What we actually do
Every recommendation on this site is built from four things, in this order of weight:
- Published manufacturer specifications. Capacity, minimum and maximum height, torque range, stated accuracy, dimensions, weight, materials. Every numeric figure we print links to where it came from, at the point we use it.
- The applicable safety standard. For jacks, stands and ramps that is ASME PASE, the US Safety Standard for Portable Automotive Service Equipment, currently in its 2024 edition. Where a manufacturer publishes a compliance statement we quote it. Where one does not, we say the statement is absent rather than implying one exists.
- Documented compatibility and dimensions. Whether a tool physically fits the car a beginner actually owns, which is the failure mode that ruins more purchases than any capacity question.
- Aggregated feedback from verified purchasers, described as such and never quoted as a number. We have no rating data source, so no star rating or review count appears anywhere on this site.
What we do not do — stated plainly
We also do not: claim first-hand ownership of products we have not owned, publish measurements we did not take, quote review counts or star ratings, print prices (see below), or accept payment for placement.
How we pick a top pick
Every product carries five scores. They are editorial judgments derived from published specifications, not measurements, and they are never emitted as structured data — a score in our prose is content, and marking it up as a product review rating would misrepresent what it is.
| Axis | What it assesses | Where the evidence comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Fit and reach | Whether it physically fits under, and lifts, a normal car | Published minimum and maximum heights, dimensions |
| Safety margin | Rated capacity against the real load, plus the locking or support mechanism | Published rating, rating basis, mechanism description, standards statements |
| Beginner ease | How hard it is to get right alone in a driveway, first time | Mechanism type, adjustment increments, signaling, published instructions |
| Build quality | Materials, published standard compliance, service parts availability | Manufacturer material and construction claims, warranty terms |
| Value for money | What the money buys relative to the rest of the field | Feature and specification comparison across the category |
The weighting is deliberate and not equal. For a first purchase, fit and reach carries the most weight, because a tool that does not fit cannot be worked around. Safety margin is next. Value is real but ranked below both, because the cheapest tool that does not fit your car is not good value.
How ties are broken
By what the manufacturer publishes. A product whose maker states a standards compliance position, names a third-party testing facility, or publishes an accuracy figure beats an otherwise identical product that publishes nothing — not because the silent one is worse, but because one claim is checkable and the other is not.
How products are selected for consideration
A product is eligible if it is: currently sold, available to US buyers through Amazon, from a manufacturer that publishes specifications we can cite, and in a category this site covers. We verify current availability before including anything — the widely-recommended TEKTON 24335 torque wrench, for example, is listed as no longer available on TEKTON's own site and is therefore not recommended anywhere here.
There are currently 27 products in the registry. Every one of them has its specification sources recorded.
How we handle price
We do not publish prices. This site has no live price feed, and a price we recorded weeks ago is worse than no price at all — it is a number you might act on that is no longer true. So every price slot reads "Check price on Amazon" and links to the current listing, where you see today's price rather than ours.
The same rule applies to discounts, deals and savings claims. We make none, because we cannot verify any.
How we link to products
Every product link goes to a tagged Amazon search for that exact model, routed through a resolver on this site. We do not use direct product-page links, because that requires a verified product identifier and we have no live product data source — a wrong identifier sends you to the wrong product, which is worse than a search that lands on the right one.
How we make money
Amazon Associates commission, and nothing else. No brand pays for placement, no manufacturer sees a page before it publishes, and no commission rate influences a ranking. Where a manufacturer sells direct, we link to their store as a reference and label it as a link we earn nothing from — so you can compare.
The full disclosure has the detail.
How often this is reviewed
Every page carries a published date and a last-reviewed date, and both are real. Our intention is to re-check the flagship roundups monthly and the rest of the site on a rolling basis, with priority given to anything where a product may have been discontinued or a specification revised.
What a "last reviewed" date means here: a person re-read the page and re-checked its cited figures against the source. It does not mean the page was rewritten, and it does not mean we re-tested anything, because we never tested anything.
How to tell us we are wrong
Email contact@jackandtorque.com. Corrections and specification challenges get read first, and a factual error gets a visible correction on the page rather than a silent edit. If we cited a figure that is wrong, we want to know — that is the whole basis on which this site asks to be trusted.
Who writes this
Every page is written by Ryder M., who runs Magoo Media Group. He is not a certified technician and this site does not claim he is. What he does claim is a method: read the published specification, check it against the standard, and be explicit about the difference between a sourced fact and an editorial judgment. See about.