Feedback re Kojack hydraulic bottle jack kit pleas

[Ian4624]

I'm considering buying a "Kojack" hydraulic bottle jack and brackets kit for jacking up my 1992 Bailey as when I jacked the van up to adjust the brakes using the scissor jack which I had used on my previous Sprite, which had a steel chassis, I found it rather difficult and would not relish having to try to do it at the roadside following a puncture. It is very easy to jack the van using my hydraulic trolley jack but I obviously will not be carrying that whilst touring. The Alko chassis does have the requisite pre drilled holes in the chassis behind the axle.
As the Kojack kit is rather expensive compared to buying an "off the shelf" hydraulic bottle jack from the likes of Machine Mart or similar I would welcome any feedback from anyone who has fitted and used a Kojack please?

 

[Dustydog]

Ian
Save your money. The orange bottle jacks are rubbish. The first one failed completely. The second was even worse. They kindly sent me a packet of replacement oil seals. That didn't work either.
I gave up and now use the cars 3 tonne bottle jack with great ease and no oil leak..

I must say however that the Kojack jacking brackets are excellent , far superior and stronger than the Al-ko ones. Shame their jacks are so poor.

 

[starlightdj]

Hi must admit I haven't got the bottle jack but I have got the Kojack scissor jack.

Had it five years and use it every time we are out to fit the Alko locks on a twin axle.

Must admit never had any problems with it, and wouldn't swop it for anything else.

Cheers
John

 

[Sproket]

After having the Kojack scissor jack fail and then getting the bottle jack and finding out they also fail I decided to get one of these I bought the two ton one & it plays with the van, my back up jack is the one from a Landrover Discovery far better quality & can be easily found on ebay.

 

[MichaelE]

Ive happily used mine for the last 2 1/2 years with no problems at all. I have a twin axle so have to jack up every time to fit the wheels locks, sometimes i have to jack up a few times to align correctly and never had a problem.
I do place it on a block of wood so i don't have to extend so far.

 

[Lappy]

I've had mine for nearly three years and have never had any problems. I bought it initially to line up the wheels to fit the Alko locks on a T/A, but now use it for the same reason on an Adria Astella. The only gripe I have is that I paid extra for the additional brackets for the heavy weight of the van, but I am unable to fit these due to cable routing etc.
Best regards, Lappy

 

[Mike_S]

My experiences are exactly the same as Dustydog's . I now use a trolley jack from machine mart (2 ton with case) and the kojack brackets
Mike

 

[Sproket]

The problem lies in the design of the scissor jack due to it being so compact, when it is fully extended there is sideways leverage that is put on the piston due to the top of the jack following the arc of the lift, I only used this jack to lift the van on and off of a pair of axle stands over winter half a dozen times, the van weighs 1600kg so well within the limits of the jack ( in a vertical lift ) But when you jack one side up the van tips and then when you lift the other side up the van has to tip back the other way and that is what puts the side ways force onto the piston and causes the damage.

This is the damage to the cylinder that the piston moves up and down in

You can see the score marks from where the piston has tipped when the jack was being let down

You can see the damage on the chamfer, but due to the large diameter 'O' ring it did not leak oil strait away untill more damage was done to the cylinder bore.

SWL: 1000kg max

But the jacking points are worth keeping for the electric jack

 

[MichaelE]

On my last van i used a trolley jack, but the jack didnt slide with the movement of the van as it was being jacked up ( the van moves in an arc and normally pushes the trolley jack out a bit) something had to give and it was the jacking bracket that bent away from the frame.
The straight bolt on type are prone to this as i had it changed under warranty and was told they had changed a few.Was told the brackets that come with the Kojack lite are the better ones.

 

[Ian4624]

There seems to a be a 50/50 split between good and no good.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Ian,

I have no connection with Kojack or any other jack manufacturer, I am pretty certain that Kojack had every intention of producing and selling an effective hydraulic jacking system for caravans. The design of their chassis brackets shows the attention to good engineering principles. What I suspect has happened is the company did not actually design the hydralic lift but more likely used an outside supplier from a standard range.

Sadly the original jacks do seem to have a history of poor reliability, and as has been shown in the series of photographs the resistance of the jack to side loading is not as good as it should be.

The things you want a jack to be is available when you need it, which is rarely. You dont want to find leaking oil or unable to lift the job, You need it reliable enough to hold it, especially when you are working on the vehicle, you don't want it to let you down.

I don't know if Kojack have respecified the jack component or not, but in the last 12 months or so we have not seen any new complaints on the forum.

My own take on the subject would be to contact Kojack with your concerns and evidence from the forum, and ask if these problems have been designed out. If they are cagey about their answer or deny there was a problem, then I would walk away and find an alternative. If they admit there was a problem that has now been resolved, then the choice is yours.

 

[John_miller]

I fitted the Kojack Lite early last year and, so far, I've been very pleased with it although it hasn't seen a lot of use. I've got a trolley jack but found it very difficult to use with the fitted motor mover and shock absorbers. The Kojack is very easy to locate on the brackets and, in my limited experience, works as well as the trolley jack. I read of the problems with the seals but later models seem to have been improved so I'm hoping that all will be well.

John M