Boydie Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I dont know if they are on sale in the UK and other countries but recently I purchased a 12 volt DC electric scissor jack. Despite my Disco having a registered road weight of 1275 kilos and the jack being rated at 2000kg it gave way while I began changing the right reat tyre before I even had time to put axle stands under the chassis rail !! At $98.00 I'm a tad annoyed, according the the manufacturers / importers I must have misused it, the jack was sited on a timber, 200mm wide x 75mm thick and 1200mm long and on flat ground. The "U" section supplied with the jack fitted the chassis rail perfectly and the electric motor raised the Disco in good time, The transfer differential was locked and chocks were under the front wheels. Normally Aldi gear is quite good and represents reasonable quality for the price but in this instance be warned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Your Discovery will be heavier than 1275 kg but that's divided between four wheels so at worst you won't have much more than a quarter of the road weight on a jack under one wheel. Road weight will be somewhere around 2000kg so I guess your jack would have been supporting not much more than half a ton, any 2000kg trolley or bottle jack I have ever owned will lift a vehicle fairly easily. Have they got a large plate glass window? You could 'return' it as a free donation for display use.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I'm sure you guys have the equivalent of trading standards over there, usually a quick mention to the shop of them will work wonders. Even if you had used it incorrectly (and it doesn't sound like you did) then it shouldn't fail with only a 1/4 of the load on it. Have the manufacturer/importer actually seen the jack or photos of it? Thinking about it, do you still have it or has it been launched into the bushes? If you still have it could you chuck some pictures on here of the failure? Would be both interesting and informative to people on here, they might be sold by other companies over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingsid Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 At first thought I don't trust sissor jacks for any car but the ad does show it for 4x4s. Link. https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/saturday-24-august-2013/saturday-detail-wk34/ps/p/4wd-jack/ Sorry on IPad so can't see the add link bit. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 I'll take some snaps tomorrow and put them on the site, looking at the jack closely the pressed (not machined) gear teeth at the base of the scissor failed causing the jack to twist and fail, had they been cast maybe it would be a sound jack, as it is I will probably get a full refund but the warning is still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Cheers Iain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrycol Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 They are highly dangerous. Where the arms mesh at the top and at the bottom, with any minor movement they can strip and allowing the car being lifted to roll off the jack, despite precautions being taken.My RRS fell off one of these jacks, and two weeks ago I was working under a car being jacked up with one of these - thankfully I also placed jackstands under the car as a safety measure and the Aldi jack failed while I was under the car - see pic - thankfully I had the jack stands under that supported the car and stopped it falling on me.I am going to take the 12v motor out of mine and binning the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoss1720 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Aldi jack + Discovery = disaster,closely followed by trip to A+E. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sparkes Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 They are highly dangerous. ... http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachments/recovery/65286d1378649411-maxtrax-p9090116.jpg You have to be logged in to AULRO to see that image, and to log in you have to be accepted as a member. Perhaps the picture is hosted somewhere else, or perhaps it can be uploaded directly to this forum? HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrycol Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachments/recovery/65286d1378649411-maxtrax-p9090116.jpgYou have to be logged in to AULRO to see that image, and to log in you have to be accepted as a member. Perhaps the picture is hosted somewhere else, or perhaps it can be uploaded directly to this forum? HTH Sorry, I was not aware that was being linked back to AULRO as it was fully visible to me on this forum. Here is the pic - hope it is now visible to all. A shame posts cannot be edited or I would have just put it in the original post http://s42.photobucket.com/user/gazzz21/media/Forum%20Posts%20Album/Jack_zpse5e97033.jpg.html'> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 That's a terrible bit of design! It would have been so simple to, at least make it less likely to happen. I guess when they are after saving every possible cent - that goes out the window! I have a scissor jack which I rescued from a scrap-yard, IIRC from a Peugeot. It's been great - but generally I just use it for 'persuading' things into place, but it has handled far greater forces than lifting a Land Rover. Mine uses an additional two trapezium links to keep the top & bottom parallel to the axis of the lead screw. Why don't you swap the Jack for one from a car and adapt the motor to operate the screw. The photo above looks to me like a trapezoidal thread (like a standard nut & bolt) rather than an Acme square thread as it should be! I've made something similar from a car wiper motor and a jack. The car wiper motors often just use a crank to move the blades rather than the cable affair on a Land Rover. However, they develop plenty of torque for something like this! