Yeah, I always jack my cars up in the centre and balance them on the jack, doesn't everybody?

I know, it'll probably be fine, especially with light use.

 

Looks like MachineMart only do the Clarke one anyway.

 

A couple of years ago I went to a local branch of Machine Mart to check out the Clarke jack. I wasn't sure if it would fit under my S so the guy in the shop said "Let's go outside and try it." So we did, it fitted underneath fine, and he jacked the car up on the front central point. Then the car started gently lowering itself on the jack. We thought "oh no it's broken." It wasn't. The jack had sunk into the tarmac on the road! He quickly lowered the jack and retrieved it. He was really embarrassed, and I decided not to buy that jack. I didn't want it doing that on my drive! I went for a larger 2 tonne low entry Sealey in the end: very good but pretty heavy. And my drive is still fine.

 

I'd tend to blame the Tarmac rather than the jack?

The wheels do look quite small though.

 

They are, but never had any problems with it sinking into tarmac. Probably a hot day.

 

Or gypo grade Tarmac.

 

I bought a red Sealey one from Demon Tweeks in a sale a couple of years ago for £80, I thought I'd broken it after only a year or so (although it had a lot of use during a race season).
It stopped lowering, even when there was a car's weight on it - couldn't understand why but I thought the hydraulics must have seized (we did tend to raise the Clio up to the top of the jack's travel to give us plenty of room underneath) - turns out (after a lot of head scratching) that the bolt holding the main pivot point had tightened itself so much that it had seized the jack.
Since then the nuts holding the front roller have detached themselves too. So I've been round and threadlocked all the fastenings to stop it happening again.

So if you do buy one, make sure all the nuts are fastened correctly and stay that way.

Oh, and it's not particularly light for a 'lightweight' jack.

 

for the ammount of times i used a jack, i just went with a standard one and drive the car onto an inch of wood, which raises it up enough to get under the sill.

i can understand the low slung ones if your doing it weekly, but is it worth it when your going to jack it up once or twice a year?