By Tom Scalisi | Updated Aug 15, 2023 4:32 PM
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When it comes to truck or SUV maintenance, everything is bigger. Tires, brakes, suspension, and even oil filters are larger and more heavy duty than what is on a typical car. This overbuilt construction means heavier vehicles and taller ride heights. For that reason, a standard car jack might not do the job.
To get these heavier, taller vehicles off the ground, you need the best floor jack for trucks. These floor jacks can lift more weight and reach higher lifting heights, giving home mechanics the range they need to get a truck or an SUV off the ground in their home workshops. Keep reading to learn more about these handy shop tools.
When doing research for our list of floor jack recommendations suitable for truck or SUV maintenance, we took the most important aspects into consideration. We made sure to include a range of types, looking at both floor and bottle jacks, all offering different styles such as manual, electric, and pneumatic units to suit a range of user preferences.
While looking at top brands on the market, we found that scissor jacks did not meet our expectations and therefore excluded this type of floor jack from our top picks. Our list includes top choices that are all made from durable materials, and perhaps most importantly for shoppers, spanning a wide range of budgets. Our list caters to this range, from those looking for heavy-duty tools for frequent use in a workshop, to more casual users shopping for a compact unit that can fit easily inside the vehicle for emergency use.
While jacking up a truck might be a tall order, choosing the best floor jack for trucks and SUVs doesn’t have to be so much work. To help make the job easier, the following list consists of some of the top jacks on the market.
Anyone looking for a quality floor jack for their truck or SUV might want to give the Blackhawk Fast Lift service jack some consideration. The jack features heavy-duty steel construction and a large swiveling saddle, making it a good choice for lifting overbuilt components. This jack also has two swiveling wheels for easy steering and a long handle with a rubber grip to make pulling it around a shop less of a labor.
The Fast Lift Service jack has an operation range of 5.5 inches to 22 inches, giving it enough lift for trucks and SUVs. The large 4-inch saddle swivels, which can be a benefit when finding the perfect position from which to lift. It also has a Fast Lift feature, which allows the jack to reach the jacking point with just a few pumps, speeding up the lifting process.
Get the Blackhawk floor jack for trucks at Amazon, Northern Tool + Equipment, JB Tools, or Unique Truck Equipment.
Home mechanics on a budget are always looking for versatile tools that will save them money. That’s just what the Powerbuilt All-in-One does. This bottle jack and jack stand combination will lift a 6,000-pound (3-ton) vehicle while also converting to a jack stand to safely hold it in place.
The Powerbuilt All-in-One has a lifting range between 11 inches and 21 inches, giving it plenty of range for almost any truck or SUV at factory height. It has a specially designed lift arm with multiple locking points for quick lifting and securing the jack in place. And at just 22 pounds, it’s light enough to place in a trunk or a truck bed tool box for roadside repairs.
Get the Powerbuilt floor jack for trucks at Amazon.
Arcan’s 3-ton quick-rise aluminum floor jack is a lightweight upgrade worth checking out. This jack features aircraft-grade aluminum construction that weighs just 56 pounds. It also has a lifting range between 3.78 inches and 18.9 inches, giving this jack enough lift for most SUVs and light-duty trucks. There’s also a counterweight pawl that drops in place while jacking, preventing this jack from lowering on its own.
This quality floor jack features dual pump pistons that make lifting the vehicle faster and easier. The Arcan also has a long reinforced handle with a padded section for avoiding vehicle damage.
This jack has a rubber saddle pad for maintaining a sure grip on the jacking point, and it has a wide footprint for stability under load.
Get the Arcan floor jack for trucks at Amazon or The Home Depot.
The E-Heelp electric car jack kit has just about anything an SUV or truck-driving motorist on the side of the road could need in a pinch. It features an electric jack, an impact wrench for loosening and tightening lug nuts, a flashlight, an air compressor, and some emergency tools. Both the electric jack and the air compressor run on the vehicle’s 12-volt power.
The electric jack has 5 tons of lifting capacity and a lifting range between 6.1 inches and 17.7 inches. While this jack does have heavy-duty lifting capabilities, the entire kit weighs just over 20 pounds. The jack also fits nicely in the small tool kit with the other tools, allowing users to store them underneath their truck seats or in the trunk of their SUV.
Get the E-Heelp floor jack for trucks at Amazon.
For getting heavy-duty vehicles up off the ground, Big Red’s Torin pneumatic bottle jack has what it takes to get the job done. This bottle jack has an air-powered pump that operates with compressed air, making lifting heavy vehicles a breeze. It also has a hydraulic backup to pump it up when a compressor isn’t available.
This Big Red floor jack features a wide, rugged base for stability and heavy-duty steel construction. The air pump has an operational range between 100 and 175 psi, and users can control the height with the thumb-activated trigger. The lifting range on this Big Red floor jack is between 10.5 inches and just over 20 inches, while the weight capacity is up to 20 tons, making it a solid choice for lifting heavy trucks and SUVs.
Get the Big Red TA92006 floor jack for trucks at Amazon or The Home Depot.
