Does anyone know of a rolling floor jack that will fit under a 2002 Mini? If so, could you please provide me with the manufactures name and model number.

 

alot of people (also myself)just go to wal-mart.
$15-$16 bucks. works great.
doug

 

I put a 1/2" piece of plywood under the front wheels, this is just enough to use a typical Craftsman or similar basic floor jack. Once I get the font up and a jack stand in place I can do the back easily.

This is on my 2003 mcs, stock suspension.

 

I have the 2 1/2 tons craftman floor jack. It works fine.

 

Do you guys position the jack as to use the 4 "blocks" or do you use a different jacking point?

 

Thats a good question. I'm rather curious about that myself.

 

I bought one of the low profile aluminum jacks (northerntool.com) and it works great. It cost a little more, but I told my wife that when I lower the MINI I wont be able to get a normal jack under it. No plans on lowering it, but beter to be safe than sorry.

I just use the four jacking points, when rotating tires just use the front one, and both side tires come off the ground. Makes it very simple.

Nik

 

For the front, I jack up inside/front of the block area where there's reinforcment
on the frame. There was a good pict at NAM on jack placement; I ran
a quick search but could not find that pict... hummm..

For the rear, I just place the jack along the rail that runs on both sides
of the car. I think there was some rubber/plastic cover over that rail, but
its reinforced.


But, when I rotate my tires, I use 2 jacks at the factory jack points and
just do one side at a time.

 

I originally had a 3 ton floor jack, and it barely fit under the car at the jack points. The other thing I have noticed with larger steel floor jacks is that the lifting cup is too deep, unless a thin board or rubber pad is placed in/on the cup face as a spacer. Without it, the lip of the lifting cup can mar the underside of the car.


All of that added up to an overwhelming urge to get a new aluminum floor jack. I opted for the Sears Craftsman 2-ton capacity model. The deciding factors for me were:

1) Stouter construction and better fit and finish than some of the generic brand aluminum jacks I had checked out. It just looked "better built."

2) The other aluminum jacks were rated at only 1.5 tons. Our other "fun car" is a 1962 Buick. Extra lifting capacity is an extra margin of safety.

3) I doubt I'll ever have to worry about the availability of service parts for a Craftsman brand item. I can order any spare bits I need locally.

4) The minimum pad height is low enough that it should slip under the lift points of even a mildly lowered MINI. (the factory plastic lift blocks)

5) The lift cup has a low lip, and the included rubber pad is thick enough to come up flush to the lip edge.

6) It was on sale the week I bought it. :smile:

Good luck in your search!

 

This one?

 

The Sears Aluminium jack is great! I bought one for my brother and we have used it on his Pantera and a friend's 512TR.

As for myself, I have the cheaper aluminum racing jack from Checkers and have used it on my MCS with no problem. If you put a 2 x 4 between the car and the jack and place it in the middle of the rocker panel, you can lift the entire side of the car!

 

Bought this one from good ol' harbor freight. Works fine on my lowered MINI. Typical harbor freight stuff as far as fit and finish but:

It's aluminum and relatively light and easy to manuever.
It's low enough to get under my lowered MINI and Mustang without difficulty.
Just a few pumps and it's up.
Easy to regulate when lowering.
Handle comes off and separates into two pieces for easy portability. (Read I can get it to the track!)
3,000 lbs.
Complete manual with exploded views and part numbers should you need them.
$80.
It was $90 when I bought it. A couple weeks later it went on sale for $80. I called them and they refunded the $10 without question.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91039

 

I bought the same jack from Harbor Freight and had several friends buy it is as well . It is perfect for the mini . It slides under mine with no need for blocks and my car is about 1.5 inches lower than stock. It also fits in the footwell in front of the passenger seat nicely for transport. I jasut got a flyer from them that they are on sale again.
Randy

 

put me in for harbor freight.... its the place to go....

i got the all alluminum racing jack for um 100 i think..... two squirts and your off the ground.

 

I was gonna get that harbor freight one myself. :smile:


Tirerack has a cool aluminum one too. but like $200+ and shipping...

 

<photo snipped>

Yep. That's the one. I'm not sure if it gets quite as low as the Harbor Freight one, but it does go higher (18" max lift vs. 15.75" , if I remember the specs right.) Also notice the built-in lug nut tray near the handle- very handy for keeping lugs from getting kicked under the car when you take 'em off!

 

I also have the "generic" aluminum jack. Lifts the whole side of the car with ease at the front lift-block.

With practice, you can have the car on jack stands in a minute. Stands at both side of the front subframe and under the rear lift-blocks.

Someday, my garage will have a lift....

 

I made a little jig out of oak that is round on one side to fit the floor jack and square on the other side to fit the jack point. It works great without the worry of anything slipping when the car is jacked up.

 

By the way, Sears is now carrying a second aluminum jack that is rated at 3,000 lbs too. I saw it at Sears Hardware for $99 last week. The 4,000 lb model is still $199, so I am waiting for that to go on sale instead. Didn't think I would want the 1.5 ton jack with an SUV and all.

 

I looked into the aluminum jacks from three places a) Sears b) Harbor Freight store c) Costco and here is what I found:

Sears has a 3000 lb and a 4000 lb that are $119 and $199 respectively. It has only 1 year warrantee and also looks of comparable build quality as the 4000lb Alltrade at Costco. Although the 4000 lb unit is a little different from the Costco one (1 hydralic pump vs 2 hydralic pumps) they may very well be built by the same manufacturer.

Costco has a 4000 lb unit branded as Alltrade. It build quality is very close to the Sears 4000 lb but only cost $119. I didn't check the warrantee duration but one can safely assume 1 year.

I went to my local Portland OR Harborfreight store expecting to find the 3000lb unit as discussed above for comparable price to no avail. They have a flimsy and undersized 3000 lb for around $90 and a better 3000 lb for $119. They also has a 4000 lb unit for $199.

If I decide to replace my cheapo miniature floor jack I bought from Kmart 15 years ago I for sure go with the 4000 lb unit from Costco. The Sears units are also made in China just like the Costco one.

 

i cant fit a floor jack under man car anyway so either way i am shizt out of luck

 

I bought the one from Costco a few weeks ago (made by Alltrade). I had waited months for Costco to restock it.

The result: I returned it. It was the worst piece of junk I had bought in a long time. It could have been just that one, but I didn't bother exchanging it. I ended up using a couple of those $30 dollar ones I bought ten years ago, but I will be purchasing the 4,000lb Sears model soon.

The Costco model would not jack the car, so I bled the system. Still wouldn't jack the car. Added jack oil, bled the system again. Would kind of jack the car, but took way too many pumps, and was way too hard to jack. Back in the box, and back to the store.

 

I got this at pep boys for $130. 1 1/2 ton aluminum racing jack

(intrerestingly, it's $300 on their website)

http://www.7453217467431.com/product...60848500&tab=0

 

I have bought a floor jack long ago that exhibit exactly the symptom as you described. The problem appears to be in the one way valve. All these jacks being made in china is no surprise that a few units are defective out of the box. I suspect someone will find the same thing even with Sears. The only benefit with Sears is within 1 year you can always just being it back and exchanged for another one while with Costco or HF they may already switched to another brand long since.

I looked very closely between the Costco's and Sears' and the Sears' are not not higher quality. I will only pay the extra premium if Sears offer a 10 year warrantee. 1 year is too short for a jack which has little to go wrong.

 

I bought the same jack; it works great and seems very well built.