I just assembled my J&S jack and it would only raise about 4 inches. Did the bleeding deal but didn’t help. I then looked in the oil hole and can’t see any fluid. I’ll fill it up when I buy some hydraulic fluid and see what happens.........

 

Yeah - the bottle jacks have been having issues recently...here is a thread I started about overall quality control - the bottle jack being a major issue:

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...y-control.html

 

Bars leaks jack oil with stop leak. 4 bucks at Walmart.

i put it in the jack before i even installed the jack on the lift. it works.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...l#post17022048
fill until oil is level with or running out of the fill hole then bleed the jack.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BAR-S-LEA...-Leak/16888776

 

I have had the harbor freight yellow motorcycle jack and table lift since 2005. NEVER have had a problem with either one. I have used the yellow jack as a transmission jack it has been left out side ,used for washing the Bike .I have. Left the bike on it for weeks at a time never a problem. I use it to roll around and also to turn the bike around .
I also have a Tri Glide so I bought a brand new J&S jack for it . The best part about this jack is that it rolls very nicely. It dose pick up the Trike nice . But the way they mount the handle ( clamp style) it is very flimsy. The way the cables are mounted on the handle to raise and lower the block to fit the frame of the trike are at an angle that the are not very smooth. You have to manually push the block down to be able to get jack under the trike and then when you let the trike down you have to crawl under trike to push the block down so you can pull the jack back out from under the trike . I also bought the extra part to be able to use the J&S jack under a 2 wheeler . But I'll just use my trusty Harbor freight jack for them .
Overall The J&S jack is ok would I buy another for the money I don't think so .not at the money difference.

 

I hate to admit it but Hey Man was probably right. My jack would not go up all the way after ump-ting attempts to correct it after conversing with Jamie and both Tanner at J&S Jacks.
The problem is customer service. They don't have any.
I called and got Jamie who was very responsive and after it did not work with his recommendations he told me to e-mail tanner who would solve the problem.
I figured a new Bottle jack reading different post.
I e-mailed Tanner and after two weeks got not response. I e-mailed Jamie back and told him Tanner had not responded. Tanner then responded with the same suggestions. They did not work.
He told me I needed to call their sales number and order a new Bottle Jack.
So much for customer help.

I ordered the new jack (instead of Hey Man's recommendations) and got it very quickly. It did the same thing. got to a certain height and stopped. I took the jack out and went through the procedures and nothing changed. I did that four times. At 71 years of age that lift gets very tiresome of man handling.

I e-mailed Jamie and Tanner and told them what the situation was and noted I was not going to lift the jack and remove the bottle anymore unless they had a different suggestion Could they please help me.

I have had no reply from either of them. They could at least e-mail or call and say they were confused by what was happening and be honest that they had no solution. But neither of them replied or called.

I am use to companies like Delta Faucets who I called last week to order parts to fix a leaking faucet and said no problem, we will put one in the mail today for not charge. I explained it was 7 years old and she said that does not matter. Or Dillion who I have bought 2 ammo reloader's from and when something breaks they immediately send a replacement no matter if I told them it was my fault.

But no reply? I like the lift but the customer service for a unit that expensive is ridiculous. No reply at all from either of them Pisses me off. Pardon the term.

I am going to give it away to a relative that knows the problem and buy either a Pitbull or drive on lift. Not because of the quality but because I don't want to own a product from someone that doesn't care enough to respond to your problems.

Enough venting. Good lift but not a good product and zero customer service.

 

I have had three HF Jacks and a couple of random El Cheapo Jacks with nary a problem. All of them were a fraction of the vaunted J&S product. If I ever need one in the future, that is what I will buy again. I see no need to pay four times as much for something that seems so problematic.

 

I agree but, for a sportster or something smaller, a HFT is more than capable.

throwing my dyna on a modded HTF was unnerving. never had a problem but, had to go to great lengths to ensure i didn't. took half an hour to get to the point where i felt comfortable with the bike on the modded HFT. i ended up buying a J&S because the bottle failed pn my hft and hft wanted 50+ for a new bottle but, a new hft is $60. plus the scary modded lift. i fixed the hft and bought a J&S. will now use the hft for the sporty and j&s for dyna.

this is what i mean:

this for years:



vs

 

It seems pretty ridiculous that such an expensive jack has such a crappy bottle jack.

Every time I think I am ready to buy the j and s, I read this thread and think why pay four times as much for something that has a higher failure rate than a cheap jack.

So, I end up not buying anything at all which sucks.

 

I noticed with mine wouldn't get to the highest resting spots for the jack without extending the top of the ram about a half inch by unscrewing the top. Just a thought

 

Its a Sears and been doing this for four yers.