds are nice and have been dressed. There are no ugly "toothpaste welds" with voids and occlusions. Nice weld beads.

The lift raises the car up about 22", max, and has a drop in locking bar. I used a 5 gallon bucket for a visual reference. I used my 2009S as a model for clarity. In the previously mentioned thread it is pictured under my 2013 JCW, so if you have a JCW, no worries, it works just fine.
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There is an intermediate locked position at about 16".
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The jack comes supplied with some rubber protective lift blocks, but I found that the geometry of the car lift points, 48" center to center, and the dimensions of the lift, would require that one of the lift points would be right on top of a section of tubular steel that acted as a pivot. The supplied rubber blocks didn't seem to fit up correctly, and I just did not like the "feel" of the setup. You can see in the following pics that it is centered under the front lift block on the car chassis.
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It didn't matter which way the jack was oriented, it was going to center a lift block, right on that tubular section. I made my own set of blocks out of 3 layers of cabinet grade plywood and a top layer made of a solid rubber piece cut from a section of Stall Mat, ( 3/4" thick rubber mats used in stalls for horses and other livestock.) The total thickness of my home made blocks is ~3", so you can see that there is plenty of room to slide everything under a Mini.

The car is very stable on the jack and if a person were comfortable crawling under a car up on jack stands, there wouldn't be any issues for them crawling under this setup. I personally would put some dunnage under the jacks just in case, but I'm also a person that would place dunnage under the car up on jack stands too.

Well, that's about it for the review. It's actually a pretty simple, rugged ,lift system that offers an alternative to a bigger two, or four, post lift setup for use in a "normal" garage setting.

 

At $1300.00+, you could get several really nice floor jacks and a LOT of jack stands!

I would think you have to really do a lot of work on your car to make this pay for itself.

 

Slimjimtell
Funny thing is, that I have three floor jacks, four 10 ton bottle jacks, two worm gear jacks, and probably 3 full sets of jack stands. I used to put two floor jacks on one side and pump them up simultaneously. Put the stands in place and do it again on the other side.
I bought the QuickJack as an alternative to a Two Post lift, with eccentric arms. MaxJack makes a portable two post, that will fit into a normal garage, but I just didn't have the room, or the correct concrete spec's for my floor to install the drop in anchors..
I'll probably never do enough work to have it pay for itself, but the savings on my knees, and back, make it worth it for me.
It's definitely not for everybody, but it is an option that is out there.

 

Trust me, would love to have one. For me, not under any of my cars enough. Getting ready to do suspension upgrades, but floor Jack and stands will work well for me.

 

Jealous!!

 

Thanks for the write-up. At age 65 I still do a lot of car work, but I'm getting pretty tired of crawling around the car while fiddling with jack points and jackstands. I have two older BMW E90 3-series and my daughter has an R56 coupe, all of which have very limited jacking points and potential for damage if I jack on the wrong thing. Having done this for 40+ years, I'm good at it, but my knees get tired.

I'm trying to decide if this makes financial sense for me, since I don't plan to keep wrenching on cars until I'm 80. This write-up helps.

My primary concern given the design of these lists is lateral (left-right) stability. It looks great for longitudinal (front-back) stability, but perhaps not as good for sideways forces or imbalances.

 

Nice review.

 

ColoCoug
It's actually pretty darn stable in both directions. Definitely more stable than a set of jack stands.
To come off the jacks laterally would require that, in absence of a mechanical failure, the car and jack, would have to roll up and over the top of an ~ 25" arc. That's a lot of motion against gravity.
It's an understandable concern though. I've never really liked crawling under cars and trucks on Jackstands myself. I've always put dunnage of some type under cars when I'm working on them on my back. Used to be the tires and wheels back in the day. Now I just grab some oak rounds and put them under there.

 

Eric the Car Guy did a good review on them as well

 

Extremely helpful! Thanks.

 

great review, but I'm confused - as far as I can tell the 5000 wouldn't fit between the wheels of the Mini - yours obviously does though. it listed 71" or something for the length, is that not correct?

 

kyoo

Yes, they are a little over 71" long.
It's a little bit of an illusion if you just look at the spec's on a 2D drawing. I measured it out many times prior to purchase to ensure it would work. The lift can also be placed under the car in such as a manner as to lift it sideways and up, but I don't really like that. Useful if someone has a tight garage though.
The distance between the contact patches on the tires of the Mini is about 85"-86", so the lift actually fits in between the contact patches of the tires when it is in the fully collapsed position on the floor.
In this pic, you can see that lift is longer than the inside dimension length between the tires at centerline, but just shorter than the distance between contact patches.


The lift travels at a linear angle in the forward, or reverse if you desire, direction, so as my car is going up, it is also moving forward. The pivot point is the very front of the jack, just behind the front tire, so the distance never changes. The actual "critical" dimension is ensuring that the lift does not make contact with the mud/debris guard just in front of the rear wheel and damage it. As long as I clear that mud/debris guard, I know the lift is positioned correctly.
The following pick hopefully illustrates the pivot. It shows the lift in the same relative position as the previous photo, but now at full height.

One tip I forgot to mention, and now that you brought this up reminded me to, is that the parking brake can't be set, or the car in gear during the lift. The lift actually needs to move the car forward an inch or so as it is lifting it, until the tires are off the ground. Same for the reverse. Thank you for the reminder.

