When choosing an air hydraulic jack, you need to answer 3 questions:
- What do you need to lift?
- What is the free space available?
- What is the maximum lifting height you would need?
1. What do you need to lift? Depending on the vehicle or machine you need to lift, you will require appropriate equipment. You don't lift a 10-ton truck with the same equipment you would use to lift a 2-ton car! To choose the right fit, first look at the hydraulic jack capacity. Today, on the market, you can find various sizes of air hydraulic jacks, with a lifting capacity going from 15 tons to 150 tons, and even more.
2. What is the free space available?
The best jack in the world is useless if you can't place it under the vehicle. This is even more pertinent for trucks, as nowadays they are getting lower and lower, requiring a more compact equipment. Ground clearance is an important parameter to consider, you need to be able to place the jack without damaging the vehicle's body. Remember: ground clearance is lower with flat tires!
3. What is the maximum lifting height you would need? Short listing your options? To make the best choice, compare the number of strokes and maximum height of each hydraulic jack. To do so, check the number of steps the piston has: the more there are, the larger will be the stroke. In addition, ask the distributor how many extensions are available with the hydraulic jack. Some manufacturers provide their equipment with 1 or 2 additional extensions, which will cover much more applications with the same equipment.
Did you know that...? The lifting capacity varies for each lifting step. With the new generation of hydraulic jacks, most of them are coming with 2 or 3 different steps. In the adjacent example, depending on which height you need to lift, the maximum capacity vary between 30 tons (Step 1) to 15 tons (Step 2) with the same hydraulic jack.
