There are some repairs and maintenance items that can only be done from underneath a vehicle. While your vehicle may be equipped with a jack, it was never designed to be used for anything but an emergency. We’ve put together this car jack and jack stands guide to help you understand the different options available for getting your vehicle off the ground. Roulette table odds.
A very intellectual, insightful man with the most honest heart. His intentions and words are always well intended and he has the sexiest eyes in the whole world. If you ever argue with a 'Jack' he will for sure make a Jack Ass out of YOU. He always thinks ahead and see's the bigger picture. Jack-Jack tussles with and kicks a raccoon clear across his backyard as a demonstration of his strength. He also tosses a few lawn chairs around one-handed as if they were small toys.
Safety Is Paramount
This is a true story about my friend Ken. A mechanic by trade, Ken was wrenching on a personal vehicle in the driveway one weekend when he became a victim of a nightmarish scene. The flimsy factory jack he was using to keep the car off the ground failed, causing Ken to become trapped between a concrete driveway and a few thousand pounds of automotive steel. Ken yelled for help, but no one came to help him. He told me he mustered some previously unknown strength to lift a corner of the car off of himself and slide out from under it.
Ken suffered serious injury to his back, and it literally took him months to get back on his feet. Due to permanent injuries, he could no longer make a living working on cars. The unfortunate event changed his life.
The accident was totally preventable, though. Smart lifting practices are a must to ensure the safety of anyone working underneath a vehicle. High-quality jacks, jack stands or ramps can keep you safe whether you’re replacing a clutch or just sliding under a vehicle for a quick visual inspection. Our jack and jack stands buyer’s guide explains how to choose lifting equipment that’s right for your needs.
Jack and Lifting Basics
Jack stands: Jack stands may be the most overlooked safety equipment items in a DIY garage. Jack stands do not lift vehicles. Instead, they provide a safe, fixed support for a raised vehicle. Use a pair of jack stands every time you lift a vehicle and you will vastly decrease the likelihood of becoming a victim of a falling vehicle. Simply jack up the vehicle and lower it onto the jack stand or stands. When the time comes to remove them, raise the vehicle slightly with a jack, remove the jack stands and lower the vehicle. Always place wheel chocks before performing work on a raised vehicle.
Ramps: Ramps are a safe alternative to jacks and jack stands because they provide large, solid points of contact that are unlikely to fail. Ramps are not as versatile as jacks and jack stands, though. If you need to remove a wheel to replace brake pads, for example, a ramp does you no good. If your job is replacing a muffler, though, ramps are ideal.
![What Are Jacks What Are Jacks](https://whatscookingamerica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CrackerJack-Social.jpg)
Floor jacks: A jack that comes with a vehicle’s spare tire changing kit is not suitable for use in other applications. These jacks are typically designed to be small and lightweight, ideal for a minor roadside emergency but little else. For regular lifting around the shop or garage, a quality floor jack is an essential tool. Choose a floor jack with a lifting pad that’s at least two inches in diameter. This will give the vehicle’s jack point plenty of surface area on which to rest. Because a floor jack is on wheels, it will roll into a sturdy position as the car rises. Be sure to lower the car onto jack stands before starting your work.
Bottle jacks: Bottle jacks are more compact than floor jacks and are often rated for heavier weights than similarly priced floor jacks. Because bottle jacks usually have a smaller footprint than floor jacks, though, they may not be as stable. Be sure to use bottle jacks on a strong, flat surface like a garage floor to minimize the chance of movement. Use jack stands with a bottle jack just as you would with a floor jack.
Specialty lifting equipment: Special equipment helps DIYers and pros alike more safely and easily perform specific jobs. A transmission jack slides neatly under the transmission to safely drop it from a vehicle. An engine hoist or engine crane allows you to lift an entire engine out of its bay while minimizing risk to yourself or your vehicle. If you do a lot of heavy wrenching, a specialty lift is a great way to get the job done quickly and safely.
Popular Jacks and Lifting Equipment
The charts below outlines some popular car jacks, ramps, jack stands and other lifting equipment available from NAPA AUTO PARTS. We recommend choosing a jack rated at roughly the same capacity as the curb weight of the vehicle it is lifting. For example, a 4,000 pound (two ton) SUV would need a two ton jack. While you won’t be lifting the entire vehicle at once with the jack, it leaves a healthy safety margin.
