To be fair the ratchet is fantastic compared to what I've seen on standard scissor jacks, it's a lot better. But that doesn't take away my frustration with how terrible this thing is at balancing on level ground. I was working on changing a tire on a very small car, and somehow this thing fell over while I was tying off the punctured tire, and again. when fitting new tires. Until my standard jack died from abuse I've never seen a scissor jack tip over, then this jack tipped over twice in my first apartment. If I hadn't used my spare as a stand I would have lost way more money than it's worth. Do yourself a favor and buy a wider jack, or maybe better together, buy a compact jack, it's much safer. My jack didn't break, but I needed a second jack because it got stuck between my car and the replacement. If I ever decide to use this again I'll be welding something to the bottom to stabilize it. Compactness doesn't matter if, ideally, I can't trust it for once.