Farm Jack ( Hi-Lift )

[nissan_crawler]

I'm not sure if anyone has said this yet but these jacks have a very bad reputation and a good nickname to go with it.....

Widow Maker!!

The ridiculous instability of these jacks makes them not safe at all.

Sorry, I think this is BS. Yes, they CAN be dangerous, very dangerous. However, used wisely, they can be very safe, also. I've used them thousands of times, and have hurt myself once, due to my own stupidity.

The Hi-Lift is a jack...I always use a car stand to hold my car or truck up, when working on the car or truck....ALWAYS.

The Hi-Lift is a tool and like all tools, you need to read the manual and practice before using it.0.

Agreed, however, the hi-lift is not the jack to be using in a shop.

I try to avoid getting into situations where i need to use a hi-lift.

That said, Ill never own a 4x4 that doesnt have a hi-lift on board.

The one I have now Ive had for more than 10 years now, and it has saved my **** many times.

I think this says it best. You do not set out with the intention of using a hi-lift, you use a hi-lift when nothing else will work and you don't have a choice.

You don't buy it intending to use it in a shop.

I blew my thumb open and lost my fingernail using one. Why? I had my head up my ****, and got what I deserved. When jacking, if you must stabilize the jack, put your hand around the BACK side of it, do not put your hand between the jack and the handle. When the handle is most of the way down and your muddy hand slips off and the handle goes flying back up, any body part in the way WILL be disintegrated.

 

[bgott]

That, and when you take the load off the jacking mechanism drops like a stone. If you've never used one of these jacks before you need to find an old junk car to jack up and experiment with. That way you aren't tearing up anything valuable if ( when) the jack gets away from you.

 

[xroad]

OK, Thanks all for your wise comments and advise. You have successfully scared the cr@p out of me. I'll go find a hydraulic car jack.

Note that I never have any thought of sliding under the car held up by ANY jack. I always use jack stands, often two for reducdancy, and wheel chocks. The bit about the eye loss and cheek bone reconstruction convinced me.

The only jack of this type I have ever used was from a Dodge Dart, I think. It was a lot shorter than a Hi-Lift, and very cheesey.

 

[speed bump]

That, and when you take the load off the jacking mechanism drops like a stone. If you've never used one of these jacks before you need to find an old junk car to jack up and experiment with. That way you aren't tearing up anything valuable if ( when) the jack gets away from you.

There is something wrong with yours then, mine jacks exactly the same up or down.


To the op, if you really have your heart set on a mechanical jack try either a rail jack or a screw jack both are about as beefy as it gets when it comes to jacks.

 

[IDASHO]

That, and when you take the load off the jacking mechanism drops like a stone. If you've never used one of these jacks before you need to find an old junk car to jack up and experiment with. That way you aren't tearing up anything valuable if ( when) the jack gets away from you.

Any jack that drops like you say needs to be inspected, cleaned, and have the pins greased.

They are not designed to drop. They are designed to jack down, just like up, one notch at a time. Until there is no load on it, then if you pull up slightly, it will release and slide down.

I tear mine apart, clean, and re-grease every year. But it does not live a pampered life. It is bolted to the back of my truck, exposed to the elements 24/7

 

[MarkH]

The farm uses a fair number of them. It is correctly stated they jack up and down and need to be maintained.

Cross my fingers have used them since 1970 and have not had any injuries or even close calls. It is a combination of maintenance, taking cautious steps when using one, and not getting a cheap one. The mechanism does need to work and go up and down smoothly to prevent the safety issues mentioned. Also making sure you do not overload it. There are times two work better than one on heavy items.

Drag one out that has been sitting in the back of the pickup for two - three years and not watch what you are doing, accident waiting to happen. Hi - Lift has options that do make it safer to use in certain conditions. Consider them also.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I have a small hydraulic no name jack now. It is a pain the craw under the car to line up the jack to the right spot. Seems easier to put two hooks on the wheel.

You need a decent floor jack if you are looking for something to use for doing any kind of garage work on a car, even if only occasionally. Do some searches, there are numerous threads on floor jacks.

