I gotta laugh when I read posts from guys saying “I never need to lift all four wheels off the ground at the same time”. Those are the same guys that MIGHT change their oil every two years on ANY of their cars! No problem. I just never pay someone to rotate tires, bleed brakes..etc. I got LOTS of time. And storage is real rough...like against the wall out of the way!

 

I agree.I track my car and swap wheels and brakes before and after every event. Dozens of time a year. Without qj, or a lift, it would take forever. I have a lift now but still haven't used the lift.

 

Or, just leave the two sections on the ground under the car. That's an even more efficient storage solution, IMO, as that space is likely never used for anything else.

 

I’m very tempted to buy one. It’s a shame I didn’t do it 20 years ago when I was doing more work on my Camaro.

Question: would this lift my ‘79 Camaro high enough to R&R the gas tank ?

 

This is my experience as well. I don't own a QJ but my brother does and I have lifted my car (and his) several times. I found getting the blocks in the right place and the QJ square to the car is time consuming. In the end it takes about as long as using my floor jack and stands. Now if you can leave the QJ under your C7 and put some tape or paint on the floor to mark out the alignment your experience will be much better. In that case you just slide them over and go right up.

When lifting or lowering stand far away from the side of the car. During a lift once I had the QJ leak down on the passenger side before it reached the locking position. The car leaned over, thankfully resting on its wheels so it was safe, but it was still pretty scary

One thing to note: the QJ moves slightly foward as it moves up so you have to account for this when placing the lifting blocks and check the car's position relative to any walls / doors if space is tight.

If you want to stick with the good old floor jack then I recommend using two of them, one on each side: driver and passenger puck locations. This way the car lifts evenly and you can access the front or rear cradle location once she's up. Make sure you are on LEVEL ground and use wheel chocks to block the wheels. Remember there is nothing to stop the front tires from rolling!

 

Excellent advice JMII. Lots of good safety tips right there.

 

I mark the floor where the QJ sections are stored, which makes it easy to put back in their storage positions. It might seem right to mark their places once in their lifting positions, but that doesn't work because I'm driving the car in the interim and it's never in the same parking position every time. OTOH, doing that to mark an approximate position might be a good idea. Will try that next time.

Make sure the air pressure is checked (~50 psi) before every lift. That may be why one section bled down like that, although I think that's more a lowering function. If it's not that it may be a fluid leak somewhere. If air pressure isn't correct and fairly equal one side may lower faster than the other or not fully drop, but it doesn't need to be very precise.

After pulling out the sections and getting an approximate alignment I lift each section to maybe 1" below the pucks, which helps in alignment. All this seems complex and tedious but it really isn't, and once you do it a few times the process goes rather quickly. I have two floor jacks and four stands, but I always use the QJ except when removing one wheel and don't do that often.

 

mine just shipped from Costco.should have it Thursday.

 

I change my own oil but I use ramps for that. Extremely easy and safe. These days, cars are just so reliable I rarely have to do anything except regular maintenance. And brakes are so easy now that it is ridiculous to change the pads and even rotors on most cars. No need to lift the entire car at once to do those.
If you own some older cars, then I can understand it. Nothing wrong with that.
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Here's something I just learned: A red light comes on when the car is lowering.

I'm usually watching the car when it's going up/down, but I happened to look over at the pump when lowering the car on Saturday and saw the red LED on. Since red lights usually mean something bad, I checked with customer service (there's nothing about it in the manual). Apparently the light comes on when that solenoid is active when lowering the car. Just FYI.

 

I have had my 5000 for about three years. No problems until recently when the right side lowered when it wasn't supposed to. I suspect the air valve was leaking so I ordered new ones. Haven't installed it yet so not sure if that was the problem or not. I also need to double check the fluid level.

 

I saw a demo and looked one over closely at Carlisle a few years ago and decided it really wouldn't be worth the cost and effort for what little use I'd get out of it.
A floor jack works for jobs I do.
I've got the ceiling height so will probably get a regular lift down the road, as being able to store another car underneath is worth the extra $3,000>$4000 to me.

