MoJack EZ MAX Review: Long Term Use on a 54 Inch Zero Turn

I have spent over 20 years on the bench at an outdoor power equipment dealership in East Texas, and I will tell you straight: the job I hate most is not the one that needs a special tool. It is the one that needs a floor jack, a block of wood, and a prayer that the mower does not shift before you get your hand out from under the deck. That is the job the MoJack EZ MAX is built for, and after two seasons of using one on my own 54 inch zero turn at home, I have a pretty clear picture of what it does well and where it cuts corners.

I bought the MoJack EZ MAX for the same reason most of my customers do: I got tired of tipping the mower up on its side to change blades. On a 54 inch deck, that means draining the fuel, wrestling the mower onto its side, and hoping the battery does not leak. The MoJack lifts the whole front of the mower straight up, so the deck hangs down and you can get to the blades, spindles, and belt without putting the machine on its side. That is the whole pitch, and it works.

How I've Used It

I have had the MoJack EZ MAX in my two-bay garage at home for about two seasons now. My own mower is a residential zero turn with a 54 inch deck, and I mow about two and a half acres of St. Augustine and Bermuda with it, which means the blades take a beating. I use the MoJack at least once a month from spring through fall, mostly for blade changes, but also for cleaning the deck, checking the spindles, and replacing the belt.

The routine is simple. You roll the front of the mower onto the lift, slide the lift arm under the front axle, and turn the crank. The MoJack uses a crank-driven screw jack, so you are not lifting the mower with your back. As the arm rises, a spring pin clicks into each safety hole on the tower, and you keep turning until the front wheels are well off the floor and the deck hangs low enough to work on. When you are done, you pull the pin ring and back the crank off to lower it. The whole thing takes about five minutes to set up the first time, and less once you have done it a few times.

The first time I used the MoJack EZ MAX at home, I timed the whole blade job from parking the mower to rolling it back off: thirty five minutes, and that included sharpening and balancing all three blades. The old way, I would back the mower up onto a pair of ramps, crawl underneath on a piece of cardboard and fight the blades from a position where I could not get any leverage on the wrench. That job took most of an hour and left my back sore for the rest of the day. With the front of the mower lifted and locked, I was standing at the deck working at chest height, which is how we do it on the lift at the dealership.

I have used it for blade sharpening, blade replacement, deck cleaning, spindle checks, and one belt replacement. I have also used it to get the mower up high enough to change the oil on a couple of my customers' machines, though that is not what it is designed for. For the jobs it is designed for, it has never let me down.

What the MoJack EZ MAX Actually Does

The MoJack EZ MAX is a lift jack for riding mowers and zero turns. It is rated for 450 pounds, which covers most residential zero turns, including my 54 inch model. The frame is made of welded steel, and the lift arm rides up a tower on a screw jack that you turn with the included crank or with a 3/8 inch driver in a cordless drill. You roll the mower into position, set the lift arm under the front axle, and turn the crank to raise the front of the mower.

The key thing to understand is that it lifts the front of the mower, not the whole mower. The rear wheels stay on the ground, and the front of the mower goes up. That is enough to get the deck down to a working height, and it is a lot safer than tipping the mower on its side. The deck is still attached to the mower, so you are not fighting a 100 pound deck on the floor. You are working on it at a comfortable height, with the blades visible and the belt accessible.

That matters for one specific reason on a zero turn. The front comes up while the engine end stays low on the floor, so you are not asking fuel to run into the air filter or oil to run into the cylinder the way you are when you tip a mower on its side. In my years at the shop I have cleaned more flooded air filters and oil soaked spark plugs than I can count, and almost all of them came from someone tilting a mower the wrong way to get at the blades. The MoJack EZ MAX takes that mistake off the table because the geometry only lets you lift it the safe way.

The MoJack EZ MAX is not a full service lift. It will not get the mower high enough to stand under, and it will not lift the rear of the mower. For transmission work or anything that requires the whole machine off the ground, you need a different tool. But for the jobs that make up 90 percent of my weekend maintenance, it is the right tool.

