SobaCracka wrote:
This is the one I bought, and it looks a lot like the one DownTown linked below. It's a terrific jack and available from Sears:




Thats the one I bought as well ....well worth the extra bucks ....lighter and sturdier ....Coug

I got the Craftsman the last time it went on sale. I pushed it through the right side, gave it a little pump and then put the kickstand up. Worked fine. My daughter was able to spin the back wheel to scrub my whitewalls.

I have the craftsman jack. Works fine. Priced for what you get.

I have an OTC jack, its heavy as hell and it goes low enough that I can slide it under the bike without a board under the kickstand, and still have about an inch or so to spare!!!!!

I got mine in the mail. Put it together (a simple task of bolting in the jack pump) and have used it several times already. Really pleased, especially for the money.

I'm like Doc, I bring the jack in a line it up on the left (mounting) side of the bike, pull the bike upright, fold up the kickstand, let the bike rest verticle against my hip, and roll the jack into place. It is a tight squeeze for my bike, but if you make sure the jack is completely compressed when you start you're good to go.

The was a great investment.

DownTownLB wrote:
Cougar wrote:
roadhog1 wrote:
if you read customer reviews on sears web site there is a lot of negative reviews on the cheaper red jack. the cylinders go bad and they dont sell replacement parts. some are good some are not.i have the yellow aluminum craftsman jack, no problems so far, very light



I bought the red one and it blew oil all over my bike the 2nd time I jacked it up ...fortunately I was still in the shop when it decided to go down ...it had othe problems before the first jack I had to add a bolt that was missing to hold the piston in place.....took it back got the yellow jack and have had no problems so far ... The last time I looked the reviews were getting better hopefully Craftsman realized their reputation was taking a small beating even when I read the bad reviews it was a craftsman tool so I ignored them...Coug

Yes I saw a LOT of 1 star reviews at Sears.com. Then again, it looks to me like everyone selling the $59-89 jacks are essentially selling the same jack with a different paint scheme.

Well, at least the Chinese economy is on the way UP!.


bruskis1......is this the jack you bought? http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94715

I had looked there but only saw the $59 one. That one looks MUCH beefier. I'll have to watch for another sale on it. How long ago did you find it for $99?

I got by on this oil change by running the front tire up on an auto ramp - otherwise my pan wouldn't get under the bike. A pain, but it worked out ok.


Yes that is the jack I bought, I have a Harbour Freight store about 15 miles from my house, and they had it on sale there. I bought it on Feb.27th(Looking at receipt). It's nice to have a store to go to and actually see the product before you buy it. They have the cheaper ones also,on sale for 39.99 but I did not like the look of them, I do not think they will last very long.

I've never been but I believe they have a store in Albany NY (~30 minutes). I'll have to get directions from my friend that told me about it.

Bought the red one a year ago or so, no problem at all.

FYI: I had my Craftsman jack (the yellow aluminum framed one) fail last week and found out that the warranty was up and that Sears couldn't help at all. On-line I read that most reviews claim the jack is junk due to the premature failures and the lack of support from Sears. Mine is not even 2 years old so I was not pleased and figured I had nothing to lose so I took it apart to see if I could find out what failed. With some patience and basic mechanical skill, I found that there are two O-rings on the pushrod that were deteriorated by what looks like chemical breakdown. I found a slight trace of aluminum filings in the oil which were probably not rinsed out from the manufacturing process, and I suspect that the oil was of lesser quality. The rubber in the O-rings felt brittle and looked stringy. To make a long story short, I rinsed the resovoir out, cleaned all parts and other O-rings and coated them with good silicon grease, replaced the bad O-rings (50cents each) coated them with silicon grease and re-assembled the jack. I bought better jack oil, filled the resoivoir and jacked up the Roadie and it works better than new. This is no guarantee that your jack will work like mine or that mine is 100% safe or like new but if the information contained here saves anyone some grief and money, I was worth the time to post.

Good Luck,

biknski

Thanks for taking the time to share what you discovered biknski.

If we still had Karma points around here I'd have given you a bump.