There's another lengthy thread going on J&S jacks in the 'General' section of this forum. Might be a good place to look since much of the information here is covered there.

 

Mine failed after 10 years and I just had them sent me a new one. Good as new again!

 

Yeah, yeah, we all know how great their jacks are and how great everyone that has one thinks they are, but the OP already stated he got the bike off the lift and that it "recently started leaking". So, that leads me to believe it will fail again and next time he may not luck out and get his bike off the jack. That's not something I'd be willing to chance, even if it is a "Made in America" with foreign parts J&S jack.

 

So I ended up filling the bottle jack up with fluid and works perfectly fine now. Guess I will just continue to use it and keep an eye out for leaks, but seems good now. Curious where they leak from anyway, obviously probably a seal or o-ring. Wonder if it would be possible to replace the seal if it leaks again instead of buying a whole new bottle jack

 

Google is your friend. Search "bottle jack rebuild" and you'll get videos, written instructions, seal kits and DIY home fixes.

 

 

Neither Sears nor J&S make their own bottle jacks... you can buy either jack and when the bottle jack has a problem (they all will eventually), replace it with whatever brand/manufacture you want.. But the bottle jacks do not define the differences between these jacks .. it's the design, materials, and workmanship... that the J&S is far superior, is really not even remotely in doubt to anyone who has used both....

I have owned both, and used both extensively. Whether someone wants the better jack, or the just-good-enough jack, is what people need to decide based on their usage and budget..

I had a sears jack for about 10 years, using it on my softail, with no issues..... When I added a bagger to my garage... the sears jack became barely acceptable. The bagger was no where near as stable on that jack as my softail. That extra 100lbs made a huge difference....

After a year or so, the Sears bottle jack started to leak. I bought a J&S jack rather than repair the 12 yr old Sears... The difference was nothing short of incredible, for both the softail and the bagger.. the increase in strength and stability was much more than I anticipated...

My points being;

1) You could use a Sears jack and never have an issue... but don't try to fool yourself into thinking it's as good as the J&S.

2) If you don't want to pay the money for a J&S (worth every penny IMHO), there really is no sense in badmouthing it... you'll merely bring attention to the fact that you don't know anything about the J&S jack...

FWIW.....

 

Not bad mouthing the J+S because I have never used one, guess my point was the craftsman has worked so well for me that there is no way I could justify paying $460 more than I paid for the craftsman. I have used it in every way, removed stock wheels/tires and put new front and rear wheels on, a lot of maintenance done to my bike on the craftsman and I lift my bike about every other day to wash it, I have never even thought about putting a strap on it. I'm sure the J+S jack is a fine product, but for me, the craftsman does everything I ask of it and for $460 less. No bad mouthing here, just my opinion.

 

Pretty much where I'm coming from also. Never had a whit of problems with cheaper HF and/or Craftsman jacks, can't see where I would get that much advantage by paying that much more. Hey, if a guy thinks that's a good deal, carry on!!! I'm certainly not going to badmouth the J&S either, but at the same time, the cheaper ones are plenty stable and powerful enough for my uses!

 

If you raise and store the bike on the locks your fine if the bottle fails, just turn the head back down take bottle out replace or fix. I paid $16.00 bucks for a spare at sears. I have never needed it but I'm sure I will.