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I was at Costco and saw this jack. Seems to be well built and at a very reasonable price. Hope you guys take advantage of it before somebody alerts the mods to delete the post.
I have exactly that same 3T roller jack, but with a "Craftsman" label on it. Has done the garage duty for close to ten years. In fairness, the last more-than-several years have seen duty shared by the Max-Jax lift. When we rolled the jack out a a month ago to put pressure on Jim C's '78 front suspension, it worked as expected.
I particularly like the big rubber pad in the lift shoe, saves the jack points on this car, and also when lifting other cars by other places. No mar of suspension points when used for assembly etc.
It is barely low enough to get under the rear lift loop on a Lotus 46, OK under a 23.
Bottom line, this is a good choice if you need a 928 garage jack.
On the subject of Harbor Freight jacks, the smallest version of one the pictured (the low-profile unit that typically sells for ~$70) couldn't lift my '79 928's (stock ride height) body off high enough to get the wheels off the ground. It's the only jack that fits under my Caterham but it proved pretty useless for the Porsche.
I was at Costco and saw this jack. Seems to be well built and at a very reasonable price. Hope you guys take advantage of it before somebody alerts the mods to delete the post.
IMHO, if you are going for HF, you can get a 3 ton low profile jack for less than 90 bucks. I picked one up to use on my wife's DD (2000 Celica GT-S) earlier this spring, and I've got no complaints.
Maximum lift height can also be a consideration. 18.6" for the Costco jack vs 23.75" for the 2-ton HF Hacker posted.
Sometimes you need a few extra inches.
The originally-mentioned aluminum jack is the first non-steel jack I've owned. It replaced several roller jacks at once, including a very low-profile "bargain" that was used on the Lotii, a medium-reach 2.5T H-W that would reach the center section of the now-gone Explorer, and another 2.5T mini utility jack that was quite handy for under-car work. Rolf R, the previous owner of Sean (Safalup)'s S4, donated the aluminum jack to the clinic tool collection after we did a couple TB/WP jobs in one day. I think he felt sorry for me when he saw the ancient steel stuff languishing in the workbay.
The biggest advantage/confidence builder with the aluminum jack is how stable and rigid it is compared with the bargain steel jack. The H-W was plenty stiff, but the smaller low-profile steel jacks would twist and bind up if they weren't aligned to the car perfectly going up, and more importantly coming down.
Chris, for the lightweight LeGrand race car, I fabricated an aluminum cantilever jack that would fit under the front or rear suspension mount points, similar to the way F1 jacks used to work. Might be a thought for your featherweight Caterham. It was very stable, with about a 20" width, and picked the car nicely about 8" for tire changes or moving the car. For anything more serious on the LeGrand and its successors, three people could lift the car onto saw-horse supports. Or I'd grab the rollbar eye with the ceiling hoist and set it on them if I was by myself. Luxury bachelor times, with a couple thousand square feet of fab shop to play in.