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 I use a car jack off a Rover 75 to apply a load for an in-situ test rig I made as it had a better stroke than any hydraulic cylinder that I could fit in the space available. It has to apply 400kg and I occasionally use it to take the product to failure which is usually around 1200kg and it's never let me down. I went and did some testing at a customers in Enniskillen who loved the simplicity, he called me a few days later and told me I owed him a new jack for his luxury saloon as his hadn't been so robust. I guess the rover Jack is the same over engineered design that they've used for 50 years on every car they make, the one from the luxury saloon is probably designed to the n'th degree to be as cheap and light as possible to survive jacking the car a couple of times in its life. Out of interest which way round did you have the above jack? Front to back or side to side? I know it shouldn't matter but if you look at a lot of car jacks they are designed to fit a lip on the cill so that they have to be a certain way. I wonder if this is deliberate? I tend to use a trolley jack on the land rover as it has a wider base for stability and can roll to compensate for the arc of the lift, even then I've seen them lift a wheel side to side as the dang things are just so high off the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 I hope this works if not go to my site and have a look at teh gallery of Aldi Jack - you may never visit their store again ................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 Ill try again sorry -- I'm a bit of a Luddite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 That failed impressively, looking at those pressed teeth they don't look like they would ever support 2 tonne. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 15, 2013 Author Share Posted September 15, 2013 Agreed, my dentures are made of stronger stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 15, 2013 Author Share Posted September 15, 2013 in reply to Cynic, the jack comes with several fittings, one of which is designed to fit the chassis rail (its on the photos) this is an exact size for the Disco chassis so the jack was positioned with the motor facing out, square to the rail and sited on an 8" wide, 1 1/2" thick plank of wood 4' long. The front wheels were chocked and the tranfer box locked in low. The jack raised the rear with no problem, I had already loosened the wheel nuts (I was checking the rear drivers side coil spring) as I removed the wheel the jack collapsed with no warning, as luck would have it I had slipped an axle stand under the rear axle or the car would have landed on the rear disc or worse my legs. Pasenger car maybe, 4WD -- never !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderzander Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 You need to let them know so they can pull if from their shelves before someone has an accident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMc Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/saturday-24-august-2013/saturday-detail-wk34/ps/p/4wd-jack/ According to Aldi, the jack is - "Certified to AS/NZS 2693" Details of this standard can be found, here - http://www.australiancheese.org/ . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 hummmmm I'm not quite sure the connection between cheese and jacks other than they may be made of the same material at first Aldi didnt want to know about my claim until I said I would set up a camp table outside their store with the jack on view, they then replaced it but refused to even conside a cash refund. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CwazyWabbit Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Maybe you should send the new one along with the pictures of the old one on to these guys http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/Businesses/Product_safety.page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrycol Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 hummmmm I'm not quite sure the connection between cheese and jacks other than they may be made of the same material at first Aldi didnt want to know about my claim until I said I would set up a camp table outside their store with the jack on view, they then replaced it but refused to even conside a cash refund. Australian Consumer Law requires that where there is an issue during the warranty period, the seller is to either fix the item, repair the item or refund but the choice of the option is not the sellers but the buyers - this overrides any aspect of the warranty. Maybe your Aldi store needs to be reminded of their legal obligations. Mine is out of warranty but if I took the issue to my Office of Fair trading the fit for purchase requirements of the Consumer Law would most likely mean a refund and maybe the product withdrawn from sale. It is a hassle though and for me is easier to just not worry about it. Sellers still do not seem to understand their warranty means didly squat if it differs from the consumer law. Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted September 18, 2013 Author Share Posted September 18, 2013 Copy and Roger to that and I now have a nice brand new Aldi electric jack to use on Julies Skoda Fabia any time I want to rotate the tyres, but I wont trust it on my Disco again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrycol Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 Copy and Roger to that and I now have a nice brand new Aldi electric jack to use on Julies Skoda Fabia any time I want to rotate the tyres, but I wont trust it on my Disco again Hmmm - my Aldi winch failed under one corner of my Haflinger - the total weight of the vehicle (not a corner) is only 650kgs so I would not be relying on it under a Skoda. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 Hate to say this, but what did you expect? Daan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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