My Sears,, still for sale.....
wonder why?

 

Uh, Rick, the "S" in J&S does not stand for "Sears", in case you weren't wondering.

 

The bar lift in the original post is a great tool. But, like any tool it has to be used in the right application.

Oil changes and quick stuff, they are great. If you are gonna Work on the bike, get it off the ground.

My first purchase whenI build my garage will be a full bike lift. I will still use the bar lift and the jack that I have, but only in the applications for whitch they are best suited.

 

My bf has the Pit Bull lift and it's worth every red cent! He also got the optional turn table for it. It allows you to spin the bike while on the jack and in the air. Makes cleaning it easy! Was sold on tehjack when we looked at it in Sturgis and he cranked it up in the air and grabbed the front wheel of a full dresser and cranked on it letting it spin freely in the air. Quite a site to see!

Put it under the bike, lift it off the stand into the air, when putting it back down it places it back on the stand!!

http://www.pitbullmotorcyclelifts.com/

 

Pitbulls are nice jacks

So is my J&S

I gave my sears red jack to my neighbor for 40bucks but he didn't like it
and bought a J&S too, but now its stuck in his garage..least its not mine

 

I will second the pitbull lifts. I had a Larin for several years and it worked fine. Saw a pitbull at a rally and got one shortly after. It is nice to raise the bike in the air and it not rock around.

 

I picked up a decent bike lift from Harbor Freight Tools for less than $60......Yeah, it's made in China but it works fine for a Softail and I'm on a budget! Enjoy the Ride!

 

I just pickedthis upfrom Harbor Freight for $59.00. Sure bets the heck out of bending over to clean tires and rims.


[IMG]local://upfiles/46324/4190B7F880F0459497CBC61846D59549.jpg[/IMG]

 

The best jack to lift your bike is the jack you can get under the frame. If you can't get the lift under the bike then it doesn't matter how much or how little you spent because you can't lift the bike. Read these forums and you will see many messages from guys that bought an economical jack that worked great for dozens of other people only to find out the jack was too high to fit under the bike.

All of the jacks look nearly the same in the pictures on the internet but they have dramatically different resting low heights. The Larin MAL-2C has resting height of 2 1/2 inches. The red Sears Craftsman has a resting height of 5 inches.

Measure from the lowest part on your frame to the floor and get the height from frame to concrete. Look for a jack that is LOWER than this height when the jack is in the lowest position.

Once you have narrowed your candidates to jacks that fit under your bike then read reviews on that jack to get user experience with stability.

I have the red Sears Craftsman. It did fit under my 883 Sportster if I tipped the bike a little. I had to raise my Road King Classic off the kickstand to get the jack under the big bike.

Then I lowered the Road King Classic with the Harley-Davidson lowering kits 54631-02B (rear) and 54514-05 (front) which lowered the frame to 4 1/2 (plus 1/16 if I'm lucky) inches from the floor. The red Sears Craftsman no longer would fit under the bike tipped or not.

The HD lift P/N 94653-98 states the minimum clearance needs to be 4 1/2 inches.

I like the idea of the HD lift because it uses a crank instead of a hydraulic bottle. The crank allows you to lower the bike at a speed of your choosing to safely put the bike back on the ground.

The bottle jacks are somewhat more difficult to control the lowering speed of the bike and I've seen some of the videos on the Internet where the bikes drop pretty quick and the bike abruptly leans to the kickstand side. This seems a little risky to me and the red Sears Craftsman I had behaved the same way.

My bottom line message is to measure the clearance under your frame then find a jack that will get under the bike. Once you have several jacks selected, then understand their stability with the bike on the jack and when lowering the jack. Then make your purchase.

If you bike is lower than 4 1/2 inches then the Larin MAL-2C and perhaps one or two others are your only choice.

 

J&S jacks - enough said. A bit pricey but so is the bike you are lifting in the air. Sears red in my opinion is a piece of garbage. j&s - J&S - J&S!!!