We see this missing in many 4x4 vehicles… When all else fails and you are really in the muck up to your proverbial, you will want to know the value of the Hi-Lift jack…. Yep, before all the Taiwan and Indian knock-offs, the Hi-Lift jack was made in the U.S.A. I Have used them for decades… And none of the copies are as good as the ridgey-didge Yank one.. I thought you might like to know the reason they were invented as a “High-Lift jack”, and why they became so big, as some of you leave your vans and go off exploring as I do.. I have one for each Cruiser… And carried one in my F-350 when She was with me.. But we see few of them with the Boggers, and if you really get in a
BOG, you would miss it, so here goes:
Now, the invention came about in about the 60’s and this jack is a take-off of an old railroad pattern mechanical jack that you can see in museums.. Loggers, hunters, campers, Rangers, Game Wardens and the like were running high-lift suspensions on Dodge Power Wagons and Ford F250 and F350’s, would find themselves in the wet mud on tracks that were severely rutted out… Not all could afford or had winches, but most would carry the Hi-Lift Jack. When they bottomed out badly in a rut, the centre diff and axle would high centre in the middle like a big boat anchor. Sometimes they could not move even with 4x4.
NOTE: This is a very dangerous move, and let me stress this, if that bloody jack kicks out at you it can take your head off, so be careful and only pick a secure jacking point for the teeth of the jack. This is for those of you that find yourself in a position where you have no choice… Like hung up on a rock in a river, or a flat tyre in a mud
bog, or high centred on something, with a long walk out if you don’t get it off, OK? If you are in that spot by yourself, here is how you get out of the mess in deep ruts without a winch… The Hi-Lift is about a Metre tall, to allow you to jack up the truck high and push over jack and truck so it lands over nearly the height of the jack and it moves over out of the rut, or hole, or the high centre on a rock. Mind you when it gets tall it is hard to keep it from falling over anyway.. This is very dangerous, and you have to be sure it does not pop out at you, but it was common to do years ago and in a pinch it does work well. Let me stress again, this is a very dangerous proceedure, but if it saves you in a really remote setting and it is done carefully, it is worth it!! Here are some examples:
I have had a lot of occasions to use one here in Oz… They are even great changing a tyre in the mud so you don't have to crawl in the mud to set a smaller jack.. But it can get even more serious than that.. On one trip, we were tired and drove out into a field of high grass to a clearing to spend the night… I did not walk it first, did I .? Yea, dumb, but you do things like that when you are tired.. I ran up on a rock about 400mm or so high; hard enough to invert the 75 Series front leaf spring, and ended up hung up on the rock and could not get off in 4x4… Nice move, huh?? Call me “Swifty” ! Saved by the Hi-Lift jack again where normal jack would be next to useless..
Another time it got even more serious yet… And on the Hi-Lift would save the vehicle... In 1988 on my way up to go Buffalo hunting, we were off on a beach in the far North, looking for shells in a Troopcarrier. I drove out onto a bit of an underground stream you could not see, just wet sand.. And what happened? Yea!… And buried the Cruiser up to the running boards in something close to quicksand didn’t I...? And yes, you need to pay real attention to the tides up there… Out ran the winch, and we started pulling out little mangroves, and the winch was near on useless.. (I know, mangroves are protected. But in 1988 we looked out and saw that the tide was not a km away anymore. In that hour or so of being stuck it was only about a half km away, the mangroves might have been protected but they were not protected from me…Ha!) Out came the Hi-Lift jack to the rescue… We gathered up all the driftwood from all around and started to press it down in the muck with the Hi-Lift jack over and over until we had a reasonably hard base. This was repeated on each corner until we could lift the Cruiser wheel by wheel. Then we drug all the Mangroves over and stuffed them under each wheel and lowered the wheel down on a mix of mangrove and driftwood. By this time the tide was only a couple of hundred metres away and we realized our big mistake as we were well below the high tide mark! Lessons learned on the “Frontier” the hard way as you “discover” the BLOODY OBVIOUS, aye MATE!!
That was my first introduction to how big the tide changes were in the North.. Yeaa, I know, pay attention…! But, who wants to read all the local tourist manuals when you can go out and really get in a pickle… That is half the fun of going exploring is the adventures you get into.. Yea right, almost convinced myself… But there weren’t too many manuals on things in 1988 for the far north…
Mind you in sand or conditions like that, if you have your spare on the back, you can bury it perpendicular to the winch out about 30 Metres or so and winch to that… But it is a big hole to get it deep, and also not much chance of getting at your spare with your Tojo buried up to the running boards sitting on top of it, as most spares are slung underneath…
Anyway, the Hi-Lift jack saved us again… You can use it for all kinds of things in a pinch, a clamp, a crude winch, a high lifting jack in the muck, it is almost more important than a winch to me.. I even have a little piece that breaks the bead on tubeless tyres jacking up the Tojo with it on the bead… And if you have ever had a flat in deep mud, or hung up in water, you almost cannot use anything else…
Cheers, another “tall tale” from the “Lone Ranger” at
Bushtracker….
‘Struth’ too… I swear it!
