GoJak model 4520

**Rich Z** · 02-27-2015, 04:21 PM

I've been looking at these things for a while now, and I guess it is fortunate that I delayed and actual purchase until I had read enough about them. I kind of just stumbled on this model 4520 while looking at another model that I thought would better suit me. But the more I compared them, the better the 4520 sounded to me. But let me back up a bit.

What the heck do I want with something like this anyway? What they are designed to do is to have four (4) of them, one for each tire/wheel. The idea is to put these under each wheel, jack them up to where the tires are off the ground, and that will allow you to easily (relatively speaking) then roll the car around on a flat surface in any direction. Now, I really don't foresee the need to do this in my own garage, but I had another problem that I thought these might solve for me.

Sad to say I am getting older. My back isn't what it used to be, and I've found that removing and re-installing wheels on the vehicles is becoming more of a physical chore than I would like it to be. Especially the re-installing part. Trying to hold the wheel off the ground while rotating the wheel to align with the wheel studs threatens to wreck my back at any instant just from the awkwardness of trying to hold the wheel up during the maneuver. So I thought that something that could assist me with this effort might be worth pursuing. So enter these GoJack thingies.

At first I was only going to order one of them, but recently there was some talk about putting larger wheels and tires on the C5s and I got to thinking that I have a C6Z and a C6 coupe that had some wheels I could certainly try out for fitment. But honestly jockeying around those wheels from one vehicle to another was pretty likely to get me throwing my back out of whack. Sooo, I decided to order two of them. That should make the wheel jockey maneuver much easier on me, I hope. One to hold the original wheel coming off of my C5Z, and the other one to do the jockeying of the donor wheel coming off of one of the other vehicles. So, we shall see how that works out.

Anyway, with all that in mind, the model 4520 just seems the better choice for what I wanted. The other models have larger wheels on them, and I was afraid there might be a clearance issue trying to fit the arms of the GoJack between the tires and the wheel well lower edges. Also the 4520 has two smaller rollers for each side instead of a single one per side like the other model (6313?) I was looking at. And the 4520 had a 5 degree offset to the lifting handle that I hoped would keep my foot further away from my wheels and tires while working it. The ONLY thing I thought might be a drawback was that the 4520 was being advertised as being able to handle tires up to 20 inches in diameter. Well, that was a LOT more than I actually needed, but I rationalized that this would allow me to actually keep the activator handle even further away from the wheel. So I figured I could live with those 20 inch wide rollers. Well, when I got the units in (and I found a VERY good price with free shipping!) I was surprised that the rollers didn't seem to be 20 inches wide as I had thought they would be. Actually they measured 14 inches wide, which really works out great for the wide rear tires of the C6Z and perfectly acceptable for the rear tires on the other cars. Matter of fact, had I specified the width of the rollers I wanted, 14 inches would have been my preference anyway. So this worked out pretty well. So all in all the only thing I can even think about to gripe about concerning these things (so far, anyway) is the color.

Connie came into the garage while I was putting the wheels on them and commented on the nice pink tools I had just bought. Oh lordy..........

I'm not going to hear the end of this anytime real soon....

Anyway, haven't had a chance to use them other than to just test the positioning to make sure they had the clearance I had hoped for. Hopefully the tires will be balanced enough to stay on these things without tipping over when being moved, but if not, I think I can deal with that as needed.

So here's some pics I took. The pics of the devices showing the tire width compared to them are first of the C5Z (blue) and then of the C6Z (gray).

Oh yeah! Notice the MADE IN AMERICA label....

mrr23 · 02-27-2015, 06:00 PM

a can or two of krylon can fix that pink issue.

Cor66Vette · 03-11-2015, 08:41 PM

Cool! I see you finally got the size that works for ya~!

**Rich Z** · 07-11-2015, 01:50 PM

A while back I wanted to pull the wheels off of the C6Z so I pulled out the two GoJaks to see how they would work managing the wheels pulling them off the vehicle and then mounting them back on. I have to say that they worked pretty darn well. Especially remounting the wheels. In the past I would have to put my foot underneath the tire to try to lift it and balance it while lining up the studs to the wheel, and honestly that was a pain in the foot to do. Literally. With the GoJak, I just lightly put my foot on the pedal and just press down while easily rotating the wheel until it is lined up, and then push the wheel onto the studs. Easy. My back won't take trying to handle these wheels at arm's length any longer while fiddling with lining them up, so this might save putting me horizontal for a spell waiting for my back to stop hurting.

So impressed was I with the GoJak that I decided to order two more so I would have a complete set. I figure this will make it very easy when I want to pull off all 4 wheels. With only two, I had to remove the tires and wheels from each of the two GoJaks so I could tackle the next two. Not a real big deal, but tools are all about making things EASY, and having four just makes it EASIER. I went ahead and got the mounting frame for the jacks and the whole shebang slides under my work table out of the way for storage.

Now as long as I don't pull my back pulling the GoJaks off of the rolling frame (they aren't exactly feather weight), I'll be OK..

BTW, if you are looking for one or more of these things yourself, here's a link to the place I got them from. Best price I could find, and free shipping if you get two or more of them. -> http://www.coastaltoolsupply.com/product/UNI-G4520.html. They showed up about three days after I ordered them, so they are pretty snappy on the shipping time.

mrr23 · 07-11-2015, 06:18 PM

definitely nice to have

**Rich Z** · 08-28-2015, 05:52 PM

Actually got to use these things today. I decided to rotate the tires on Connie's Silverado, since we bought new Michelins a little while back and I figure they are about due now. These GoJaks made this chore VERY easy to do. Just put the truck on the lift to where the tires were just barely off the ground, put the GoJaks underneath each tire, removed the lug nuts, pulled each tire and GoJak away from the truck, rolled them to where they needed to be to do the rotation, pushed the wheels onto the studs, put the lug nuts back on, torqued the nuts, lowered the truck, DONE. Never had to lift one wheel/tire the entire time for even an instant. Positioning the wheels onto the studs was a snap as they would roll easily on the rollers on the GoJaks until the studs lined up with the holes in the wheels. Just PUSH the wheel on and secure it with the lug nuts!

Piece of cake!

These things will be a life saver when I get the Jeep Wrangler. Some of those big aggressive tires I am looking at to replace the stock tires can weigh as much as 71 pounds each, JUST FOR THE RUBBER!

Hope I never get a flat out in the sticks with the Jeep because although I'm pretty sure I will be able to get the spare off of the tire carrier, getting the flat one back up there will be a real challenge for this old back I now have.