When it comes to the home-based DIY mechanic, one of the most important kits you should have in your armory is a hydraulic jack. Not only will you require it to lay bare at your home garage, but it is also a crucial piece that you should always keep with you whenever you are driving. After all, you never know when you’ll need to change your car tire. For one thing, you won’t need the jack to change a faulty tire alone, you will also need it to get access to any part of the undercarriage part of the vehicle to made adequate repairs.

Lifting a car to make simple adjustments such as replacing a tire can be a daunting task, but even frightening is the danger that comes with it. You will be practically hauling up tons of hard metal. It’s for this reason that you will require a tool that you can trust to hold all that weight from falling on you. So what are the qualities of a reliable hydraulic jack that you should look for while looking to buy one? Well here are some of the main features of a trustworthy jack.

Weight rating: Hydraulic car jacks are rated in terms of the tons it can hold. For economy and mid-sized cars, a –ton hydraulic jack will do the work fine. However, if you own a truck, van or SUV, you should be looking for a 3-ton jack.

Lifting height: In order to efficiently lift your vehicle, the hydraulic jack should be placed underneath the vehicle. Due to this; it’s imperative that you have a good ground clearance to fix the jack. For reliable hydraulic jack, you should be able to have at least one inch of ground clearance.

Product quality: The final thing to consider is the quality of the hydraulic jack. The good quality hydraulic jack is made of quality metal that is solid. In that regard, you should consider picking hydraulic jack that is much heavier as lighter jacks often cause a lot of instability.