Automotive Jacks: What Is the Best Car Jack for Your Application (2024)

Floor Jack, Bottle Jack, or Scissor Jack, They All Are Designed for Specific Tasks

If you’ve worked on a vehicle in any manner, from changing a tire to swapping a transmission, you’ve no doubt worked with some sort of automotive jack in your life. Possibly more than one jack at time or even different types of jacks at the same time on the same project. Using the proper jack for the job is not only going to make the job go smoothly, but using the correct jack for the application increases safety as well. Ultimately, after using a jack to raise your vehicle some form of support (tire cribs, car jack stands, etc. must be employed before working under your ride. Never use just the jack to support your car or truck while working under it. Always have car jack stands supporting the weight after lifting with a hydraulic car jack.

What are the Different Types of Automotive Jacks?

No doubt everyone is familiar with the typical automotive floor jack. A floor car jack can be found in the corner of just about any home garage or workshop. They are indeed the “workhorse” of the jack family. And while they can do a lot of heavy lifting, they are not always the best car jack for the job. I’m sure many of you have dropped a transmission with a typical floor jack, block of wood, and a ratchet strap and it was sketchy at best. That is why a transmission jack is the best jack for that job to do it effortlessly and most importantly, as safely as possible. Below we have listed the six main styles of car jacks and the application they are intended to be used for. We hope this will help in your decision as to what is best for your automotive jacking needs to get the job done right with your safety in mind.

Floor Jacks

As noted above, the ubiquitous floor jack is that one tool a mechanic, be it a pro or a shade tree, can’t live without. Shortly after your first big 200-piece Craftsman tool set purchase (or gift from the parents) your next item in your growing arsenal of automotive repair and upgrade tools was the floor jack. Available in aluminum, steel, and a combination of both, we’ve all used one at one time or another. But what exactly are floor jacks best used for? Floor jacks are known for their versatility due to their wheels or rollers, low overall height, and long stroke handle. The wheels allow a floor car jack to move around a shop or garage (or driveway) with ease, and the long handle provides easy leverage to pump the jack, thus lifting the vehicle. Available in several sizes, the most popular are the 3-ton floor jack and the 2-ton jack models. Floor jacks are also a very stable platform due to their length and width and fit easily under most vehicles. There are even low profile floor jack models for those with really low rides. The downside to the typical floor jack is size and weight, with some jacks weighing up to 50 pounds or more. Floor jacks take up a decent amount of floor space when not in use and while we know some people do it, they’re not the easiest jack to tote around in the trunk of your car for roadside emergencies like a flat tire.

Racing Quick Jacks

The quick jack is a derivative of the standard floor jack and is used mainly in motorsports where time in a pit stop is critical. However, we do know many enthusiasts and mechanics that prefer a racing quick jack over a standard floor car jack for regular repair work or performance work because racing quick jacks tend to be made from aluminum and have carry handles. An aluminum floor jack is much more portable than a standard steel floor jack. Besides the aluminum floor jack construction and carry handles, the racing quick jack is also known for its fast lifting abilities, often requiring only one or two pumps before the hydraulic jack saddle reaches the vehicle’s chassis for lifting. While there are some larger steel 3-ton floor jacks available, most aluminum quick jacks are only rated for 1-1/2-ton or 2-ton lifting capability, so be aware of your vehicle’s weight for your safety when using these lighter duty aluminum racing quick jacks. A 2-ton jack will suffice for most but know what you are lifting weight wise. Many racing quick jacks are available as low profile hydraulic car jack models too.

Bottle Jacks

The typical bottle jack is more commonly used for vehicles with high profiles, like pickup trucks. It is what many OEMs supply with their pickup and SUV models (that is if it even comes with a spare tire!). Bottle jacks are capable of lifting much heavier weights than floor jacks due to their vertical hydraulic jack cylinder design, which is why they are used in hydraulic presses. A bottle jack is also much more portable and easier to use, plus its smaller profile means it can be stored on a shelf, freeing up floor space. The down side of the hydraulic bottle jack is that their vertical design precludes them from being used on most cars. It’s tough to fit a 9-inch tall bottle jack under a car with a 6-inch ride height. Furthermore, due to the small square base that most bottle jacks use, their stability is a much bigger issue than using a standard floor jack. That said, the newer bottle jacks with integral jack stands are a much safer option, though they still require sufficient clearance to be able to work under a vehicle. If you are working on a lifted truck or SUV or some other high clearance ride, bottle jacks offer a quick and easy way to get these larger vehicles off the ground for service.

Transmission Jacks

As the name alludes to, the transmission jack’s sole job is to safely remove or install your vehicle’s transmission. One of the safest systems for doing such transmission work is with the use of an automotive lift. If your shop space and ceiling height allow it, we highly encourage you to investigate adding a lift to your workspace. They make under car work such as suspension, brake, and driveline repairs or upgrades go smoothly and your knees and back will thank you, no matter what your age is. When using a two-post or four-post lift the safest way to extricate that heavy transmission from your ride is with a proper transmission jack. This style of transmission jack uses a wheeled base with a vertical hydraulic ram and tilt/angle adjustable mounting saddle that allows you to position the transmission exactly parallel to the block surface for easy installation. The included support brackets and safety chain ensure the transmission stays safely on the jack saddle.

For those that have to “flat back” their transmission removal and installation, we highly recommend swapping out the small round jack pad on their hydraulic jack for a transmission jack pad adapter. These transmission jack adapter pads work extremely well for automatic transmissions with flat oil pans. A transmission adapter for floor jack like this can also work with manual transmissions with some additional support added, such as steel angle or wood wedges.

Scissor Jacks

Many compact unibody vehicles come from the factory with a car scissor jack as part of the spare tire components found in the trunk/hatch of the car. The car scissor jack is by far one of the most common lifting jack for car styles still in use today from the car and truck manufacturers. The scissor jack is used on the pinch weld of the vehicle or a specific jacking point (consult your vehicle owner’s manual) for emergency tire service. While scissor jacks have a decent lifting capacity and height as a lifting jack for car use, their narrow bases and small jack pad surface provide little stability, which is why we highly recommend adding tire chocks to your roadside emergency kit to prevent vehicle movement. A scissors jack for car or trucks can be used in the shop or garage to lift a vehicle for tire or brake work (and then supported by the proper car jack stands) but a car scissor jack will not raise a vehicle enough for proper under car work. Consider a scissor jack for car use for your roadside emergency/tire changing kit as a tire jack, but there are better options, like floor jacks and bottle jacks for under car access at home.

Bumper Jacks

No longer used in production cars or trucks today, the bumper jack was a popular tire jack style used in the early 20th century up through the 1980s, mostly on full frame vehicles. Many might know it as the handyman jack or sheepherder’s jack and is still used quite often on farms today for various repair needs. The bumper jack is a simple ratcheting-tooth pole jack that attaches to the vehicle’s bumper; thus, it should only be used on vehicles with reinforced bumpers mounted directly to the frame.

Some bumper jack applications have a slot in the bumper that works directly with the hook on the bumper jack saddle, while other applications require a model specific bracket that hooks onto the bumper and accepts the jack saddle’s hook. Bumper jacks are inherently a dangerous way to lift a vehicle due to their small base and were mainly used for emergency roadside flat tire service (though we’ve seen plenty of Darwin Award candidates over the years use bumper jacks for all kinds of repair work). Today we only recommend bumper jacks for display/show use in the trunk of your muscle car or other classic, but in an emergency if that is all you have to use to get your tire swapped out with your spare and get you home, it will get the job done as a tire jack.