Mounting the jack
to my rig brought on some pretty heavy discussion on the Toyota SUV forum
I use.
After much thinking,
and a cool link to a place that sells Land Cruiser gear, I opted to mount
my Hi-Lift to the top of my Yakima Cross bars for my rack.
The outfit that
sells the brackets I bought is Slee Off Road, and here is their website.
Here is the direct
URL to the product.
Slee's mount should
fit the Thule square cross bars also if you use the
new Yakima Snap Arounds.
I am very pleased
with the quality of the brackets, and I believe they will do a great job
holding the jack up on my roof safely.
The bolts for the
brackets actually go through the holes in the Hi-Lift making it even more
secure.
Before you use one of these jacks, please read the manual thoroughly. They can be very dangerous if not used carefully.
)
)
)
Later I added two brass padlocks (to prevent
any rusting) with a shank sized at 3/16th.
I had to drill a 7/32nd hole in
the bolt on the Slee mount in order for the padlock to fit better and rotate.
3/16th was to tight.
This works perfect on Yakima or Thule crossbars if you want to carry it on the roof like I am right now.
)
)
I ran across a very
good article from a local 4WD shop in WA. state.
They have a good
one
by Bill Burke on using the Hi-Lift jack.
If you don't know
who Bill Burke is, head on over to his site.
He has lots of good
articles.
Other mounting methods for
putting a Hi-Lift on your rig.
Check out Man A Fre's website. They have these bumper mounts that can be
added to your front bumper.
Look under the Winch/Recovery section.
Yakima has now come out with a Hi-Lift mount
also that will bolt to the sides of the rack on either side.
If I did not already have my Slee mount,
I'd probably try this one out.
Hi-Lift
Test
I am happy to report
that the sliderz passed the Hi-Lift test with ease.
There was a little
flexing of the slider upwards which is perfectly normal when lifting several
thousand lb of SUV.
Below are a few
pictures. These were taken when I first got the sliderz and had the stock
paint on them.
Another useful item
for jacking up your rig in the front with your Hi-Lift is the ARB adapter
available from most shops that can get your ARB gear, and from Slee Off
Road.
I have this item
and I can attest that it does work great.
)
What I did was use some Yakima SnapArounds
that are available from REI. These snap around the Yakima crossbars, and
even on the Thule brand square cross bars.
I modified them by using longer 4" bolts
sized at .25". I also bought some lock washers and used the stock Yakima
plastic wing nuts that tighten down their accessories that mount to most
racks.
)
After I secured the
SnapArounds to the crossbars, I drilled two .25" holes in to the handle
of my shovel. Drilling in to it does not weaken it enough to be of any
concern to me.
After the holes
were drilled, I lined up the shovel and pushed them onto the 4" long carriage
bolts, then tightened the SnapArounds down further with the hardware.
I then took the plastic
wing nuts from Yakima and put them on the bolts, then tightened them down.
What I ended up
with is a nice and tight way to secure the shovel to my rack.
The SnapArounds
can be rotated to if I want to angle my shovel up into the air at all.
Below are a few pictures of the installation.
)
)
)
)
The setup turned out real nice and was
a cheap easy fix to haul the shovel.
Below are a few pictures of the lamp brackets.
With the lights originally up high:
)
)
Now with the lights mounted lower. They look a lot better this way:
)
)
I ended up buying
a genuine WWII type jerry can from Generator
Joe.
It's an exact duplicate
of the famous jerry cans the German's used, and the cans caught on very
fast.
Here is a good article
on them.
Also ordered was
the flexible V type spout.
I ordered the jerry can, and in the mean time I picked up a jerry can mount from Central 4WD. It's the same mount as this site carries.
I used stainless
steel 2" bolts x 1/4" for the top two bolts you can see in the mount.
I drilled two 1/4"
holes right into the top bar on my Load warrior.
I used ZIP ties
on the bottom of the floor of the mount and wrapped them around one of
the lower big bars of the rack.
It turned out real
good, and it very secure.
I also used some
plastic wing nut things from Yakima like I have on my shovel mount instead
of using nuts to secure the 1/4" bolts. They also have washers both sides,
and lock washers on the outside for safety so they won't loosen up.
Below are some pictures of the installation.
)
)
)
)
Here are a few full size pictures with all of the gear now on top.
I choose to put this mount on the drivers
side as I already have the Hi-Lift and shovel mount on the passenger side.
This is a really nice constructed piece
of work.
All pieces are powder coated, and stainless
steel hardware is used to prevent rusting.
The ax fits in there real tight, and won't
be falling out.
Yakima recommends in their instructions
to carry it with the blade pointing upwards.
)
)