Picked up a Qucikjack
02-18-2017, 12:54 AM
#1
Picked up a Qucikjack
Had my eye on a Quickjack BL 5000 SLX for some time. Ordered one early in the new year and finally got around to finish putting it together and actually trying it.
Observations:
The "jacks" are a bit heavier than I expected it to be. Supposedly the gross weight of everything is supposed to be 212lbs. I'd say the 110v powerpak is about 30lbs or so which would leave about 90lbs per "jack". I think that's low. I would suspect each weighs well over 100lbs each side. That's not a bad thing, but they are chunky and awkward to move around. If you're manoeuvring in a tight garage make sure you have good control over it and room because if it slipped and fell on your car you'd be having a bad day.
Assembly wasn't smooth but I've definitely put together worse things. The instructions were mediocre. They were quite generic and some of the photos, and even a step or two, weren't even applicable to the unit which is a little confusing. There was contradictory info for some things, like oil reservoir capacity (1.9 vs 2.5L?) and the whole bleed process was a big enough pain in the *** that I'd bet more than half the people that buy one of these never properly bled it. They actually spec generic ATF (Dexron equiv is what I used) instead of industrial hydraulic oil, but it's such a simple application I can't imagine ATF wouldn't perform just fine and it's easier to find for most people.
They use an odd combination of NPT and JIC hydraulic fittings and actually dictate the use thread tape which, while a lot of people do use in hydraulics, is absolutely not a best practice for hydraulic systems at least not without extreme care. If even the tiniest piece of tape gets into the hydraulic circuit it can wreak havoc. Not only the pump but especially the valve, causing hanging and binding. To their credit, the instructions make it clear to only put it on the "lower" part of the thread and not to be near the open end, but that's only about as good as people who follow them. Would definitely be better to use a non taper thread where sealant isn't required and idiot proof it.
The quick connects are very tight and seem well constructed. They come with nice fitting protective caps for when it's not assembled.
The ramps themselves solid and finished well. A small hitch putting it together as I had to thread a fitting into the end of the cylinder, but a small gusset on one of the jacks actually interfered with threading in the adapter fitting. So, I actually had to grind off about 1/8-1/4" of material so I could put the fitting on. It was only on one side, not the other so I am going to assume it was a fluke on mine. Once that was on, it was just time consuming and awkward connecting everything else and bleeding, bleeding and bleeding some more to get the air out.
All in all, quality of construction is good. If I had to say anything seemed cheap it would be the mix of pipe/jic fittings, the powerpak just seems a little on the cheap side, but not bad. Pendant seems OK and a nice cord. Since I sell hydraulic equipment I'll probably replace the fittings/hoses with non-tapered threaded ends when I get around to it. But to be clear it's not a huge deal.
One thing I do like is that they seemed to have updated them to not have the hoses siamesed together (like I've seen in other photos/reviews). The quick connect covers are nice too.
End of the day, yes, it works. Pretty well. Once you get the blocks lined up with the pads and press up on the pendant it's probably about 25 seconds to go to the top lock.
I'm pretty darn sure I could drop the engine, but I haven't taken measurements yet.
Note: I probably should have flipped sides with these so the safety bar was on the outside of the jack, but it doesn't effect anything.
Observations:
The "jacks" are a bit heavier than I expected it to be. Supposedly the gross weight of everything is supposed to be 212lbs. I'd say the 110v powerpak is about 30lbs or so which would leave about 90lbs per "jack". I think that's low. I would suspect each weighs well over 100lbs each side. That's not a bad thing, but they are chunky and awkward to move around. If you're manoeuvring in a tight garage make sure you have good control over it and room because if it slipped and fell on your car you'd be having a bad day.
Assembly wasn't smooth but I've definitely put together worse things. The instructions were mediocre. They were quite generic and some of the photos, and even a step or two, weren't even applicable to the unit which is a little confusing. There was contradictory info for some things, like oil reservoir capacity (1.9 vs 2.5L?) and the whole bleed process was a big enough pain in the *** that I'd bet more than half the people that buy one of these never properly bled it. They actually spec generic ATF (Dexron equiv is what I used) instead of industrial hydraulic oil, but it's such a simple application I can't imagine ATF wouldn't perform just fine and it's easier to find for most people.
They use an odd combination of NPT and JIC hydraulic fittings and actually dictate the use thread tape which, while a lot of people do use in hydraulics, is absolutely not a best practice for hydraulic systems at least not without extreme care. If even the tiniest piece of tape gets into the hydraulic circuit it can wreak havoc. Not only the pump but especially the valve, causing hanging and binding. To their credit, the instructions make it clear to only put it on the "lower" part of the thread and not to be near the open end, but that's only about as good as people who follow them. Would definitely be better to use a non taper thread where sealant isn't required and idiot proof it.
The quick connects are very tight and seem well constructed. They come with nice fitting protective caps for when it's not assembled.
The ramps themselves solid and finished well. A small hitch putting it together as I had to thread a fitting into the end of the cylinder, but a small gusset on one of the jacks actually interfered with threading in the adapter fitting. So, I actually had to grind off about 1/8-1/4" of material so I could put the fitting on. It was only on one side, not the other so I am going to assume it was a fluke on mine. Once that was on, it was just time consuming and awkward connecting everything else and bleeding, bleeding and bleeding some more to get the air out.
All in all, quality of construction is good. If I had to say anything seemed cheap it would be the mix of pipe/jic fittings, the powerpak just seems a little on the cheap side, but not bad. Pendant seems OK and a nice cord. Since I sell hydraulic equipment I'll probably replace the fittings/hoses with non-tapered threaded ends when I get around to it. But to be clear it's not a huge deal.
One thing I do like is that they seemed to have updated them to not have the hoses siamesed together (like I've seen in other photos/reviews). The quick connect covers are nice too.
End of the day, yes, it works. Pretty well. Once you get the blocks lined up with the pads and press up on the pendant it's probably about 25 seconds to go to the top lock.
I'm pretty darn sure I could drop the engine, but I haven't taken measurements yet.
Note: I probably should have flipped sides with these so the safety bar was on the outside of the jack, but it doesn't effect anything.
Last edited by spud72; 02-18-2017 at 02:39 AM.
