Got a Hi-Lift jack story?

Stumpalump

Expedition Leader
I posted this to a different site and thought I'd post it here to see if anybody had a Hi-lift horror story or even good stories of it saving the day.


" With the hi-lift exposed to the elements it's considered mandatory to have a WD-40 type lubricant handy. You need that mechanism working freely for safe operation and somtimes you need the WD-40 to get them to work at all. The next caution would be to be real carefull with the handle when lifting and especially lowering heavy loads like the vans. The handle gets away from people all the time and takes out teeth or worse. Get a good feel for how it reacts in your drivway before you need it on a hill, in the rain, at night with a flashlight in your mouth. Folks get sloppy the most when lowering the jack. It's easy to stoke it thru the lock and unlock part of the jacking but when it's midway thru the stroke you need full concentration to controll the weight of the rig on the handle. Like I said play with it in your drive way and even though I've used one many times I still put in some practice once in a while."
 

BIGdaddy

Expedition Leader
First!

Near the Ihop on Balboa in the middle of Clairemont, my MIL gives me a call saying she needs help. I asked what was wrong, and she told me that she was stuck in the parking lot.

"what?"

Yeah, she was stuck in the parking lot. I got there with my jeep and saw what she meant. Her double cab Sierra 1-ton pickup had its wheels up
in the air, having ground out the rear bumper on a concrete filled metal parking bollard. In her defense, it was in a random spot where it was protecting nothing (might have protected something in the past?) and she simply didn't see it.

Once I controlled my laughter, I grabbed my hi-lift and went to work. I stuck the lift bar in her hitch, and was able to lift it up and clear of the bollard fairly easily. Realize that I now had the whole rear end balanced by the front wheels on the hi-lift. I asked her to get in and release the brakes and slowly as the truck inched forward, I carefully jacked the load downward, allowing the tires to gently float to the ground.

nice!
 
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mhiscox

Expedition Leader
Saved the day story . . .

I was out in the spring in the Sprinter on what I thought was a fine day, so I'd left the winch at home. After nothing but clear roads, I got onto the north side of a mountain and skidded into three-plus feet of snow.

I had the good luck to have a tree that was (by about 6 inches) within reach of the tree saver/strap/chain/Hi-Lift/strap combination I put together, and was--very tediously, I must admit--able to use the Hi-Lift to pull the front far enough out of the drift that I could power out.
 

Chris85xlt

Adventurer
i once used my 60" long hi-lift to crab walk my Fullsize Bronco on 37" tires out from a rut. I raised the front as high as the jack can go then from the side of the truck i just pushed it over. I then did the same thing to the rear and i slowly walked the truck out
 

I Leak Oil

Expedition Leader
The most action my hi-lift has seen has been to lift the corners of my shed so I could fix the footings....For the 5 years before that it was bolted to the seat bulkhead of my truck and just rattled to no end.
 

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
we often use the highlift for moving vehicles..left to right..forward or back...just jack it up and giver a push..

I've used it to hold up garage door headders while I replace the support studs that I've torn free when not paying attention..

actually used it to JACK fence posts outta the ground..

jacked up a roof of a rolled truck enough to get the door shut so the driver could head home (everybody was ok)

released the beads on many tires by jacking against a vehicle with the base on the tire (laying on the ground)

jacked up playhouses to crib and load on trailers...oh..and a chicken coop too..

pried open old toolboxes with the rolltop style door..

jacked up the foundation in my new house while shimming the floors..

and damnear knocked myself out at LEAST half a dozen times...that handle is wicked...and mine is padded now...

OH...and I've used it for 10 years of 4x4in!
 

Fireman78

Expedition Leader
Best save the day story for me.. a buddy of mine I do forestry work with called me , stating had had thrown a track on his skid steer. (About twice or three times the size as a normal Bobcat). He was in a really bad spot, cause no other vehicles could get to him. It wasn't looking good. Showed up and we tried figuring out a plan onhow to use cables and winches and pulleys, ect, to make this elaborate set up to get the track back on. After deciding that it was getting to complicated, I grabbed my 60" HiLift and....well it worked! Took us only a few mins after well got the right spot on the track. What a great tool. Another quick story.. I was helping a buddy install a large bay window, but the OLD house had sagged quite a bit, so we used my HILift to lift the entire roof of the house about 2 inches while we installed the window and header. What a great tool.
 

ntsqd

Heretic Car Camper
Friend of mine & I were out seeing what trouble we could find in his 7500 lbs Scout II (no joke!). Eventually we had the front high centered on a big boulder and the tail-gate up against a berm. So out comes the Hi-Lift, gonna jack it up and push it sideways off the rock.
So-CA in the summer. Sun's out, we're in a dry river bed with no shade and it's about 90*
This Scout has some fairly long travel front springs. Yep, not even a 60" H-L indexed as low as we could go on the front of that Scout could lift the tire into the air. So we're jacking and pushing, trying to inch our way up and off the rock. Breaking out in a pretty good sweat.

We halt for a breather and I say "Ya know, if we took some chain and wrapped it around that rock over there to the left we could probably pull the Scout off this rock with the 12k MegaWinch...... "
:rolleyes:

Shortly after that my own H-L came out of the truck and hasn't gone back in.
 

jh504

Explorer
I saw one of my wife's friends on the side of the road the other day. She had a flat in her Kia and did not have a jack or lug wrench. I got her spare out and realized that it was just a tire.......no rim.
The car was too low to the ground to properly use a bottle jack. I used the hi lift about midway at her passengers door and it had just enough reach to make it to the "frame rail" without messing up her plastic. I took her flat tire and "spare tire" up to a shop and had them mount the spare on the flat's rim. Then with a little lecture about being prepared sent her on her way.
 

djrez4

Adventurer
I was riding my bike home from the grocery store in the snow this past December. About 4 blocks from the house, I ride past a Lincoln Towncar that has wedged itself between the street and a sloping driveway and can't move. I offered to go grab the jack and come back and the guys seemed excited for the help. So I ride home and come jogging back with the 60" HiLift over my shoulders like a yoke.

I couldn't get the jack under the rear bumper, so I tried to get it under the car directly in front of the rear wheel. I get the wheel up and ask the guys to push the car forward off the jack. One of them has a bad knee, so it ends up being me pushing on the jack and guiding it away from the car while one of the other guys pushes. We get the car to move about an inch before he mentions to me that the transmission won't go into gear! (Info that would have been useful YESTERDAY)

I lowered the car off the jack and wished them luck before heading home. Then I went to the neighborhood bar.
 

off-roader

Expedition Leader
Somewhere (i'll have to dig it up later) I have a pic of my rig having an entire rear end swap done on the trail... gravel road really (thank god).

Long story short...
1) Broke a rear trailing/control arm on the rubicon one year in my old 90 Montero.
2) In the process we 'theorize' it broke/weakened my rear axle housing.
3) The following year the axle housing gave way on the Slick Rock trail in the Sierra Nevada Mtn. Range.

Luckily It held together enough to complete the trail and finally collapsed on the dirt road at the end.

We jacked the rear up enough (Hi-Lift on my rock sliders) to remove the entire rear end and replace it.:Wow1:
 

Master-Pull

Supporting Sponsor
I rarely use my hi-lift anymore, it is inside the rear of my jeep and stored outside of the elements. But when it is used, generally it is to sleeve a bent stock tie rod.

-Alex
 

JIMBO

Expedition Leader
:sombrero: I still use mine ALL the TIME, tire rotation, flat repar, suspension work/ Bumpstop adj--

MULTI PURPOSE tool, very handy--gotta know how to use it !!

:victory::costumed-smiley-007 JIMBO
 

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