I seem to remember these being mentioned at one time, anyone try them yet?

 

Dude, I have been eyeballing these things (the smaller version as well for our cars) for a while now... They have been in my Amazon cart more than 10 times, but I always remove them before hitting buy. I could use them for the truck, the 5th wheel and the smaller ones for the cars.

They were talked about recently, but I cannot remember what the context was or if the thread went anywhere.

Subscribed!

 

I blew up the rear end in my Land Cruiser in Moab this past Spring. A guy in our group had a pair and let me use them. Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of them in action. But they work great! I was going to buy a pair, but i forgot all about it. They were just added to my Amazon cart. Thanks for the reminder!

*edit* I'm not sure of the manufacturer of the ones I used. Could be these or another manufacturer. I see the ones you linked have a lot of bad reviews. I dunno? But the ones I used worked awesome. They were very stable and worked as they should.

Pic of the carnage, cuz everyone likes pics.

 

I've got one of these in the 3K variety for a few years now. Mostly leave in the Jeep as it is my part time off roading fun vehicle. But, I've used it a a couple of time on the Excursion as well. Pretty nifty, easy to use and store, and also doubles up as a jack stand when you put the locking pin in place. I'll be adding one of the 6K models to the Excursion toolset.

 

I didn't see all those bad reviews, what's more reviews for all 4 variations of the product are all jumbled together without all of them identifying which one they are reviewing. One reviewer points out a design flaw on the jack stand variant, the force is put on the bottle jack from the side causing the ram to cant and possibly fail or leak. Lots of leaks reported. Will have to think more about these, especially for as much as our front ends weigh.

 

I read each and every one of those reviews a while back when I was looking at these. People can complain about anything and expect to get everything for nothing sometimes. You have to take reviews on Amazon with a grain of salt.

My truck weighed in at ~7800 lbs with 60 gallons of fuel recently when going to the dump. I have 100% complete confidence in using two 6000 lbs jacks/stands in the front, even ones with lower ratings. Clearly the front of the truck is the heaviest part, but there is no way it is anywhere close to 8,000 lbs to lift the front. I am thinking that the driver side axle on a 4x4 truck, this jack/stand would be of great value.

If anyone knows of another manufacturer or different brand with a similar design as the unijack, please post a link or some information here. I don't mind paying for good tools and products, but I do need to have confidence in the product when I am using it. I would like to have the coin reserve to buy and test a set of these, but I must resort to learning vicariously through others most of the time before making the leap myself.

I would like to hear the opinion of @Y2KW57 on these or a product similar to these. He may be able to shed some light on the subject or some failure/success stories that we are not aware of...

 

I appreciate your vote of confidence in my input, but I have never used Unijacks, and most likely never will.

Looking at the photos and video of the product, the following observations (not experience) came to mind, in no particular order of importance:

1. What is the net range of solid support, as opposed to the advertised lift range? The lift range is stated to be 10" (eg, the 6K LB version is from 11" to 21"). Yet, for device to function as a static jack stand, the bottle jack must be lowered by at least an inch, in order for the safety cross pin to fully seat into the curved slots of the jack post. Whatever this deduct is, should be taken into consideration. If wanting to clear the bell housing of a transmission rolling on a dolly or transmission jack from under the frame rails, can these Unijacks raise and support the truck high enough? How many blocks of wood are needed to pre stage the Unijacks in order to make the most use of what may amount to only 8" of rise, from lock to lock (where the cross pin is fully seated in the jack post, and the hydraulic jack portion is no longer contributing).

2. Are the holes in the adjustable insert of the jack post included in the lift range advertised?

3. Is the spacing of the holes in the adjustable insert of the jack post refined enough when considering the drop to lock deduct between range of lift vs range of support? Here, the 3K LBS Unijack, with only 3 holes in the adjustable insert, not only has limited range, but also has limited resolution between settings, as the holes are distanced further apart. The 6K lbs version has many more holes, that are also spaced closer together, offering more flexibility in vertical positioning when taking into consideration the drop to lock deduction for the final working height achieved in the Unijack's role as a jack stand.

4. Unlike traditional jack stands that have adjustable post inserts made of a monolithic piece of solid forged or cast material, the adjustable posts of the Unijack are two part telescopic pieces of tubing within a U channel, in the case of the 3K LBS unit, and a vertical H beam casting within a U channel, in the case of the 6K LBS unit. In both units, the safety cross pin engages with the curved slots in the U channel. The weight bearing surface area ultimately boils down to these two points of open U chanel tubing wall... 1/4"? 3/16"? on the cross pin. And this appears to be the case no matter which model, since it is the lower component of the two part adjustable vertical post that engages with the safety cross pin stop. This is quite a lot less bearing surface area than a traditional jackstand having an inch or so wide engagement against a solid cam pawl. I'm not saying that the tubing wall is inadequate. I'm just observing the differences and departures from traditional jack stands.

