If you own a car, you just have to have an automobile floor jack in your maintenance toolkit. Most times car manufacturers provide a specific jack with the cars they produce, but you may lose or break it or even not get it at all if you buy a used vehicle. And you should be very careful when choosing an appropriate type of a floor jack for your car, because of safety reasons.

In most cases car jacks are used to raise a portion of a car. What it is mostly used for is changing tires, buy you will need in other occasions as well. With a typical car jack you can only raise one corner of your vehicle. For lifting the whole front or back of your car, you need a specialized one.

For car manufacturers scissor jacks are the most favorite type of car jacks, so in most cases they provide it with their cars. Here the central screw mechanism is used to raise and lower the car jack. You can use a tire tool or a specialized handle (if you have got one in addition to your car jack) to turn the mechanism.

For raising up larger cars (and trucks) another type of automotive jacks is used. It has large shift with teeth, big flat base plate and a ratcheting mechanism.

Hydraulic car jacks are often used by car owners as well. There are both wheeled and non-wheeled versions of hydraulic jacks.

Automobile mechanics often use big automotive floor jacks, which roll under a car, at their shops. One can lift the whole back of a car with such a jack.

There are some safety features in every automotive jack which will prevent you from being injured. They have wide bases which prevent them from sloping or sinking into the soil. Most jacks are fitted with a special mechanism or a handle for lifting a vehicle. However, there are automotive jacks which can be operated with the help of a simple tire repair tool. A stop point on a jack helps to avoid overextending it beyond its capabilities.

So, you'd better have a car jack at hand when you travel on your car. The most important benefit is that a driver can change a tire quickly and easily in emergency without calling for assistance and paying a lot of money for this. It helps fulfilling other, not-so-emergent tasks, like changing oil, brake pads or oil as well, if you prefer to maintain your car by yourself. Taking all the above into consideration one can tell without doubt that a car jack is a very helpful tool which every car owner should have.