TYPICAL 7 TON AIR END LIFT

Air end lifts used to be more popularly known as air bumper jacks until auto makers stopped making bumpers strong enough to lift the front or rear of a car.

Today the jacks have pretty much left the car service world and with higher lifting capacities are becoming popular in the medium duty truck range of 2 1/2 to 10 tons. Their speed and lifting height make them quite attractive.

These are pretty straight-forward beasts, a big steel cylinder on the outside with a piston having a large rubber seal on the end of it for the inside along with a cast iron ratcheting safety catch mechanism - Nothing exotic here.
They all seem to be American made with no one design superior to another but double check and stay away from any cheap Chinese/Taiwanese imports.