Hi-Lift jack mounting

[CyberSniper]

Do any of you have pictures of how you mounted your Hi-Lifts to your bedsides (not bedrails)?

I bought two "Loc Racs" made by the Hi-Lift people and it didn't solve my problem of mounting them.

 

[willyswanter]

I just took 2 1/2" x 3-1/2" bolts and welded the heads to my bed and slipped the jack over them and put wing nuts on. No problemos.

 

[CyberSniper]

Well, I wanted to mount mine flat to the bedside in such a manner that I could lock it up, it wouldn't rattle, and was relatively easy to put in and remove. The locking part is easy, just drill a hole in the threaded rod/bolt and put a small padlock through it.

So I bought their kit because it looked like it'd work beautifully even though it looked like it wasn't meant to be mounted on flat surfaces. Well, it definitely isn't meant to be mounted on flat surfaces--or at least not so the bar is parallel to the mounting surface and all the hardware. It's pretty disappointing. What kind of retard would want to mount their jack so it stuck up above the bedrails anyway?

So, I started looking at it a bit closer. The hardware is like grade 1, they used these stamped start washers for lock washers, didn't give you any flat washers to prevent the sheetmetal you mount to from distorting, didn't clean the threads for the wing nut after drilling and painting, the padlock is so crappy that you could cut it with a pair of side cutters if you didn't drill it out with a 6v cordless drill, and the hinge pin is a piece of safety wire that you can easily pull out if you don't want to deal with the padlock.

Anyway, the moral of the story is spend your money elsewhere.


So that still leaves me trying to find a way that I can mount the base of the jack off the right rear bed pillar and run the bar between the wheelwell and the stake pocket. I'd then cut the handle shorter (few inches) so it barely fit between the stake pocket and the jack base. I'm going to try to figure out something I can make that mounts off the stake pocket that I can build with my rudimentary tools. I want to keep it pretty low-profile so it doesn't affect bed use too much.

What you did is exactly what I plan to do with the trail rig.

 

[poorboy1]

when i was still running a bed i mounted my jack on the fenderwell up against the side. of course i went the cheap route and used 2 exhaust clamp ubolts to bolt it to the fender well. it didnt vibrate but it also took a wrench to take it off so it wasnt real handy either.

 

[bigjbear]

I was going to tell you to look at my page but it looks like its gone. I'll try to describe what I did and put some new pics up if you want.

I used these because I got them in trade for some work I did.

http://www.hi-lift.com/New_Folder/4x_formal.gif is the link in case of <font color="red"> X </font>
To mount them I needed some type of bracket. For the forward one I bent a piece of steel the same thickness as the 4xrac into an "L" so that the bottom sat on the wheel-well and the top met the lip on the bed rail. I drilled two holes in the bed rail and the "L" that matched the ones in the 4xrac. Then I bolted all three together. The bottom two holes of the rac were then used to mark the spot to drill the "L" and that was bolted together as well. Last, two more bolts through the wheel-well.

For the rear mount I did something similar, but slightly more involved. The top still bolted to the inside lip of the bed rail, the mount was longer so I made an angle to give it some more strength. I also attached to one of the side pannel brackets, although this doesn't do much because they are only held in place w/ sheetmetal screws. Finally the bottom got another "L" to hold the angle in place.

I wish the pics were still up because its a lot simpiler than it sounds. It left just enough room for the back seet to "fold and tumble" and also made a good place to mount an ax securley.