How It Holds Up Over Time

After two seasons of monthly use, the MoJack EZ MAX has held up better than I expected. The welds are solid, the lift arm moves smoothly, and the screw still turns cleanly with a little light oil on the threads once a year, which is what the manual asks for. I have left it out in the garage through a Texas summer and a couple of wet winters, and the paint has held up. There is a little surface rust on the base where my boots and the mower casters have worn through the paint, but that is cosmetic and does not affect the lift.

The one thing I have had to replace is the rubber pad on the lift arms. The pad sits between the lift arm and the front axle, and after a couple of seasons of use, it wore through. It is a cheap part, and MoJack sells replacements, but it is worth knowing that it will wear out eventually. If you use the lift as often as I do, plan on replacing the pad every couple of years.

The lift screw and the locking pin are the parts I was most worried about, because the drive and the lock are what fail on cheap lifts. After two seasons, the pin on my MoJack EZ MAX still drops into the safety holes with a clean click, and the mower stays exactly where I left it. I have left the mower on the lift overnight a couple of times, and it has not moved. That is the test that matters, and it passes.

I also make a habit of checking the lock pins and the frame welds every spring before I use it for the first time. On mine, the welds still look clean, nothing has cracked at the corners where the lift arms meet the base, and the pins slide in without forcing them. I keep a light coat of oil on the lift screw threads and store the MoJack EZ MAX folded against the garage wall so it is not sitting in the damp corner where water comes in under the door. Those are five minute jobs, and they are the reason a lift like this lasts for years instead of rusting solid in the second season.

After two seasons of monthly use, the screw jack and locking pin on my MoJack EZ MAX still hold my 54 inch zero turn up overnight without moving a single inch.

The Tradeoffs You Should Know About

The MoJack EZ MAX is not perfect, and I would be doing you a disservice if I pretended it was. The first tradeoff is placement. The lift arm has to go squarely under the front axle with the mower centered on it, and on a zero turn with a low front frame you may need to raise the deck to its top cutting position before the arm slides under. It is not a dealbreaker, but it is something you will figure out the first time you use it.

The second tradeoff is the crank. It takes a fair number of turns to get the mower all the way up, and on a heavy mower you will feel it in your arms. It is not hard work, but it is not effortless either. The fix is to pull the crank handle off and run the screw with a 3/8 inch driver in a cordless drill, which is how I do it now. Lowering is easy, so the effort is all on the way up.

The third tradeoff is the footprint. The MoJack EZ MAX is not small. When it is not in use, it takes up a decent chunk of garage space. I keep mine against the wall in my two-bay garage, and it is out of the way, but if you have a one-car garage, you will want to think about where you are going to store it.

Who This Is For

The MoJack EZ MAX is for anyone who owns a zero turn or riding mower and does their own blade and deck maintenance. If you are tired of tipping the mower on its side, draining the fuel, and hoping the battery does not leak, this is the tool that fixes that. It is also for anyone who wants to be able to see what they are doing when they sharpen blades or clean the deck, instead of working blind with a flashlight.

It is especially good for people who mow a lot of acreage and go through blades quickly. If you are sharpening or replacing blades every few weeks, the MoJack EZ MAX will pay for itself in time saved and in the wear and tear it saves on your back. It is also a good fit for anyone who has ever had a mower shift while they were working under it, because the lift holds the mower steady in a way that a floor jack and a block of wood never will.

It also makes sense for anyone who is getting older and is tired of getting on the ground. I am 58, and I will be honest, the reason I bought the MoJack EZ MAX for home was that crawling under a mower on the garage floor had stopped being something I wanted to do. Plenty of the customers I talk to at the counter are in the same spot. They are perfectly capable of changing their own blades, they just do not want to spend the next day paying for it. For them, a lift turns blade day from something they put off until the cut looks ragged into a short job they do on schedule.

Who Should Skip It

You should skip the MoJack EZ MAX if you never work on your own mower. If you take it to a shop for every blade change and every oil change, this is a tool you will use once a year at most, and it is hard to justify the garage space for that. It is also not the right tool if you need to work on the rear of the mower, because it only lifts the front.

If you have a mower that weighs more than 450 pounds, or a commercial zero turn with a heavy fabricated deck, the MoJack EZ MAX is not rated for it. You need a heavier lift for that. And if you are looking for a full service lift that gets the whole mower off the ground, this is not it. The MoJack EZ MAX is a blade and deck lift, and it is very good at that job, but it is not a substitute for a real service lift.