Choosing your tonnage

The rating on a jack is not the weight of your car — it is the share of it the jack holds at one corner or one end. Lift the front of a 3,500-pound sedan and the saddle carries well under a ton; the headroom in a 2 ton rating is what makes the pump feel easy and the day feel boring, which is exactly how lifting should feel.

Start with clearance, not weight. If the car wears coilovers or a lip, the aluminum steel twins — 2 ton and 3 ton — slide in from about 3.35 inches and reach deep factory jack points. Stock ride height and a gravel driveway? The 2.5 ton steel pair takes scrapes the pretty jacks should not.

Then count the vehicles, not the jack. A hatchback, a crossover and a half-ton pickup in one household means buying for the pickup — the 3 ton dual-piston jack lifts all three and never breathes hard. Add stands in the same rating and the set is finished.

Last, the trunk question. The 1.5 ton compact exists for the car that travels: 4.9 to 11.8 inches of range, light enough to live under the boot floor next to the telescoping lug wrench. It is not the shop jack — it is the one that is there.