 

Thanks silkcut -

good tips and thanks for the clarification in dimension. I'm getting the 5000SLX, which is supposedly a little longer than the 5000, but they look to be pretty much the same to me.

good points regarding the ebrake/being in gear, very good to know.

 

kyoo
I think you're really going to like the 5000SLX.
In reading through their literature, it looks like the significant differences are the locking mechanism and they beefed up the box steel. For a car like a Mini, it's not really an issue, but I like their conservative engineering approach.
I think that Pelican Parts offers free shipping on the unit if you order it through them, something to consider given the weight. The whole thing is pretty heavy coming off the truck. It will come shrink wrapped, and strapped to a pallet, so you'll need to have something to cut the straps.
I know the brochure speaks about "throwing them in the trunk" and transporting them, but I'll tell you that you're going to have to be fairly stout to be "throwing" these around. I routinely yank 225lb. gas cylinders into the back of my truck, and I find these are a little heavy.

 

great, thanks for the input. you can get them directly from quickjack as well, which is what i'll be doing. I've seen vids of these fitting NA miatas somehow. was debating between this and the 3500 before I found out the 5000 would fit, wanted support for heavier cars I've got (and plan on getting)

 

So these are too long to also use on my classic mini...hmmm

 

Nice piece of gear. I bought an EZCarlift years ago during a group buy for under $1200 for the same reasons. The EZCarlift goes up a bit higher, but lifts a bit less, and is micro height adjustable, and needs no locking pawls, as it is basically a giant scissors jack, so it lifts straight up instead of forward or back. That can be important if you have jack stands on a motor and want to lift or lower the rest of the car relative to the engine, for motor mounts, tranny alignment, and the like. They are around $2k now, which is too high, IMHO. I was SO tired of ramps, jack stands and jacks. One clutch job, or major engine service, that you wouldn't consider other wise and it "pays for itself". Tire rotations (4 vehicles) are a breeze, as is brake work, suspension work, inspections and fluid changes. The best thing is that when the time comes (if) that you no longer service your own car, they are easy to sell for 75% of what you paid. I've lent mine out to friends and they love it. No really well equipped garage should be without a lift, if you can swing it.

 

Anyone used the EXT model on their Mini? I have a 2013 Audi S6 which really needs the longer jack point spread, but I also want to use it on my 2011 MCS. The EXT frame is only 5" longer than the standard SLX.

 

Nice job and your body will thank you in the long run.

 

We liked them so much we started to carry them also.

"https://www.ecstuning.com/b-quickjack-parts/v-mini/"

 

I think both bodies will be thankful.

As a followup after close to two years.

The QuickJacks have been used many times on both of my Mini's without incident. I still like them as much now as the I purchased them.
My JCW got a bunch of that "sprayed: road tar on it once. The spray went from front to the rear in a fan pattern on both sides! I put the car up on the jacks and did the cleaning work off a rolling stool. It was nice having the bottom of the side aero panels at knee height. It would have really kind of sucked to try to get all that crap off, if the car had to stay on the ground.
I did eventually separate the two hydraulic hoses down the middle so that each leg is independent of the other. This makes it easier to setup, and move one car off, and then the other on.
I've tried a few times to position the hydraulic unit at the front of the car and reverse the position, as shown, of the jacks, to move the car up and back, but it's just too cumbersome. I have the hydraulic unit at the rear and the jacks move the cars up and forward.
The supplied quick disconnects were always a bit of a pain with way they operated, and eventually one of the female couplers got stuck in such a manner as to not allow the male end of the quick connect to lock into place. These are very expensive hydraulic quick couplers, so I replaced them with standard hydraulic couplers from Tractor supply for about 1/4th the cost.

As I stated, I do use them to lift up my Sierra Denali, 5300lbs. curb weight, but They're just no big enough for stability, so I put jack stands under the frame front and rear and lower the truck back down on to the jack stands.

I don't know about the SLX, but I have looked into the 7000lb. set for my truck. If any one sees these up for sale, it means I upgraded.

 

I just got my quickjack and haven't read this yet but will the car not lift if it's not in neutral? Not sure that I'm too excited to leave brakes off and car in neutral as I jack it up.

 

I’m really keen to consider one of these to use with my R56 and R52 MCS, but to justify it it has to be useful for at least one other car in the family.

However, the other cars in the family are a BMW F31 and Land Rover LR4.

Aside from the weight capacity and size of those vs the Mini, both the LR4 and F31 vehicles have 8 speed auto ZF transmissions.

The problem with the BMW especially is that you can’t engage neutral without starting the engine (or climbing under the car to access the selector directly on the transmission) and as soon as the engine has stopped then park is engaged automatically.

It was mentioned earlier that you have to leave the parking e-brake off to use the jack, and vehicle out of gear, to allow the wheels to roll during initial lift . This is not possible with the BMW ZF transmission unless the engine is running.

So my question is, how much does the vehicle roll when you lift it, is it a real problem for all four wheels to be locked? I ask about four wheels as my F31 is also x-drive.

 

If you don't allow the car to roll then the movement occurs elsewhere - primarily in that once you align the blocks/jackpads they will rotate out of position if the car can't move.

 

I've used the quick jack on 3 different cars and I did not have to leave the car in neutral with the parking brake off. It doesn't shift nor drag the car when it lifts.