Need a Lift with Antique Jacks?

By Dan R. Manning
Published on August 8, 2012
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Wagon and buggy jacks from Larry Voris’ collection. From left: A Favorite (wooden), a Lane’s steel carriage jack (green), a Wm. E. Pratt (rusty, with collapsible cast iron handle), an Oliver No. 2 (red with wooden handle) for vehicles weighing up to 2 tons, an International Harvester Co. (red screw-type jack with bevel gears), a mail-hack jack (wooden) and an unnamed (red) jack with a June 1, 1886 patent date.
Wagon and buggy jacks from Larry Voris’ collection. From left: A Favorite (wooden), a Lane’s steel carriage jack (green), a Wm. E. Pratt (rusty, with collapsible cast iron handle), an Oliver No. 2 (red with wooden handle) for vehicles weighing up to 2 tons, an International Harvester Co. (red screw-type jack with bevel gears), a mail-hack jack (wooden) and an unnamed (red) jack with a June 1, 1886 patent date.
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An array of auto-jacks. Front left (in green): A Reliable 35 with collapsible handle. Front right: a black Walker 605 with hex handle for Whippet car hubcaps. Ratchet jacks (on the floor jack, left to right): A Walker 270, a Reliable 35 with attached handle, an Ajax 9 and a Walker 600-A. Screw-type jacks (left to right): A Walker 520, a Walker 600 (in blue) and a rusty Walker Blue Boy truck jack. 
An array of auto-jacks. Front left (in green): A Reliable 35 with collapsible handle. Front right: a black Walker 605 with hex handle for Whippet car hubcaps. Ratchet jacks (on the floor jack, left to right): A Walker 270, a Reliable 35 with attached handle, an Ajax 9 and a Walker 600-A. Screw-type jacks (left to right): A Walker 520, a Walker 600 (in blue) and a rusty Walker Blue Boy truck jack. 
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Need a Lift? Larry Voris is a Missouri collector who specializes in antique jacks. 
Need a Lift? Larry Voris is a Missouri collector who specializes in antique jacks. 
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A portion of Larry’s jack collection, including screw-type, ratchet and hydraulic models. 
A portion of Larry’s jack collection, including screw-type, ratchet and hydraulic models. 
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A variety of tire-savers surround a Hein-Werner 1-1/2-ton mechanical tire-spreader. At front: A Trex rim compressor and a Universal 3-way rim spreader. 
A variety of tire-savers surround a Hein-Werner 1-1/2-ton mechanical tire-spreader. At front: A Trex rim compressor and a Universal 3-way rim spreader. 
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Close-up of unusual auto-jacks. Left: A Weed chain jack (patented Feb. 29, 1916) for use in tire chain installation. Right: A Rees 3A double worm gear drive jack. 
Close-up of unusual auto-jacks. Left: A Weed chain jack (patented Feb. 29, 1916) for use in tire chain installation. Right: A Rees 3A double worm gear drive jack. 
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Train car jacks from Larry’s collection. Back (left to right): A Duff-Norton 100-ton jack and a Joyce 100-ton jack with an Ingersoll Rand 200 CFM air engine. Front (left to right): A Duff-Norton (aluminum) and a Simplex 15-ton jack. 
Train car jacks from Larry’s collection. Back (left to right): A Duff-Norton 100-ton jack and a Joyce 100-ton jack with an Ingersoll Rand 200 CFM air engine. Front (left to right): A Duff-Norton (aluminum) and a Simplex 15-ton jack. 

Larry Voris was born in Scottsbluff, Neb., in 1939, but he grew up on a dairy farm in Polk County, Mo. In the early 1950s, he was well acquainted with the hard metal seat of an Allis-Chalmers tractor. When he wasn’t spending hours pulling a hay baler or disc plow, he could be found guiding cultivator shovels along rows of sargo cane, used to make silage to feed the family’s milk cows.

“Our farm had a few hilly places and some rocks because it was in southern Missouri, but there wasn’t any rough ground,” Larry says. “I don’t think the country farther south of here is very pretty, like tourists do. Farmland ought to be flat enough to grow something, not just hard-scrabble hillsides.”

After Larry and his wife, Hazel, married in 1958, he began working at Producers Creamery Co. in Springfield, Mo. Later, Larry made a radical job change when he went to work at Tire Town. Working with his hands again, he was reminded of his youth on the farm.

Jack of all trades

Larry received a full education at Tire Town. “I did everything there,” he says. “I became acquainted with different tools and several kinds of jacks. After I did that for five years, I learned that Don McGuire, the man who repaired our jacks, was selling out his business.”

Larry bought Don’s jack shop in 1979 and Hazel became his bookkeeper. Don stayed on as an employee for 10 years. With Don’s experience repairing jacks and Larry’s knowledge of the tire business, the business’ unwritten policy was simple. “If we could get it in the door,” Larry says, “we’d work on it — and fix it.”

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