Size of Jack for Pathfinder

Moggs, you also need to consider the hight to which the jack will extend. You'll find with the hydraulic jacks, the lower the lifting capacity, the lower the lifting height. On some models for example, the 4 tonne jack will only extend 200mm while the 6 tonne will lift 320mm.

I chose a 6.5 tonne hydraulic jack as it has more than enough lifting capacity and height. I carry 2 jacking plates - a 300mm x 300mm piece of 22mm thick external grade ply and a 300mm x 300mm piece of 50mm thick hardwood. The combo gives me plenty of flexibilty, using one as a base plate and one between the vehicle and jack, or two as base plates (gaining and extra 72mm lift) etc. It works for me.

Moggs, you also need to consider the hight to which the jack will extend. You'll find with the hydraulic jacks, the lower the lifting capacity, the lower the lifting height. On some models for example, the 4 tonne jack will only extend 200mm while the 6 tonne will lift 320mm.

I chose a 6.5 tonne hydraulic jack as it has more than enough lifting capacity and height. I carry 2 jacking plates - a 300mm x 300mm piece of 22mm thick external grade ply and a 300mm x 300mm piece of 50mm thick hardwood. The combo gives me plenty of flexibilty, using one as a base plate and one between the vehicle and jack, or two as base plates (gaining and extra 72mm lift) etc. It works for me.

P.S. I also run a Pathfinder.

Moggs, your original windup jack should have a weight rating sticker/stamp on it, use that as a starting guide, make sure that the hydraulic you buy extends to the same height or better, 1 major point to be wary of is the closed height of the jack , not so much of a problem in the scrub [ can dig to fit jack under ] , very hard to fit a "to tall" jack in the concrete/bitumen carpark,.

Moggs, purchased a 4000kg hydraulic bottle jack at Supercheap over 12 months ago, have only used it once. It's the same height as a 2000kg one that was purchased elsewhere. Don't remember price of 4K kg job, but wasn't much dearer than smaller ones. Used to be able to get stumpy jacks that had a double ram, that would fit under spring/axle, when tyre was fully deflated. Haven't seen them for years.

Just remember that even though GVM is 2335kg, in most cases you would be only lifting a part of this weight. That's why I felt 4000kg jack was ample for our 80 series. Hooroo...