Bottle jacks and farm jacks have their places, but routine auto maintenance is not it.

Charles

 

[nissan_crawler]

There is something wrong with yours then, mine jacks exactly the same up or down.


To the op, if you really have your heart set on a mechanical jack try either a rail jack or a screw jack both are about as beefy as it gets when it comes to jacks.

I have NEVER seen a hi-lift jack, including new out of the box, that does what you say. We probably had 10 of them on the farm, I have 2, have seen numerous ones offroad, and have NEVER seen one that jacks down pin by pin with no load.

As he said, once the weight of the car is off, the jack mechanism will slide down to the bottom. Never have I seen one that you can jack down hole by hole with no weight on it.

 

[bgott]

They are not designed to drop. They are designed to jack down, just like up, one notch at a time. Until there is no load on it, then if you pull up slightly, it will release and slide down.

Exactly! You don't have to pull up much, either. You can also just push the handle up.

 

[xroad]

As he said, once the weight of the car is off, the jack mechanism will slide down to the bottom. Never have I seen one that you can jack down hole by hole with no weight on it.

As the original poster, that knows nothing about hi-lift jacks at the time ... and now I am an authority .... I can say I agree with nissan_crawler. Well, actually, I watch all the videos in YouTube on Hi-Lift jacks and many of them shows exactly that. As the vehicle is jack down, once the jack point, or what ever it is call, is lowered to a point where there is no more load on the jack, it just drops to the bottom. Maybe different jacks had different behavior?

 

[cortez]

If the high lift jack can be reconfigured to lower even with out a load I"m pretty sure you can get a patent for it. It would be very useful for all sorts of stuff.

I often times put in a steel pin (ground to the shape of the pick up holes) just below the lifting part as a saftey precaution.

I also never used the high lift for my vehicles but for bending fence posts and all sorts of exotic pushing and pulling that a general contractor does . I find it extremely unnerving on lowering the high lift as it seems to want to slide out with both pins unengaged.

 

[Mike83]

I bought the harbor freight model for maybe 40 dollars to pick up my shed so I could level it off. They jack about an inch per pump . I will agree they are very unstable but will pick up whatever there under .

I have no idea of the weight capacity but 1 jack with a 2x3 box steel 8 feet long picked up at least 30 feet of my 48 foot shed .

That is what I need one for. My shed is far smaller though! What did you stick under the shed to keep it level?

 

[Art From De Leon]

There is something wrong with yours then, mine jacks exactly the same up or down.


No, without a load you can pre-position the lip, so you don't have to jack it all the way up, or down. I usually just hold the handle and have some control over how fast it drops, or you can just lift it up to contact the part you want to put the lip under.

But, they are VERY unstable. Northers sells a bigger baseplate, that the jack sets in, but it is VERY expensive, and given the height of the jack, I doubt if it would help much.

 

[Tondeny]

I know it's an old thread, but maybe it will be a timely resurrection for someone

My background is Off-road. I'd never use a Hi-Lift in a garage for anything. Don't get me wrong, they're a wonderful tool, and very handy when in the field. But, I remember "Bumper-jacks" from when I was a kid. They killed a whole lot of people. Hi-Lifts aren't designed to be placed on cement and be stable. It's out of their design pervue. I'd have to think twice about it, and the stability of it's base.

When I'm in my garage and need to lift the Jeep, pickup or van up high, I use my collapsible HF two ton engine lift with chains adapted to lift from two points on the frame. Then I lift one end of the vehicle at a time, place the jack-stands and relieve the weight off the lift.

A forklift would be nice. I keep seeing 'em on Craigs List... and have been tempted, but as yet, never pulled the trigger.

Recently, my brother bought Torin Big Red 48″ like this https://mechanicguides.com/best-farm-jacks/ and he likes it. The Torin Big Red 48″ ratcheting off-road utility farm jack weighs in at only 30.1lbs and it can life 6,000lbs from 5.12” to 40”. So its an impressive piece of metal machinery.

