3 Ton Aluminum Jack Pack

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Having been down the road with a few aluminum / rapid rise style jacks I half expected some of the inherent deficiencies that come along with them. Specifically weak performance when heavily loaded requiring the "two arm pump", unstable / wobbly frame, difficulty with opening and closing the valve at various handle positions and the typical inferior hardware that requires a once over before even thinking about putting it to use. Well I couldn't have been more wrong with those assumptions. This jack is actually much larger and substantially more robust then all the others I used in the past. Right out of the box it displayed all the characteristics of a quality piece of equipment. It rolls nicely, the swivel casters turn and roll with ease and the fact that the handle receiver already had a dollop of grease in there to mitigate galling was a great touch. All the hardware was tight and ready to go to work. In use I was very surprised how lifting the front of my crew cab pickup only required one arm and at a quick lift rate. Long gone are both the 101 rapid pump workouts or the two armed / full body push up routine. This unit picked it up without breaking a sweat or any nail biting at full height. I have not come across another low profile jack that had that much elevation potential and still fit underneath a modern performance street car. Plus the lift height is equal to the provided jack stands at full extension. Now what can be said about a set a jack stands, not much right?....wrong!. These things are awesome. Very stable, very stout, the height pin positions are perfect but IMO the ultimate feature is the fact the riser has a captive feature within the stand. So if you pick it up by the top without the pin it it, it doesn't come apart on you. I can't even begin to tell you how much that is appreciated. Also because the stanchion is smaller in diameter then your typical four sided jack stand the whole assembly can be used closer to (in this case) the tire providing much better stability. Fit and finish is top drawer and I could not find any flaws to complain about here or in the styling. This will also make a very nice addition to the collection for track days since everything is lite, compact and packs up nicely.