I've carried around Hi-Lift jacks for years, but never really needed to use one. A few weeks ago a tire blew on my Jeep and I ended up in the median, basically off road in soft dirt and small brush, needing to change the tire. The dirt was soft and the Jeep was leaning way down, so I needed to jack it up quite a bit to get the spare on.
So I got down the heavy ass hi-lift. Unless you have heavy duty bumpers that are practically made for it, the number of jacking spots is very limited. I have pretty stout rocker guards on there, so I went with that. Thing is, the jack tries as hard as it can to lean in and drill into the body. After doing our best to manage that, the next obvious problem is that the axle just keeps drooping away as you jack the body/frame. In the end, the hi-lift was nearly worthless. I know I could have figured a way to tie a strap around the axle up to the frame or something, but what a pain for a simple tire swap.
Thankfully, I also carry a small bottle jack with some home made extensions and base plate in my kit. This was easier to use and solved the problem, though its range maxed out and we had to dig a little to fit the tire. Just a few inches. The extensions let me get high, but I couldn't fit them under in the first place.
The best solution I've seen are the off-road floor jacks, with something like 25" of range, but they are pricey and pretty awkward/heavy to store all the time. A big scissor jack designed for off-road use might be the best compromise, but a quick Google search isn't showing anything. I seem to recall a thread about old Humvee jacks along these lines?
So I got down the heavy ass hi-lift. Unless you have heavy duty bumpers that are practically made for it, the number of jacking spots is very limited. I have pretty stout rocker guards on there, so I went with that. Thing is, the jack tries as hard as it can to lean in and drill into the body. After doing our best to manage that, the next obvious problem is that the axle just keeps drooping away as you jack the body/frame. In the end, the hi-lift was nearly worthless. I know I could have figured a way to tie a strap around the axle up to the frame or something, but what a pain for a simple tire swap.
Thankfully, I also carry a small bottle jack with some home made extensions and base plate in my kit. This was easier to use and solved the problem, though its range maxed out and we had to dig a little to fit the tire. Just a few inches. The extensions let me get high, but I couldn't fit them under in the first place.
The best solution I've seen are the off-road floor jacks, with something like 25" of range, but they are pricey and pretty awkward/heavy to store all the time. A big scissor jack designed for off-road use might be the best compromise, but a quick Google search isn't showing anything. I seem to recall a thread about old Humvee jacks along these lines?