Floor Jack and Bottle Jack Comparison Chart
Image | Jack Type | Capacity | Closed Height | Lift Distance* | Unit Weight | View/Price at NAPAonline.com |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Floor Jack | 2-ton | 5.3 inches | 8.2 inches | 18.75 lbs. | Balkamp 2-ton Floor Jack | |
Floor Jack | 2-ton | 3.75 inches | 16.75 inches | 81.5 lbs. | NAPA Lifting Equipment 2-ton Floor Jack | |
Floor Jack | 3.5-ton | 4 inches | 15.675 inches | 112 lbs. | NAPA Lifting Equipment 3.5-ton Floor Jack | |
Bottle Jack | 2-ton | 6.22 inches | 5.91 inches | 5.06 lbs. | Evercraft 2-ton Bottle Jack | |
Bottle Jack | 4-ton | 7.09 inches | 6.69 inches | 7.26 lbs. | Evercraft 4-ton Bottle Jack | |
Bottle Jack | 6-ton | 7.75 inches | 7.29 inches | 9.68 lbs. | Evercraft 6-ton Bottle Jack |
Jack Stands Comparison Chart
Image | Capacity (each) | Closed Height | Raised Height | Unit Weight (pair) | View/Price at NAPAonline.com |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2-ton | 10.83 inches | 16.53 inches | 11 lbs. | Evercraft 2-ton Jack Stands (pair) | |
3-ton | 12 inches | 17.69 inches | 14.5 lbs. | Owatonna Tool Company 3-ton Jack Stands (pair) | |
4-ton | 4 inches | 15.675 inches | 19.8 lbs. | NAPA Lifting Equipment 4-ton Jack Stands (pair) |
Car Ramps Comparison Chart
Image | Capacity (max. GVWR/pair) | Construction | Height | Width | View/Price at NAPAonline.com |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
6,500 lbs. | Steel | 9.25 inches | 11.5 inches | Balkamp Standard Car Ramps (pair) | |
12,000 lbs. | Polymer | 12 inches | 12 inches | Balkamp Heavy-Duty Car Ramps (pair) |
These are a few of the basic lifting options that most home garages need. Once things get a bit more serious it may be worth investing in a 2-post lift or a 4-post lift. These normally require a bit of prep for installation, but can be well worth the expense due to the convenience factor.
Check out all the tools & equipmentavailable on NAPA Online or trust one of our 17,000 NAPA AutoCare locations for routine maintenance and repairs. For more information on buying the right jack and jack stands, chat with a knowledgeable expert at your local NAPA AUTO PARTS store.
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Nick Palermo View All
Nick Palermo is a freelance automotive writer and NAPA Know How blogger. Since becoming an auto news and reviews contributor at AutoTrader.com in 2011, he has broadened his coverage of the automotive industry to include topics like new car technology, antiques and classics, DIY maintenance and repair, industry news and motorsports. A committed advocate for automotive media professionals, Nick is a member of the Greater Atlanta Automotive Media Association.
Jack cards of all four suits in the English pattern
A jack or knave is a playing card which, in traditional French and English decks, pictures a man in the traditional or historic aristocratic or courtier dress, generally associated with Europe of the 16th or 17th century. The usual rank of a jack is between the ten and the queen. As the lowest face (or 'court') card, the jack often represents a minimum standard — for example, many poker games require a minimum hand of a pair of jacks ('jacks or better') in order to open wagering.
History[edit]
Knave of coins from the oldest known European deck (c.1390–1410).
The earliest predecessor of the knave was the thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy) in the Mamluk card deck. This was the lowest of the three court cards and like all court cards was depicted through abstract art or calligraphy. When brought over to Italy and Spain, the thānī nā'ib was made into an infantry soldier or page ranking below the knight card. In France, where the card was called the valet, the queen was inserted between the king and knight. The knight was subsequently dropped out of non-Tarot decks leaving the valet directly under the queen. The king-queen-valet format then made its way into England.
As early as the mid-16th century the card was known in England as the knave (meaning a male servant of royalty). Although jack was in common usage to designate the knave, the term became more entrenched when, in 1864,[1] American cardmaker Samuel Hart published a deck using 'J' instead of 'Kn' to designate the lowest-ranking court card. The knave card had been called a jack as part of the terminology of the game All Fours since the 17th century, but this usage was considered common or low class. However, because the card abbreviation for knave was so close to that of the king ('Kn' versus 'K'), the two were easily confused. This confusion was even more pronounced after the markings indicating suits and rankings were moved to the corners of the card, a move which enabled players to 'fan' a hand of cards without obscuring the individual suits and ranks. The earliest deck known of this type is from 1693, but such positioning did not become widespread until reintroduced by Hart in 1864, together with the knave-to-jack change. Books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century still referred to the 'knave' however, a term that is still recognized in the United Kingdom. (Note the exclamation by Estella in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations: 'He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!')
