Best Motorcycle Jacks: Scissor and Hydraulic Lift Jacks Compared

Every jack in this guide does the same job: it slides under the frame, lifts the bike 10 to 12 inches, and gets one or both wheels off the floor for an oil change, a chain, or a tire. They split into two drive types, and that choice matters more than the brand.

A crank jack is slower, but a screw holds its height mechanically and has no hydraulic seal to wear. It also collapses lower, which matters on sport bikes and lowered cruisers. A hydraulic jack lifts in seconds, usually rolls on casters, and is the only class rated past 1,100 lb.

Most riders who do their own oil, chain and tire work a few times a season are best served by a crank jack. Buy hydraulic if the bike weighs more than about 800 lb loaded, if you lift it every week, or if cranking under a bike is hard on your back.

The spec that decides whether a jack works on your bike is not capacity. It is collapsed height. The jack has to slide under the frame rails with the bike on its side stand or center stand, and then the lift pads have to meet steel, not an exhaust or a fairing.

1. 1Measure from the floor to the lowest frame rail with the bike upright. If that number is under the jack's collapsed height, the jack will not go under.
2. 2Check what sits beside the rails. Low exhausts, belly pans and full lower fairings are the usual blockers. The VIVOHOME 1,500 lb listing says outright that it needs 4.5 inches and does not suit bikes with full lower fairings.
3. 3Never lift on the exhaust. RevZilla's guide to lifting a motorcycle says it directly, and owners on GoldWingDocs lay wood blocks across the lift arms so the jack clears the mufflers.
4. 4Pick the jack by the lowest bike you own. The VIVOHOME 1,100 lb crank jack collapses to 3.5 inches and the VEVOR and OMT crank jacks to 3.7 inches. Every hydraulic jack here sits at 4.5 inches or more.

Keep at least 25 percent of margin between the loaded bike and the jack's rating, because the bike shifts as you work on it.

The 1,100 lb crank jacks cover every sport bike, naked bike, adventure bike and mid-size cruiser with room to spare. A Harley-Davidson Softail Standard runs about 630 lb and a BMW R 1250 GS about 549 lb in running order. Touring bikes are where that margin runs out. A Street Glide is about 810 lb before fuel and bags, a Gold Wing Tour about 845 lb, and an Ultra Limited about 917 lb. That puts baggers on a 1,500 lb hydraulic jack.

The Extreme Max listing is the one to read carefully. Its title says 1,100 lb, but the bullet points say 1,000 lb and that it will not lift trikes. When a listing contradicts itself, use the lower number.

The best motorcycle lifts guide has a full table of bike weights against jack and table ratings.

Every forum thread on motorcycle jacks lands in the same place. A jack holds the weight, but nothing about it stops the bike leaning. The habits owners describe on HDForums, Garage Journal and GoldWingDocs, and that the Harbor Freight jack manual also requires, come down to five steps.

1. 1Work on a hard, level floor. The Harbor Freight jack manual allows nothing else.
2. 2Center the jack under the bike's balance point, usually just behind the engine, with both lift pads on frame rails.
3. 3Lift until the tires just clear the floor, then wiggle the bike. If it shifts, lower it and re-center before going higher.
4. 4Strap it. Ratchet straps from the frame to the jack's tie-down points, or from the handlebars to a ceiling joist. The VIVOHOME and VEVOR 1,500 lb jacks ship with two straps; the crank jacks do not.
5. 5Set the lock before you work. Insert the pin or bar in the nearest hole, or drop the Black Widow onto one of its 9.25, 12.5 or 15 inch stops. The hydraulics or the screw should not be what holds the bike while you torque a bolt.

If the bike has to sit with a wheel off, one HDForums touring owner puts a second jack under it as a backup. That costs one more crank jack and removes the worst way this job can go.

A jack gets the wheels off the floor. It does not raise the bike to working height, so you still sit on a stool or kneel for most jobs. If you do wheel-off work every month, rebuild forks, or own a bike over 900 lb loaded, a full lift table is the better tool, and the Harbor Freight motorcycle lift review compares the most common one with the Amazon tables that match it.

For everyone else, the jack wins on price, storage and setup time. A $60 crank jack hangs on a wall hook. A table needs an 8 by 3 foot rectangle of floor whether or not a bike is on it.