Wolf Island Diver
Well-Known Member
That’s the attachment I made a joke about up in the thread. On my TJ, the long arm suspension would articulate at full jack extension so the other wheel still doesn’t come off the ground. Yes, you can use this to lift the axle tube up and stick something under it this way, and then take off that wheel. That’s a lot of work. If you’re going to do that, you can just cut out the dangerous middle man and use a bottle jack or the stock jack to lift up the axle and take the wheel off.They make an attachment to hook directly to your wheels so you aren’t having to overcome all the suspension travel first before you get the wheel of the ground.
Hi-Lift Jack LM-100 Lift-Mate https://a.co/d/cFIeyS0
Back in 04’ it was actually Dave Harriton from AEV that told me that ironically, given how people immediately move to replace them with a Hi-lift, the stock jack was perfectly adequate, with a larger, taller aftermarket base and in his opinion, superior. AEV still gives you a stock jack base with their lift kit. I was actually surprised when they later started adding provisions for Hi-Lifts to their bumpers and carriers. I guess it’s a customer demand thing, since in Dave’s opinion they were more dangerous than useful and mostly silly wastes of money.
The two issues with the stock scissor jack or a hydraulic bottle jack are stability (though, not as much as Hi-Lift) and having to go under the truck. These are easily overcome with a base and handle extensions. I always carry coveralls with me off road in case I have to go under the truck anyway. grenading U-joints is pretty common. Racing trucks frequently use either air jacks or scissor jacks with provisions for using an impact wrench to actuate them.
I’ve never had any issues using either, they take up a lot less space and are faster to deploy and use. I never used my Hi-lift in the field. Again, I think there are uses for a Hi-lift like leveraging vehicles off of rocks. I just think the main thing they’re marketed for and that people carry them for, is the thing they’re actually worst at and for which there are far more convenient and safer alternatives.
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