Best Electric Car Jacks: Offer a Lift

Top 7 Best Electric Car Jacks

What are you buying? Parts, most likely at the most inopportune time, and tools such as wrenches with which to turn bolts and jacks with which to hoist the thing skyward. It’s the latter on which we’ll focus today, turning our attention to car floor jacks that provide a lift with the assistance of electricity.

We’ve listed the weight ratings for all these jacks but, as with all labels of this nature, be sure to treat them as wildly optimistic and employ all safety precautions. We want you around to click on our posts, after all.

This electric scissor-style jack can draw its power from a 12V outlet or directly from a car battery, making it a good choice if you're working on a rig that's not - erm - fully assembled. We don't have any of those in the TTAC fleet. No, sir. Its large base and saddle are designed to make this thing more stable than some other designs.

It maxes out at about 12 inches of lift, more than enough to change a tire or get under something for inspection. It automatically stops at that height, lest your attention be diverted by the latest episode of Tiger King or something. The weight rating is only 2 tons, though.

Far outstripping the lightweight unit above is this 6-ton brute from an outfit called Autool (a portmanteau of auto and tool, geddit?). Marketed a jack for vehicles, it nevertheless reminds your author of the bottle jack he once used to help shore up an old house.

Running off 12V power, this jack has a lifting range of 6 to 17 inches. A handy wired controller means one can position themselves far enough away from the vehicle as it leaves terra firma. Still, the whole thing only weighs about 11.5 lbs, a sum much less than that ancient red bottle jack from Canadian Tire.

From a company competing with the likes of Huayra and Tuatara for the lead in automotive-related unpronounceable names, this jack comes with a variety of tools that can work off a 12V car battery including a handy lug nut remover in the style of a snazzy impact gun.

The shape of the jack is unconventional but designed so the digital readout and control buttons are facing the proper way for ease of operation when in use. Rated at a hefty 5 tons, this kit even comes with a pair of knot gloves so you don't get your hands dirty while changing the donut spare on your 1995 Pontiac Sunfire.

Featuring two different heads that can be swapped depending on the vehicle being lifted, this yellow scissor-style jack apparently takes about 2 minutes to lift a sub-3 ton rig 16.5 inches off the ground. Most of us can probably do that trick in less time with a manual jack but there's something to be said about letting an electric motor do the work once in a while (insert naughty jokes here).

There is a handy LED flashlight built in to this unit to help eliminate nighttime fumbling, while the case's integrated reflectors can double as a warning sign if you set it up behind your car on the hard shoulder. A thick base on the jack adds a dose of stability.

Again with the inscrutable brand names. This electric hydraulic floor jack comes with an electric impact-style wrench and a handy inflator pump. The jack itself stretches to one of the highest top-outs in this list, raising a car nearly 18 inches. An LED flashlight is on board as well.

The seller notes that, in the case of a power loss, the jack has a built-in self-locking power structure and a safety unloading knob to prevent the whole works from coming crashing to earth. As an aside, that electric impact-style wrench was definitely designed to fit within the confines of its carrying case, looking for all the world like a stunted dustbuster instead of an impact gun.

Here's an option that is, well, an awful lot like the other scissor-style jacks on this list. Have you ever driven a car that was perfectly competent and completely inoffensive but you'd be totally fine to never drive or hear of it again? Yeah, it seems like this is the electric jack version of that phenomenon.

It's able to lift 5 tons, which is more than some, and can plug into a 12V outlet like everything else on this list. At 22 lbs it is a bit heavier than most. The carrying case comes with a few extras including an electric wrench that will please members of the Brown Car Appreciation Society.

Wrapping up our list is a 3-ton unit slathered in nuclear yellow paint. Its capacity (3 tons equals roughly 6,600 lbs, if you're wondering) make it a decent selection for most cars and the vast majority of crossovers. Break out something bigger for yer Ram Power Wagon, though.

Packed neatly into a handy carrying case that features a reflective emergency triangle on its anterior side, this kit includes the gear one will need to swap a tire using electric-powered tools. Reviews are very good overall, with nearly 90 percent of respondents giving this thing a 4- or 5-star rating. Why one customer chose to upload a picture of their dog remains a mystery.

FAQs

Can electric cars be jacked up?

A short answer would be, yes, electric cars can be jacked up as conveniently as any other car. However, one of the major precautions that you must take is to make sure to place the jack pads accurately on the jack points that the car has. This ensures that no delicate part of the vehicle gets damaged during the lifting process.

The method to jack up an electric car is given below:

Park your car on a straight, non-slopy road to make sure that it doesn’t start moving accidentally

Do not allow any person in the vehicle for obvious security reasons

Place the jack under the car and confirm that its pads are right below the jack points that the vehicle has

Use the remote controller (or the required method) to jack up the car to the appropriate height

Lower down the car when done

Are electric scissor jacks any good?

Yes, if used correctly, they are. Because scissor jacks are quite durable, and the electric-operated ones require less manual labor to lift a car off the ground in about two minutes, they can be considered a good piece of equipment as long as you are planning to use them majorly for tire replacements or puncture repairs.

How does an electric car jack work?

The processing of an electric car jack is simple. The method is explained below:

The cigarette lighter plug is connected to the socket of the car

The jack pin is adjusted at an appropriate initial height so it can easily get under the car

The correct jack button is pressed to lift the jack pin that also jacks up the car off the ground

Once the task is complete, the correct button is pressed to lower the jack pin to bring the car back on the ground

What are 4 types of jacks?

Depending on the type of car you have and how much does it weigh, you may want to have an electric car jack that suits your needs. Some of the common jack types are listed below for your convenience:

Bottle Car Jack

Having a shape of a stubby small bottle, this type of car jack is generally hydraulic-powered. A bottle car jack is compact when it comes to its form factor and still offers an increased weight limit as compared to other jack types.

Scissor Car Jack

In most cases, scissor car jacks are shipped along with your car as an accessory, and they are either electric or manually operated. A scissor car jack has arms that extend vertically forming a triangle or diamond when in use, while the equipment holds the weight of a car at its center. As compared to other car jacks, these are stronger, heavier, and more durable.

Floor Car Jack

Preferred by most car mechanics and usually manually operated, these car jacks have a lifting system that holds the vehicle on a mounting point while jacking up. Floor car jacks have a detachable handle and four wheels for convenient car lifts and easy movements respectively.

Off-Road Air Jack

These are inflatable airbags that are strong enough to lift a vehicle off the ground, thus working as a car jack. Because these jacks can be inflated even from the car’s exhaust and can be stored conveniently when not air-filled, they are considered best for off-roading as they don’t require any other accessory merely for jacking up a car.

From time to time, TTAC will highlight automotive products we think may be of interest to our community. Plus, posts like this help to keep the lights on around here. Learn more about how this works.

(Editor’s note: This post is meant to both help you be an informed shopper for automotive products but also to pay for our ‘90s sedan shopping habits operating expenses. Some of you don’t find these posts fun, but they help pay for Junkyard Finds, Rare Rides, Piston Slaps, and whatever else. Thanks for reading.)

[Product images provided by the manufacturer.]