Real World Hi-Lift Jack use

Has anyone actually used their Hi-Lift jack in a real world situation? I would like to hear about specifics on how you used it and how well it performed.

I’m asking bc I was watching a video that confirmed my suspicions that a Hi-Lift would have a very difficult time lifting a vehicle without body armor. They simply don’t have the reach to get under the frame. The one area that was noted as a possibility was the receiver.

Hi-Lifts can also be used to winch a stuck vehicle, but it would take hours - and that’s assuming you have an anchor point. If you’ve used a Hi-lift as a winch please share your story.

 

i just use a bottle jack, tbh i think people just carry them for the looks, theyre dangerous aswell

 

I used mine as a winch to pull out my old Suburban once, many years ago. It sucked, but it worked.
I have also used it to pull posts, many times. Works great for that.
If you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere with no other options, you have the rest of your life to make it work.

 

Moderators? Can this thread be removed? I posted it in a more appropriate area.

 

You can link the new thread in a post here for the time being. Make sure you tag a mod or two in your request, so they see it.

Edit: found it
Real world Hi-lift situations | Tacoma World

 

Once upon a time, about a dozen 9r so years ago, I actually saw Fred, a guy that came to my rescue after I posted 9n a local Cummins group, use one.
He had a second gen Cummins that he wasn't too concerned about driving hard, and some wood scraps in his box.
I wouldn't know what to do about it now, but for what is worth, he seemed like the farm boy type.
My guess is he grew up watching people do it.

 

I used mine when I got the ubolts on my rear axle hung up on a stump and my buddy tried winching me but it was not moving. I ended up using the hi-lift on one side of the truck to jack it up and get the axle off the stump and then got winched off of it. I will second that you need body armor, I have

$84 Lotus Development Rock Slider Adapter w/Locking pin for Hi-Lift Jacks

an adapter that allows me to hook it onto my rock slider, without that I would have been screwed.

 

Yes you need sliders and steel bumpers to use the hi lift. I wouldn't go wheeling without one, I have use it to get me out of some very deep holes where my winch couldn't help me. I have jacked my truck up and gotten in and drove it off the jack to get me unwedged off trees a few times, and my favorite use for it:.

I bent my frame really bad wheeling and chained the middle part of my frame to the trailer and jacked the rear corner up and bent it back and drove it home (not my trailer a friend of mine who I was wheeling with). Super usefull as a tool offroad, kind of sucks and dangerous if you have to change a tire.

 

Wish I'd had one 3 years ago while high sided in my Tundra, bottle jack and boards took awhile but got out. Last year used mine a few times in the snow getting people unstuck with low vehicles. I used the tire strap, worked like a charm so I could get under to strap and pull. I wouldn't go without one now, especially in powdery stuff like snow or sand but always have a good base for that, I have a couple steel plates to give it a nice base. I now also have the rock slider adapter, Haven't gone out with it yet though but it would work for some situations I've put myself into haha.

 

About the only thing they're not useful for is jacking up a vehicle.

Winching? Typically you need to pull the vehicle less than 1 foot to get clear of an obstacle and drive out...that goes pretty quick. Pulling small trees/straightening things?...they work great.

Keep a scissor jack in the truck for lifting it.

 

In 10 years of wheeling, I've only actually used/needed one twice.

 

I've used mine on multiple occasions, once (before I had the winch installed) to get out of some very deep (touching the sliders) mud - I was able to find the bottom of the mud with a piece of 2x12 as a baseplate and jack the ends up high enough to pack brush underneath the wheels. This was at a place and time where getting help would have been an ordeal, to say the least.

I haven't needed it since I put the winch on, but there were plenty of times where the HiLift is what got me out. In fact, it was the mud incident that pushed me to pony up for the winch. I still keep it in the truck because (at least without some serious "creativity") a winch won't pick the truck up to change a tire or CV on the trail or roadside.

 

I carried a hi-lift jack on my Jeep for almost 20 years with close to 200 trips to the Rubicon and a number of other trails on top of that. I used it successfully 3 times but only once when a bottle jack would not have worked. The lone incident was a 50 lb rock sucked up into the reat fender above the tire. The hi-lift allowed the wheel to droop enough to remove the rock.

In my opinion, almost without fail, a bottle jack is more effective, easier to use and far safer than a hi-lift jack.

 

Used a hi-lift several times jacking up work trailers in the field to do maintenance. They can knock a tooth out, be careful.

 

I slid off a mtn road once and used a come-a-long and high lift to get back on the road. Didn’t have a good angle to pull from so I had to use the high lift to jack the rear of the truck off the ground at the rear bumper then push the truck sideways off the jack to turn the truck. Did that a few times until I had a good angle to come-a-long the truck back up on the road. I’ve also used the high lift to spread frame rails to get tranny cross members back in on some trucks. High lifts and come-a-longs are very useful tools if you know how to use them. If your just looking for a jack to change tires, there’s definitely better options.

 

This post should be a sticky. Cheers!

 

Calling it a jack is kind of a misnomer. It jacks things obviously but it’s use isn’t to jack your truck/jeep up to change a tire.
IE, think outside the box and there are plenty of practical and useless ways to use it.

If you don’t carry one I question your decision making simply for the sake of redundancy. It’s cheap insurance in case you break a winch line, eat up a power cable, etc.

Or, if the angle isn’t conducive to using the winch, need to move yourself side ways, etc.

 

This pretty much sums up the thread; its a "think outside the box" type emergency tool. Not the first pick for most any job, but will get the job done in many unique cases. Another outside the box use for a hi-lift is to use it for spreading purposes (ex: a rollover crash that caved in the cab of a vehicle - you may could use a hi lift to spread an opening as an emergent effort to extract the injured person). Obviously don't wanna go around just looking for these scenarios to justify having one, but in the hundreds of thousands of "what if" scenarios you may or may not encounter, it could pay for itself in one use. Or you may never encounter an instance where its needed and your carry an extra 50ish lbs for countless years.

 

Used mine today to break the tire beads to add balance beads.

 

I used it more for yard chores etc over the last 15 years. Finally got to use it on black friday last year.