hi lift jack

A hi lift jack can be used in a bunch of situations.
1) Tire change - if you have steel/square front/rear bumpers then you can use it to raise a wheel and change tires as you normally would only you mount the jack under the bumber as opposed to the chassis.

2) Recovery
option a) winch substitute - attach strap to vehicle recovery point. attach strap to base of jack. attach chain to other end of jack. attach other end of chain to recovery point (if a tree use a tree protector). Set the jack in reverse with the jacking point at the top of the jack. Be sure to take up as much slack as possible in the setup. Crank jack to bring chain end closer to strap end hence moving 4wd out of bog hole. Remember to release your parking break or you might bring the whole tree down (my girlfriend can tell you a story about this....). This process will result in moving your vehicle about 4 inches to a couple of feet depending on how stuck you are and how much slack you are able to get rid of. It is very tedious but it works. I've used it to move my 4wd up a hill to enable a clutch start with a dead battery. In this situation you would be screwed with an electric winch (although a hand winch is probably better).
option b) create more ground clearance - you can also use the jack to lift your vehicly off stuck rocks etc. after bottoming out to assist a winching or 2nd vehicle snatch strap recovery. The idea here is to get the dead mass of the vehicle off the rock/log/etc to enable it to be pulled out. This can be kind of risky so I won't say any more than that and leave it to the pros to fill in details.

I could possible imagine many other uses for a high lift jack but that should get you started.

Hi Robert, get someone to show you how to use a highlift jack properly before you start playing with it because they can bite you big time and damage your vehicle. I carry 4 jacks in my vehicle, 1 the original wind up contraption thtat Toyota in thier wisdom made too tall to fit under the axle housing on a sealed road, 2 A good quality hydraulic bottle jack 3 An exhaust jack that I personally regard as a bit of a gimmick, impossible to use on anything but a flat surface or the vehicle slides off it. 4 My hi lift jack. In 95% of my jacking situations I go staight to my hydraulic bottle jack and jacking plates and if I were not training I would not bother to carry anything else. Chees RobCairns Offroad Training & Tours

If you put the high-lift under the body or bumper - the wheel will not start to move until all the suspension travel has been taken up which
can be alot.

Far better to jack the wheel directly (and then fill in the hole with
rocks). For this you need an adaptor that fits around the hub and
then you insert the high-lift into this. This is available for some 4wd's
from 'all good 4x4 stores'.

Some vehicles cannot have this done - depending on your hubs.
I was trying to figure out a way of getting the jack into the cut-outs
of my 80 series steel wheels - maybe an adaptor is available - but
I have not found one yet!

I agree with comments about air bag. I never had much success &
prefer a high-lift/hydraulic & good jacking plate any day!

Rob

If you where realy keen you could set up a chain that wraps around the diff and hooks onto the chassis, this would remove the need to jack the suspension travel.

I have not done this but sounds like a good idea!

Nobody's said it so I will.

The best thing about a hilift is that it's FAST, real FAST. No messing about, no getting underneath not even a knee in the dirt.

When you've got a zillion flies, it's 42 'C, you're late to town and your 1 yr old is screaming to get his flynet off, that hilift is the best thing you'll ever likely see. 5 mins no bulldust!

good info below
http://www.j8g.co.uk/landy/hilift/index.html
http://www.hi-lift.com/
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Recovery/