jacks

A bit unclear what you want the jack to do
a. Normal duties (change tyres and such)-Hydraulic Jack
b. Recovery -Exhaust Jack so long as the surface you lift on is smooth and free of sharp objects
Couple of options

Use the search function on this forum for scissor jacks or similar title.

You may find a thread from earlier this week - such as this one : 109424.

;-)

RM

There are a lot of people who believe high lift jacks are neither use nor ornament...I would not go that far.

But they are of little use if you do not have bar work....and they are a bit on the dangerous side.....the instructions from the genuine hi lift jack, gives a number of warnings and says not to use them for changing tyres.

Any decent jack of a variety of types can be usefull for both changing tyres and recoveries.

Mostly jacks that come with vehicles are the munimum required to change a tyre on flat level ground and not necessarily the best or fastest.

There are better quality higher rated scissor jacks arround...there are also scissor jacks with electric motors available.
I have not seen many but there are a few...um less conventional screw operated jacks....that have advantages over the scissor jack

There is a very good variety of hydraulic jacks of the bottle type.....big ones small ones, some as big as your head,( for those old enough that was a quote from "I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts) fat ones, skinny ones, tall ones, short ones...some with wheeled plates and extended handles.

If ya don't like pumping....they are available as air over hydraulic if you have a good air supply on board.

There are some pretty compact and reasonably light trolly jacks about...but they are usless on other than smooth flat surfaces.

realy for my money it would be a hydraulic bottle jack.

AND don't forget to get ya self a jacking plate to go under it on soft ground.

I got a 300mm square 10mm thick steel plate from my local steel shop.....I told em what it was for...so they had a pile cut up.....and they seem to be shifting them.

AND yes I have used it to cook my breakfast when I left my fry pan at home.

cheers

http://www.kcimports.com.au/ This company is good to deal with they have distributers all over the country you can buy from so you can actually see the product before buying. I have one of their ezy wrenches which I've had for several yrs and is a great product they also have 1 ton and 2 ton electric scissor jacks.

Barry, what model Ranger do you have ?
I'm surprised it has a scissor jack supplied, PJ / PK have a bottle jack, not sure what PX model has been issued.

I see a lot of people rig up a cordless impact driver to use on scissor jacks.

As mentioned above, your use / needs are not stated, but my gut says you just want to use it to change a wheel, or pack under a rut under a wheel etc.

I like scissor jacks, but feel a bottle jack is probably safer and more stable in a lot of circumstances off road.
You should make sure you have a good jacking plate for soft bases, and also a few wood blocks to pack under to get to right starting height.

I'm looking too. When I had a flat on a dirt road I had to build a ramp of rocks and drive the flat tyre up on it to get the vehicle high enough to get the jack under the vehicle. I'm getting a bit long in the tooth to be getting down on the ground to put a jack under the axle. So what I need is a jack that is low enough to get under a vehicle when a tyre is flat and then have a long extension to lift the vehicle high enough to change the wheel. Maybe a multi stage ram, if such is available. A trolley jack would probably work but how do they handle soft surfaces?

I have had some difficulty in getting a jack low enough to get under the axle or wherever yet with enough lift to get the wheel off the ground.
After searching I found and bought a two stage telescopic jack, one of these.
Thankfully, have not needed to use it yet but a try-out was OK.

G`day Barry,
I bought a 3 stage (2 rams + 1 screw section) that is fairly squat at the local Sunday market for about $40 I think. China made.
I use a couple of pieces of the 13 ply structural timber for jacking plates, also for under the jockey wheel and van legs.
I no longer scratch and scrape to get the jack under, it took me about 50 years to wake up to an easy way.
I now lay the spare in front or behind the flat wheel/tyre and drive up onto it, the jack now fits under easily, jack up the flat, pull out the spare, take off the flat and replace with spare .............. Bingo easy.

Scrubby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eftsaQXEN2s One of these would be good for a trailer.