Those who want a little more security when doing car maintenance can rely on this scissor car jack from Big Red. Made with heavy-duty forged-alloy steel, this option is safe to use as a replacement or utility jack, as it has a height range of 4.125 to 15.125 inches and can hold up to 1.5 tons (3,000 pounds).
Need more? This option also has an extra-wide base for supporting large loads, and the one-piece handle delivers quick responses when working on the vehicle. Finally, this model is small when collapsed and can fit in a truck tool box or the trunk of a car for quick access during roadside fixes or tire changes.
Get the Big Red T10152 floor jack for trucks at Amazon or The Home Depot.
Getting a big hunk of metal, plastic, and steel off the ground takes a bit of muscle. Luckily, that muscle comes from the jack, not you. The following is a list of important considerations to keep in mind while shopping for the best floor jack for trucks.
There’s a stark size difference between a compact car and a ¾-ton pickup truck. For that reason, it’s easy to see why a larger, more robust floor jack might be necessary for getting a big truck off the ground. These floor jacks typically have heavier load capacities and higher lifting ranges.
Trucks and SUVs don’t have the same height restrictions as sportier sedans or coupes, so floor jack stands don’t have to be quite so low profile to slide underneath them. This means home mechanics have more flexibility when choosing the type of car jack they’d like to use for car maintenance. Floor jacks, bottle jacks, electric jacks, and scissor jacks all fit well under a truck or an SUV.
There are three ways to lift a vehicle: using manual strength, using an electric motor, or using air to lift the vehicle.
It’s no secret that most jacks are very heavy. From hydraulic floor jacks to bottle jacks, these are dense, heavy machines. They have to be, as they’re built from heavy-duty steel that can support 3 or 4 tons. The lifting arms on floor jacks tend to have reinforced sections, while bottle jack stands tend to have sturdy bases to support the weight.
Also, many floor jacks have steel wheels that might not roll very well but do a great job of supporting the weight of a truck or an SUV. With the typical weight of an SUV far north of 5,000 pounds, polymer wheels just won’t cut it.
When it comes to choosing the best floor jack for trucks, you’ll have a choice between a few different jack types. They differ in the way they lift the vehicle.
Floor jacks are the fastest, but they aren’t very portable. Scissor jacks are highly portable, but they take a while to lift a vehicle. Bottle jacks are more portable than a floor jack and faster than a scissor jack, offering a nice blend.
The best floor jack for trucks needs to have a higher maximum range than a typical vehicle jack. These vehicles have a lot of suspension travel, which means that as you lift the vehicle, the suspension will expand and take longer for the wheel to come off the ground.
A typical vehicle jack might lift only 12 to 14 inches. This is rarely high enough for an SUV or a truck since these vehicles often require to be lifted to heights over 16 inches. However, keep in mind that all vehicles are different. Bottle jacks tend to have a bit more height than a floor jack or a scissor jack, so that might be something to keep in mind.
The saddle of a jack is the portion that touches the vehicle. On floor and bottle jacks, these are typically round. On scissor jacks, they tend to be square.
Trucks and SUVs often use body-on-frame construction, which means there is still a large steel frame running the length of the vehicle (as opposed to modern cars, which use unibody construction). For that reason, the frame is often the best place to lift a vehicle, so saddle size isn’t always a big deal. The frame does most of the work.
But when it comes to placing a jack on a control arm or suspension component, a larger saddle size (up to 3 or 4 inches) might provide a more stable platform for lifting the vehicle.
A typical truck weighs between 5,000 and 7,000 pounds, or between 2.5 tons and 3.5 tons. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a 2.5-ton or a 3.5-ton lift is necessary. Jacks lift only one corner (at most, one half) of the vehicle at a time, so they’re never experiencing the full weight of the vehicle.
However, because these are heavy vehicles, it’s best to err on the side of caution. Looking for a heavy-duty floor jack with a 3-, 4-, or 5-ton lifting capacity will ensure you’re always able to lift the vehicle when needed, and you won’t have to worry about taking a jack past its lifting capacity.
Moving a heavy-duty floor jack around a garage shop can be a handful. Luckily, most truly heavy jacks (some weigh more than 80 pounds) have wheels that make moving them at least a bit easier. They also have long handles with knurled grips for pulling them around with gloved hands.
Bottle jacks don’t have wheels, but they do have handles. The jack has to be placed underneath the jacking point by hand, but the handle will then pump the jack up just like a floor jack. Scissor jacks typically have long, offset handles that users can use to push these lightweight jacks around and twist them to jack the vehicle up.
Even with that extensive background on the best floor jacks for trucks, you might have some lingering questions whose answers aren’t included in the average owner’s manual. The following is a collection of some of the most frequently asked questions about floor jacks. Be sure to check for your answer below.
Most jack styles will work; just be sure that it has a minimum weight capacity of 3 tons or 6,000 pounds and a minimum lifting height of 16 inches.
Choosing a floor jack for a truck comes down to convenience. If the jack will only be used in a garage, a standard floor jack is the way to go. But if there’s a chance a jack will be needed on the road, a bottle jack might be a better fit for its size and portability.
Most trucks still use body-on-frame construction, so lifting from the frame is usually best. However, check the vehicle owner’s manual before lifting a truck.
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