I just don't have the space for a vehicle hoist/lift so I reckon I can justify spending a bit of money and effort on a better way to lift vehicles. CHECK THIS OUT! I link TWO air jacks together. AND IT WORKS A TREAT!
As an engineer, I would suggest that it would be much safer to control the jacks independently, or at least to set up a manifold so you can if you need to. I say this (particularly in responding to your " i could gang in another two jacks and lift all 4 corners at once" final thought) in considering the failure mode where one side is heavier than the other, so the car begins to tilt... As you've connected it here, air is free to flow from the heavy side to the light side, presenting no resistance to further tilting.... The weight transfer from the body roll makes that side even heavier, so the tilt continues until the car spits out the jack on the light side when the angle becomes too much. Then it falls. And possibly spits out the jack on the other side too.... Agreed you wouldn't get underneath without jack stands, but also you wouldn't want to be trapped between the car and the wall of the garage when this goes down. But if you lift from a common source via a cock controlling each airbag independently, when you close those cocks there's no crossover path and both jacks independently stand fixed at the height you left them. The reason you had no trouble here is the two rear wheels on the ground provided stability. For goodness sake please don't try 4 interlinked jacks. Very (very) dangerous idea.
But i am definitely tempted to buy two airbags and set up something like this myself, both because it is quick and because it would save the huge amount of space needed around the vehicle to swing the handle of a trolley jack.
Rhubarb. Two jacks going up together apply the force to jackins points about equally. Rock at the top of the jack matches the angle of the jacking point reducing the risk of damage to the jacking point. 4 jacks instead of 2?, Twice the cost. 4 jacks to store instead of 2. Very little advantage. Nah, I'll stick with 2 jacks.
@@tano1747 Your main post is quite correct and that BTW is how rescue and other air bag lifts are inflated in the field for aircraft mishap recovery like belly landings. ALL bag lifts on cars/trucks etc should only be to raise the casualty then jack stands or cribbing placed to support it.
Manifolding pneumatic and hydraulic jacks is common. As with every other jack I place wooden cribbing and/or a used rim laid horizontally for safety since they don't crush and are far more stable than jack stands (I gave mine away many years ago). I fabbed my air bag jack and if you can do basic metalwork and score new or good used air bags so can you if you want something extra large or custom.
There is so much simpler: A second male fitting screwed with teflon on the descent valve on each jack, a pipe to connect the two (this is already known in the video) and then just plug on one of the two jacks (choice) the air inlet from the compressor to the inlet valve and it works perfectly. Very small drawback (if tempted it is one): To deflate the jacks, you must unplug the inlet pipe. Il y a tellement plus simple: Un deuxième raccord mâle vissé avec du téflon sur la vanne de descente sur chaque cric, un tuyau pour relier les deux (ça c'est déjà connu dans la vidéo) et ensuite il suffit de brancher sur un des deux crics (au choix) l'entrée d'air venant du compresseur sur la vanne d'entrée et ça fonctionne parfaitement. Tout petit inconvénient (si tenté que ça en soit un): Pour dégonfler les crics, il faut débrancher le tuyau d'entrée.
Il y a tellement plus simple: Un deuxième raccord mâle vissé avec du téflon sur la vanne de descente sur chaque cric, un tuyau pour relier les deux (ça c'est déjà connu dans la vidéo) et ensuite il suffit de brancher sur un des deux crics (au choix) l'entrée d'air venant du compresseur sur la vanne d'entrée et ça fonctionne parfaitement. Tout petit inconvénient (si tenté que ça en soit un): Pour dégonfler les crics, il faut débrancher le tuyau d'entrée.
That’s it, I ordered two other pneumatic cylinders, I will at first connect them in groups of two so as to make one train go up after the other then I think to add a pipe between the two groups and make the four go up at the same time or according to, only the two front or both rear simply by handling my existing quarter turn valves. Just a male air fitting to add on each of the new cylinders ordered and that’s it. Everything else will be done by playing quarter turn valves. Simple and effective. ça y est, j'ai commandé deux autres vérins pneumatiques, je vais au début les relier par groupe de deux de façon à faire monter un train après l'autre puis je pense rajouter un tuyau entre les deux groupes et faire monter les quatre à la fois ou selon, seulement les deux avant ou les deux arrière simplement en manipulant mes vannes quart de tour existantes. Juste un raccord d'air mâle à rajouter sur chacun des nouveaux vérins commandés et c'est tout. Tout le reste se fera par le jeu des vannes quart de tour. Simple et efficace.