This model conforms to ASME B30.1 standards, and it operates smoothly. It is used both vertically and horizontally and can be used for lifting, pulling, clamping, winching, and spreading.

The mechanism is really smooth, in fact, its one of the smoothest, we felt, so it competes with Hi-Lift.

 

[Rory Bellows]

Ancient thread but...

I use my high lift in the garage all the time. I use it to raise the front of my zero turn mower to clean the deck and change blades. It works great.

 

[finn]

They are a very useful but dangerous tool.

Highly unstable, have the uncanny ability for the handle to take a swing at your lower jaw and teeth at inoportune times, and the lifting mechanism drops like a rock unexpectedly, so make sure you wear hard shoes, preferably safety toe boots.

You will tip it over under load at some point, and it will attack your jaw and toes, so be forewarned and keep your wits about you.

They are also very useful off road, and for lifting buildings, but aren’t suitable for lifting modern passenger cars.

Stick with the HiLift brand, and avoid the knockoffs.

 

[jmarkwolf]

I bought a 36in variant for changing flats on my motorcycle trailer on the road.

I don't think they are any more dangerous than the bumper jacks that were included in every car in the old days. I dunno, maybe those were dangerous.

 

[The_Geologist]

I inherited one of the red Hi-Lift jacks from my dad (he was cleaning out the farm shop).

The biggest thing I have jacked up was a wooden deck for a friend. Their deck had settled significantly, and needed a new concrete pad underneath one of the supports. The jack had no issue lifting it back to the proper slope. I was impressed.

My dad and grandpa used them all the time when working on farm machinery. We were always warned never to be around the jack when it was in use...for good reason.

 

[HenryAZ]

Since I no longer own a 4x4, and don't off road anywhere that requires a 4x4, I kept my jack and now use it with a chain for pulling things out of the hard AZ desert ground, like fence posts, etc.

 

[Farmall 1066]

I don't like them, but there's always one in the back of my pickup.
A necessary evil. Nothing else will do what they do, but they are always looking for a way to kill you.
Learned this when I was about 15, changing a flat tire on a loaded hay rack. Handle wasn't pinned in, handle snapped up, and launched that handle up what seemed like 100' in the air. Up and over the hay rack, and stuck in the ground about 30' away.
If there's a better alternative, use it!

 

[crewchief888]

as mentioned, a hi lift jack has it's purpose, but i wouldnt use a one as an alternative to a floor jack.

a friend of mine blew a trailer tire coming back from a wheeling trip, and tried to jack up the trailer to change a tire....

it didnt go well, he caught the jack handle in the side of the head, tossed him about 20 feet down into a ditch. it took a while for him to be able to sit up on his own. he spent the rest of the night in the ER with a concussion.


luckily there were others around on a long stretch of road, not much traffic, and very few towns along the way.

i use mine for a lot of things, pulling up some 4x4 posts set in concrete, and straightening the bed of my truck after i had my s-10 blazer jump the front of the trailer, and land in the bed of the truck, while loading up after a wheeling trip.

i fabbed up jacking points for it on all 4 corners of the s-10

 

[NickTheGreat]

My dad almost lost his thumb to our Hi-lift growing up. He was trying to smack the clip to release it, and something happened and his thumb got stuck. Still looks a little funny, and that's been a good 20 or 25 years now.

 

[JR 42]

Glad he kept his thumb. I always use a boot to switch the mechanism when the jack's under load... while standing out of range of the handle and the load, and holding my breath.

 

[ttpete]

Those of us old enough to have grown up using bumper jacks understand how to deal with them better than those who haven't.

The most important rule when using one is to ALWAYS set the handbrake of the vehicle being lifted. Putting the vehicle in park or in gear will NOT lock the opposite rear wheel when the other side is lifted because of the differential in the rear axle.

 

[PMD1966]

Bought my Hi-Lift jack about 40 years ago. One of the first things I did was make a larger base plate for it. 18" X 18" and 1/4" thick. Makes it more stable.