5. Continuing with point 4, the upper half of the vertical posts also have less surface area of support when bearing on the removable J pin. The cast upper insert on the 6K LBS model is a vertically oriented H beam, and the holes are drilled into the central web of the H, which is only single wall support. What is the thickness of this single wall? Hard to tell from the photos, but looks to be 5/16"? Maybe 3/8"? And what is the material quality? How much weight beyond the rating would cause this comparatively thin wall (when compared to traditional jack stands) webbing to crack between the closely spaced holes (that are convenient for range of adjustablity)? Remember, these are just the thoughts that crossed my mind looking at it, not predictions of failure.

6. When taking advantage of the adjustable insert at the maximum height setting, how wobbly does the vertical jack post become, since the central H webbing acting on the removable J pin is a single point support, and single points are pivot points, and the range of pivoting motion is dictated by the clearance tolerance between the vertical H beam and the slot through which it slides?

7. Bottom Plate: The flat bottom plate of the UniJack would seem to require a clean flat surface to rest on. Any pebbles underneath the flat plat could cause the Unijack to rock (haha) or feel unstable. Traditional jack stands, by contrast, are generally four footed creatures that can find equal footing on paved and unpaved surfaces, on old rocky asphalt where all the fines and filler have eroded away, leaving a craggy uneven surface that often has points of aggregate that poke up higher in places than the mean. On softer earth, the flat bottom plate of the UniJack presents an advantage over 4 point legs. And on fresh asphalt, the flat bottom plate of the Unijack is kinder and gentler to the paved surface, with no corners to gouge into the asphalt, especially during the hot summer months. But on cold concrete in winter months, where tires are constantly depositing snow encased grit and gravel, some time might be needed to clean the surface area prior to positioning the flat bottom plate UniJacks.

8. Weight of the combo bottle jack / jack stand as a unit. Unibody's are one thing... where the raise and support points are often on the pinch weld at the perimeter of the car ahead of and behind the door thresholds / rocker panels. But the body on frame Super Duty calls for raising and supporting the vehicle by the frame, which is recessed inboard from the rocker panels by at least 18". Laterally lifting and positioning a combined jack stand with bottle jack that far underneath the truck, whether while laying on a creeper, or crawling on one's knees, can be a bit more effort for some, especially with those among us who have not only reached the age of receiving the AARP solicitation in the mail, but who are now old enough to relent and finally accept the reality of age in exchange for any discounts or benefits offered.

These are just off the cuff observations, not experience. There is no intent to indict nor praise the product. I'm just trying to oblige your request.

 

If you're using this for home use I'd suggest looking into the Pro Eagle Jack extension.

I have one, works as designed. However I need a new jack pad so it will lock into the floor jack properly. I also use 6 and 12 ton stands from Harbor Freight to get my truck up enough. The 12 ton stands worked good during the front spring swap.

https://www.proeagle.com/collections...xtension-00000

 

That thing looks dangerous.

 

It quarter turn locks into the jack pad, works just fine.

 

In theory and from a convenience point of view, They’re a good idea, one thing to lug around instead of 2. However, the old KISS acronym is being whispered, well actually screamed in my ears, I’ll stick to my 4 ton floor jack to do the lifting and 12 ton jack stands to do the holding. The jack and stands have Less combined points of failure, potentially easier to see the points of failure and both exceed safe lifting specs. Typically when combining ideas things get complicated and corners get cut...
My $ .02...

Torin Big Red Steel Jack Stands: 12 Ton (24,000 lb) Capacity, 1 Pair

 

Mark, those actually anchor to a floor jack, they don’t just free stand.

 

That's good, they look scary.

 

I hear you on the KISS and I did consider if the bottle jack on the Unijack fails now you have a much more complicated and expensive repair/replacement on your hands. My main thought was to use them on the front axle where there is little area to jack. Currently I use a bottle jack to lift one side at a time then put my stands under and lower the bottle jacks. Also the smaller ones do look like they would be very useful on small unibody cars with pinch welds. Presently I lift those with a low profile floor jack with a thick neoprene slotted pad on the pinch weld, then I slip the stand under fitted with a similar pad to protect the pinch weld. One must use care not to put the floor jack at a right angle to the unibody car especially on a surface that will not allow the floor jack to roll

 

I'll update this thread so that everyone may be aware of what I learned: with the 6 ton version extended to its highest setting, you'll JUST fit under the frame behind the front suspension connection on a 2WD truck. Great, except then at full extension you will *not* be able to take a wheel off the truck - the suspension travel is greater than the piston travel in the unijack.

On top of that, the short lever on the pump makes for QUITE A BIT OF EFFORT when you're trying to lift the front of the truck.

I am not sure there is a good fix for this - which is a shame in a number of ways, see my previous thread on jacking points.