[chopper]

Just a word of update on these floor jacks. I ordered this thing last September and those details are chronicled in the earlier posts. I have had it about four months now and have used it about a dozen times, both on the Cobra and on my two other cars (wife's Miata and my Saturn L-series wagon). I have also used it to help the neighbor's kid change two right-side flat tires on his compact car. This is all in defense of my next statement, which is that I didn't overstress it by trying to lift Greyhound buses or anything like that. Overall, I like the jack and it is the only model I've seen to date which will slide under the gas tank from the rear and get to the rear frame member on the Snake so I can jack up the back end in one shot.

WELL... Saturday PM I had the car up on the stands doing some minor maintenance and when I jacked it up to remove the stands, the seal blew out in the actuator. The resulting leak was initally small enough to allow me to jack the car up enough to quickly remove the stands and get the car back on the ground before the jack crapped out completely. The rest of the weekend, the unit sat in my garage peeing fluid out on the floor in a slow stream.

The good news is that yesterday I called the local distributor, a company called Arizona Automotive Equipment here in Mesa, and told them my tale of woe. The owner, Joe Fogge, told me to bring it down and he exchanged it with a new one on the spot, no questions asked. So while it was a pain that the unit failed so soon, it was nice to have a business which cared enough to do the right thing and replace it without any hassle. I'm hoping, since the company has been around (in Europe, at least) for a reasonably long time, that this is a statistical aberration and not characteristic of the brand.

I just felt that, since I had posted the initial thread recommending them, that I should follow up and supply the above information for anyone considering purchase.