My craftsman jack has a bar that will not let the jack go down without the operator moving the bar.

 

I have a almost real bad story. I was late one night in Rockford Ill on my way to the 100 HD party. I was at the dealer party and it was just getting over. I jumped on my 03 SERK and forgot I locked the front disk. Well you guessed it looked like I tweaked the right rotor. Well everything was closing so I ran up to the back of the dealer and told them what happened and that I was leaving early the next day for Milwaukee. They pulled bike in and put it on the lift. Great guys right. Well everyone was tired and a few might have been drinking along with myself. After they took the jack off from under my bike they forgot to vise the front tire down. As the air table started to come down so did my bike. Luckly I was there with my friend and one of the mechanics to catch it and push it back up straight on the lift.
The rest of my 18 day trip flashed right before my eyes.

 

mine fell over one night. neglected to set the locks. bottle jack DEFINITELY bleeds woke up to a bang. Fortunately just broke a mirror and a grip. got off easy.

set the locks every time now.

 

I have the heavy duty harbor freight motorcycle jack and it lets the bike down really fast (too fast). I had a dyna on the stand and while I was lowering the bike I stopped it cause it was coming down way fast and half the bike slipped off the stand. Lucky I had the kick stand down... The directions say that it has two settings for the release valve but I haven't found it yet.

My buddy got the aluminum craftsman jack and its really nice. I think it's on sale for $179.00.

 

J&S. No straps, no problems.

 

Sears Red Jack, no straps, no problems!

 

Operator error here......Red Larin jack, like the red sears jack. Had the Sporty up on the jack in my rec room working on various items without the bike being strapped down. I walked upstairs to the kitchen, or bathroom, or somewhere, and then heard a medium to loud bang/crash. That's when I got that sinking feeling in my gut thinking "Please don't tell me that is what I think it was"......Ran down stairs & sure enough, I found the Sporty laying on it's side with the wheels slightly higher than the rest of the scoot. Jerked that SOB straight back up to only find the very end of the kickstand bent up a little bit with no other damage to the sporty.

 

I've had a couple of close calls with the sporty. You have to be careful with a bike on a lift. Mine sometimes will rotate around if I'm trying to tighten a bolt.

 

im looking to purchase the larin jack for my lowered softail custom (its super low to accomodate the heartland kit) but when not using it im looking to store my other bike (and old 74 cb550) on it to kinda stick it out of the way areas in the garage... my question is how mobile would you say the jack is with a bike on it. can u rotate/spin or just slide etc...would using the jack to move the honda around on it while its lifted work as well as i hope? the garage floor has some cracks etc so im thinking i may run into some trouble... i just cant imagine it being THAT easy to "dolly" around my garage. hopefully you guys who own this jack can convince me otherwise and make me put the order in asap

 

i use a bar lift that i fabricated works great, although a table would be nice to raise the bike up so i'm not killing my back.

but if i were going to buy a lift i wouldn't go cheap with the craftsman or harbor freight. i would shell out top dollar to get a lift i trust., rock solid a buddy of mine has a sears lift and you couldn't pay me to jack a bike up on that thing to do any real work on it.

if you don't make a living fixing bikes honestly a bar lift gives you the cheapest, quickest, and most stable form of a lift for you. there's nothing i can't do on my bike with a bar lift.