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, make sure the Quickjacks are parallel when positioning them. If they are angled to each other there will be a side load placed on them as they rise up which could cause the vehicle to fall off the jacks.

 

I had my C5 on my QuickJack 5000 SLX for 37 days while do a number of maintenance and performance upgrades this summer. No issues. Yes I double checked the air pressure and reset it @ 50 PSI before using it. Yes make sure that the two sides are parallel. Yes it will move the car forward about 11" as it lifts it to the highest position, so make sure you locate the car correctly in the garage accordingly (I have a small 21ft x 21ft 2-car garage). Yes do NOT double stack the rubber blocks - I don't care what Quick Jack says about that. Yes I used the 4" blocks with the jacking pucks. Yes my car was on wheel dollies before the lift (hence the ability to use the 4" blocks). Yes its a pain to line everything up before hand, but not much more than any 2-post lift that I have used in the past. Yes I got the car up high enough to remove the rear sub frame, the torque tube, the trany and differential as well as the front cradle (while the engine was supported by Kent-Moore J-41803 setup). Yes you will amaze your neighbors whether they are car folks or not. I spent many hours under there on a creeper with no issues. I bought the 5000 SXL model a couple years ago at Costco during a smoking hot sale along with using my membership renewal bonus. I chose the 5000 SXL model because it was short enough to fit under the Corvette, yet just barely long enough and just barely rated high enough to lift my 2014 V6 AWD Durango, as well as the wife's car. I store mine vertically against the wall in the garage. I know others have done similar work on their C5/6/7 using multiple floor jacks and jack stands and/or ramps, but you truly can not beat the QuickJack lift for doing this kind of work. Now if you have the extra cash burning a hole in your wallet or for whatever reason you want/need to get the car higher up in the air (and happen to have the extra ceiling clearance space), then go for the MaxJack lift. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

A great and timely thread...thanks everyone for your comments, as I was in the market for a better system than jackstands for my '67. I also appreciate the Costco references, as I just ordered from them as well and saved about $100 vs. what Amazon was listing the QJ for. Looking forward to better access to the 'Vette!

 

I've owned a Model 7000 for three years. In order to ease positioning under the car or truck and to prevent scarring on my concrete/epoxy floor, I cemented strips of indoor/outdoor carpeting to the lower contact surfaces of each section. I had problems with premature leakdown of the air cylinders and discovered that from the factory there were only one or two wraps of teflon tape on the threads of the air fittings, which were the source of the leak. Adding new tape with a few more wraps improved the condition but I still check to ensure the air pressure in both cylinders is correct before each use.

I store mine upright against a wall with securing straps when not in use and echo other comments that they are heavy and awkward. The setup time might be excessive when compared to a single floor jack, but when doing work on more than one wheel or performing tire rotations, the one setup of the Quickjack more than compensates for four setups of a floor jack and jack stands.

 

Great info on Costco. Someone mentioned some great Costco sales. By chance, do they have such sales at predictable times? Black Friday? Cyber Monday? Fathers Day? We had a membership, but let it expire. Maybe I can get a renewal discount too ..........

 

No need to renew your membership, they will price match and did not verify my membership when I ordered a few months ago using a price match from Costco. Just give them a call directly next time it is on sale at Costco and ask.

 

I experienced the same situation the first time using my 5000SLX QuickJack to service my Subaru Outback. I bought the QuickJack primarily to service my C7 GS and have used it confidently on many occasions. However, after my experience with the Subaru, I immediately ordered their SUV Adapter Set, as stacking the rubber blocks is definitely a no no! Since I park my vehicles at specific points using stop ramps, I found by marking the locations of the jacking pucks on the garage floor, makes positioning the jacks fairly easy!
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I used one for about 5 years. One day I had my son's Accord on it. One side went down and the other side would not. Luckily, I have floor jacks and jack stands. We got the car off of the lift. I took it to the metal recycle store. I did not buy a new one. But when it worked I liked it because it stored out of sight. It was a pain to set up but the storage was a positive. It was frequently lubricated with lithium grease as instructed by the manual.