Portable Car Hoists for Australian Home Garages: QuickJack vs MaxJax

Here’s something that surprises people about Genesis: the single most-searched thing customers come to us for isn’t a workshop hoist at all. It’s a lift that folds away in a home garage.

Portable car hoists have quietly become one of the biggest categories we sell — to home enthusiasts working on a project car, to mobile mechanics who need a lift that travels, and to professional workshops throwing up a temporary bay when the floor is full. If you’re weighing one up, this is the decision you’re actually making.

The real question: how high do you need to get?

Every other consideration follows from this one. There are two families of portable lift, and they answer that question very differently.

Frame lifts (the QuickJack range) are two independent frames that sit on the floor under your car’s lift points. They raise the vehicle to around 610–622 mm. That is a proper working height for wheels, brakes, exhaust, suspension and oil changes — you’re on a creeper or a low stool, not standing. Nothing bolts to your floor, and when the job’s done both frames wheel out and stand against the wall.

Portable two-post lifts (the MaxJax M7K) use two columns and lifting arms, like a scaled-down workshop hoist. It raises to 1,200 mm at the pads, or 1,283 mm with the 3″ adapter — high enough to work standing underneath the car. That is a genuinely different experience for anything involving gearboxes, tailshafts, diffs or long jobs under the vehicle.

If you have ever spent a Saturday on your back on a creeper, that difference is worth thinking about carefully.

Will it fit your garage?

This is where portable lifts earn their reputation, because a full-size clearfloor two-post hoist needs roughly a 4 metre ceiling — which rules out most residential garages immediately. We’ve written separately about how much ceiling height you need for a 2-post hoist if that’s the road you’re going down.

Portable lifts change that maths:

• QuickJack frames sit 76–89 mm off the floor when collapsed and add nothing overhead. Your ceiling height is whatever your car’s height plus 610 mm comes to. Almost any garage works.
• The MaxJax M7K stands 2,273 mm overall — so it fits under a great many standard garage ceilings that would never take a full-size hoist. Measure to your lowest obstruction (beam, light, open garage door track), not the roof.

The MaxJax is a two-post design, so it needs a suitable slab and is fixed to the floor while in use, with the columns coming away for storage. Its floor and anchoring requirements are set out in the installation manual — read that section before you buy, not after.

The QuickJack range, in plain numbers

Every model lifts in about 30 seconds, runs on 208–240 V AC single phase (5 A minimum), and has automatic safety locks at two heights.

• BL-3500SLX — 1,588 kg. 1,588 mm frames, 76 mm collapsed, 533 mm max lift, 27 kg per frame. The lightweight one, built for small cars, race cars and track days.
• 6000TL — 2,722 kg. 1,778 mm frames, 76 mm collapsed, 610 mm working height, 36 kg per frame. The standard-wheelbase workhorse for ordinary cars.
• 6000TLX — same 2,722 kg on longer 1,930 mm frames, with lift-point spread opening to 1,676 mm. This is the long-wheelbase option, not the heavy-duty one.
• 8000TL — 3,629 kg on 1,797 mm frames, with heavier 318 mm frames and 622 mm working height. Built for dual-cab utes and 4WDs.
• 8000TLX — the top of the range: 3,629 kg on 1,930 mm frames with spread to 1,676 mm, for long and heavy vehicles at once.

Two numbers decide it, and people usually only check the first: capacity (can it lift your vehicle) and lift-point spread (can the frames actually reach your car’s factory lift points). A long dual-cab can defeat a lift on spread alone even when capacity is fine.

Looking for a 5000TL or 7000TL?

If you’ve been searching those model numbers, they’ve been superseded – and the replacements are a step up rather than a like-for-like swap:

• The 5000TL is replaced by the 6000TL, which carries 454 kg more.
• The 7000TL is replaced by the 8000TL, which carries 454 kg more again.

Same footprint and storage behaviour, more capacity. Given how much heavier the average Australian dual-cabs have become, that shift makes sense.

Where the MaxJax M7K fits

The MaxJax M7K lifts 3,175 kg, with a maximum 794 kg per arm and seven locking positions. Arms reach 860–1,016 mm, and drive-through clearance runs 1,880–2,642 mm depending on how you set the columns.

It raises and lowers in about 45 seconds on single-phase power, and each column weighs 136 kg — movable with built-in wheels and quick-connect hydraulic couplers, but a genuine two-person lift. Adapter sets let you match a range of lift points, from low-stance vehicles through to high-clearance utes and SUVs, and there’s a motorcycle and ATV kit if you want it to do double duty.

Professional workshops use it as a pop-up bay — extra capacity on demand without committing floor space permanently.

Five things to check before you buy

1. Your vehicle’s kerb weight, not its badge. Modern dual-cabs and EVs are heavier than people assume.
2. Your vehicle’s factory lift points and how far apart they sit — then check that against the lift’s spread range.
3. Your floor. Concrete condition matters for any lift, and matters more for anything that fixes down.
4. Where it lives between jobs. QuickJack frames stand against a wall; MaxJax columns need somewhere to go too.
5. Your power. Single phase, but confirm the circuit at the point you’ll actually use it.

Still deciding?

The honest short version: if you want to get under the car standing up, look at the MaxJax M7K. If you want something that packs away to nothing and covers wheels, brakes and servicing, look at the QuickJack range — then pick the model on capacity and lift-point spread.

Browse the full QuickJack range, or tell us what you drive and what you’re planning to do to it. We’d rather point you at the right one than the dearest one.