We have written an about bottle jacks before and how useful they are especially when changing tyres. Some of our readers have asked whether there are any accessories that will make using their bottle jacks a safer and more efficient experience.

The answer is yes, there are various accessories that you can use with a bottle jack to improve their performance and safety. Below are the most common accessories that we have come across.

1 – Extension Bar

If you are struggling to get enough height with you standard bottle jack you may want to get an extension bar to make life easier and safer rather than using a stack of bricks/block or wood. You can easily increase the height clearance of your existing bottle jack by using a suitable extension bar.

By having the correctly sized extension bar you will find that the jack will exert more pressure on the ground during a lift so will be more sturdy and less likely to topple over.

2 – Extension Bar Adaptor

If you have a number of bottle jacks with varying capacities you may find that the extension bar you have invested in say for the 6 ton jack does not fit the 20 ton jack that you have. In such a scenario you may want to invest in a extension bar adaptor that allows you to connect the same extension bar between different types and size bottle jacks.

3 – Base Plate

With the bottle jack being a vertical lifting hydraulic jack it can be prone to moving during a lift especially of its placed on a soft or uneven surface. This is often the case in an emergency when the jack has to be used in the middle of nowhere to access the tyres and underside of vehicle for repair or maintenance.

Base plates increase the surface area that the bottle jack contacts then if it was used without one. The surface area can increase by 4 or 5 times the area of the bottle jacks base. The jack will usually clip into the base plate so it remains secure in place. Some base plates will allow you to attach various sized bottle jacks so you can get away with having one base plate for numerous applications.

4 – Jack Pads

If your lifting a vehicle you want to have the best contact between the jacks ram and the under chassis of the vehicle. The best way to do this is to have a suitable jack pad that will give you a seamless connection between the ram and the vehicle.

The jack pads can come in different shapes and sizes with most offering a far greater surface area then the surface of a ram or extension bar. This extra surface area helps to distribute the load across the vehicle reducing the potential damage that may be caused by concentrating the for in a more confined area.

5 – Tyre Chocks

Although not directly connected to the jack a tyre chock ensures that the vehicle remains stationary during a lift by applying the chock or chocks to the front wheels if your lifting at the rear or the opposite if your lifting the front of the vehicle.

Summary

Based on the situation you find you may be using a bottle jack you may benefit from one or a combination of the accessories that are mentioned in this article.

• Increase the height you can lift a vehicle using the extension bar.
• Increase cost savings by using an extension adaptor.
• Improve the stability of the bottle jack using a base plate.
• Improve the contact between the jack and the vehicle using a jack pad.