Great video, one thing tho: when you show the lifting at the beginning, it looks like you sped up the video? Would be nice to see a 1x video (or tell on screen what speed it is)
I like what you did. Just curious if you could go air compressor to green, then take a hose from red jack 1 to green of jack 2? Rather than drill and tap.
This is a great suggestion, much simpler and straight forward to modify without drilling in addition hokes and hardware. i will definately look into making this modification work on my pair of pneumatic balloon jacks😊.
5:55 what would happen if the green inlet valve was opened after disconnecting the air line here? How much air pressure is in the system when lifting a typical load without going to the full air line pressure? It should be the horizontal surface area of the top plate in square inches times the PSI. Seems like that would be a rough estimate of the weight that's actually being lifted? Maybe this can be used as a scale if a pressure gauge is put inline with the air feed.
@@PetesWorkshop Excuse me .. I want to say that you can connect in series .. in the first jack you enter on green with the air and the red exit connect her to the green entrance of the other jack so it should be the same .. as you show
I did not want to loose any of the original functionality. Remember, when you disconnect the ‘linking hose’ you can now operate the jacks independently.
Remove one screw from the manifolds, turn manifolds 90 degrees to allow better access to the yellow hose, tighten the manifold (may not be necessary).. put a tee in the yellow hoses . One branch to the original manifold, the other branch to a valve, and quick connect... you now connect both units with the quick connects, AND there is a shutoff valve at both added tees. When the crossover is open, you connect to the same primary valve, and you will now operate both units from one location, both up and down. with super redundancy, AND they can work completely independently if needed by either diconnecting OR closing one of the new valves ( or both new valves)..i will likely do this in the near future
warum so umständlich, es wäre doch nur eine Sache von 2 Minuten gewesen? Nur ein Adapter am Ausgang des ersten Air Jack einschrauben und von dort eine Schlauch-Verbindung zum Eingang des anderen AirJacks. Selbes Ergebnis, mit weniger Kosten, weniger Aufwand und kein Verlust der Garantie.
Same result but not enough for a video? I very like the screaming kids in the background and that is the real reason why the guy did it the hard way. Just to stay longer in the garage 🙂
@@PetesWorkshop I think you misunderstood what he's suggesting, he's suggesting having air going into a valve which is then connected to a tee with two hoses, one hose connected to each jack, to operate both jacks in tandem, connect your air supply to the valve which is connected to the tee, open the lift valve on both jacks and then the valve with the tee would operate as the lift valve for both jacks simultaneously and the lowering valve on either jack would operate both jacks in tandem. That's a great idea, with such a set up, it would be very easy to operate both jacks either independently or in tandem with no modifications to the jacks required.
Three different times in my life I have had a hydraulic jack fail. Two of them were basic floor jacks, one was a 20 ton bottle jack. All three failed in exactly the same way. There is a rubber plug on the jack that eventually spits itself out and instantly releases the jack. So these airbag jacks aren't any safer, but they aren't less safe either. Both styles of Jack have exactly the same chances of a catastrophic failure without warning. You should never be underneath the vehicle trusting a jack alone regardless of the type of jack.
Just as he said in the video so we all agree, not important what jack you use. Hydraulic och pneumatic - always use jack stands. It's just the same with pillar/scissor lifts, only difference is that the lock mechanism is built in so they don't rely on hydraulic or pneumatic pressure to stay up either.
A simpler solution would be to just T your air line with it's own shut off valve and a manual pressure relief valve, connect both air lines to the jacks. Leave both shut off valves on the jacks open as you will control the air flow from the shut off valve at the T. No drilling or tapping. FYI: ALWAYS chalk your wheels and use jack stands and if you want to deflate the jack faster (only after the weight is removed), disconnect the air hose and open both vales on the jacks no more pushing down on the jacks using you body weight.
Didnt need to modify the second one at all, just plug the hose from the first one directly to the inlet of the second one, open the inlet valve of the second one all the way, then control the lift with the inlet on the first one.
20:35 do these air jacks generally retract on their own when the air is released or do they need assistance by pushing down on them due to the stiction of the internal telescoping columns?
2:40 What was the problem with the recessed screw holding the jack pad? It seemed to be below the surface of the pad - 4:35 how much difference did that make? It looks virtually identical -
I think it depends on the lifting point on the vehicle. It can deform the rubber so much it digs into the original bolt head. That's what I think at least.