Representations[edit]
Bancontact mister cash. In the English pattern,[2] the jack and the other face cards represent no one in particular,[3] in contrast to the historical French practice, in which each court card is said to represent a particular historical or mythological personage. The valets in the Paris pattern have traditionally been associated with such figures as Ogier the Dane (a knight of Charlemagne and legendary hero of the chansons de geste) for the jack of spades;[4]La Hire (French warrior) for the Jack of Hearts; Hector (mythological hero of the Iliad) for the jack of diamonds; and Lancelot or Judas Maccabeus for the jack of clubs.[5][6]
In some southern Italian decks, there are androgynous knaves that are sometimes referred to as maids. In the Sicilian Tarot deck, the knaves are unambiguously female and are also known as maids.[7] As this deck also includes queens, it is the only traditional set to survive into modern times with two ranks of female face cards. This pack may have been influenced by the obsolete Portuguese deck which also had female knaves. The modern Mexican pattern also has female knaves.[8]
What Are Jackson State University Colors
Poetry[edit]
The figure of the jack has been used in many literary works throughout history. Among these is one by 17th-century English writer Samuel Rowlands. The Four Knaves is a series of Satirical Tracts, with Introduction and Notes by E. F. Rimbault, upon the subject of playing cards. His 'The Knave of Clubbs: Tis Merry When Knaves Meet' was first published in 1600, then again in 1609 and 1611. In accordance with a promise at the end of this book, Rowlands went on with his series of Knaves, and in 1612 wrote 'The Knave of Harts: Haile Fellowe, Well Meet', where his 'Supplication to Card-Makers' appears,[9] thought to have been written to the English manufacturers who copied to the English decks the court figures created by the French.
Example cards[edit]
![What are jacks salmon What are jacks salmon](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OKeptOH4AZg/maxresdefault.jpg)
The cards shown here are from a Paris pattern deck (where the rank is known as the 'valet'), and include the historical and mythological names associated with them. The English pattern of the jacks can be seen in the photo at the top of the article.
- Jack of spades: Ogier
- Jack of hearts: La Hire
- Jack of diamonds: Hector
- Jack of clubs: Lancelot
Trickster figure[edit]
The jack, traditionally the lowest face card, has often been promoted to a higher or the highest position in the traditional ranking of cards, where the ace or king generally occupied the first rank. This is seen in the earliest known European card games, such as Karnöffel, as well as in more recent ones such as Euchre. Games with such promotion include:
See also[edit]
- 'The Jack', a song by AC/DC, in which the playing card is a metaphor for a sexually transmitted disease
- The Knave of Hearts, a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- The Jack of Diamonds, a group of artists founded in 1909 in Moscow
- 'Jack of Diamonds', a traditional folk song
- Jack of Diamonds, the title used by George de Sand in the 1994 anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam
- Knave of Hearts, a 1954 film directed by René Clément
- The Jack of Hearts (Jack Hart), a Marvel Comics superhero
- The Jack of Hearts, a 1919 short Western film
- 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts', a song by Bob Dylan
- Pub (trans. The Jack), an album by Đorđe Balašević.
- King, Queen, Knave, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov first published in Russian under his pen name, V. Sirin
References[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jacks (playing cards). |
- ^Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society, p. 290, Rodney P. Carlisle - Sage Publications INC 2009 ISBN1-4129-6670-1
- ^English pattern at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^Berry, John. (1998). 'Frequently asked questions'. The Playing-Card. Vol. 27-2. pp. 43-45.
- ^Games and Fun with Playing Cards by Joseph Leeming on Google Books
- ^The Four King Truth at the Urban Legends Reference Pages
- ^Courts on playing cards, by David Madore, with illustrations of the English and French court cards
- ^Tarocco Siciliano, early form at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^Scotoni, Ralph. Mexican Pattern at Alta Carta. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^The Knave of Harts: Haile Fellowe, Well Meet, where his Supplication to Card-Makers by Samuel Rowlands (1600)
Good card-makers (if there be any goodness in you), Apparrell us with more respected care,
Put us in hats, our caps are worne thread-bare, Let us have standing collers, in the fashion;
What Are Jacks Made Of
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