Hi-Lift jack vs exhaust jack vs hand winch

[I Love My Landy!]

G'day everyone!

I would like to get myself some inexpensive recovery equipment for self recoveries. So what do people believe is the best piece of recovery equipment out of the following? A hi-lift jack, exhaust jack or hand winch?

Thank you!

Edward :)

Oh and i drive a 110 County.

[banjo]

Hi lift jack ,can be used as a winch aswell albeit slow but it does work...
So many uses for a hi lift.

[Blknight.aus]

tight call...

the hi lift gives you more options but they come with inherent dangers and tend to get sticky and jam at very inconvenient times.

the hand winch gives you a lot of options when it comes to recovery and encourages good driving technique. its also a lot more tolerant of neglect.

the exhaust bag jack is the fastest of the lot for lifting a vehicle. but only on flat ground and they are subject to blowing out, rolling under or leaking down from poor valving.

Provided you have a bit of brain one about you and are willing to look after your gear a highlift jack with a decent base plate, pair of drag chains and a set of rated shackles is hard to go past.

[yt110]

I'd go the hand winch,isn't the standard county jack as good as a high lift?

[big guy]

Highlift jack looks like one rigged piece of equipment strapped to the front of any rig.
I do often wonder when I see one on a new vehicle with absolutely no fixing points for it.
I used one once and yes it was great, thanks for that to an old member on here.
I carry 2 snatch straps and an airjack, found them less of a heavy tool to secure and my personnal preference.
Itried tirfor handwinches too but it just took so long and slow. I literally watch the sun set and rise.

Airbag i pump up, fill bogs and lift next wheel and keep going till done and that just chuck on roof rack or in back. I like it, been reliable and keeping in mind though you have to have an engine running, be it yours or a mates.:)

[MacMan]

I've never used our hand winch to recover a vehicle, but it has pulled out tree stumps and moved tons of rocks around the garden! :D

Very handy tool to have for the active gardener.

[PhilipA]

Maxtrax now would be my choice particularly if you do sand work . There is a cheap version which is just hessian bags that you fill with dirt for $30-40.
Unless you have a Defender with jacking points and a mount I would avoid a high lift. They are so heavy and very few modern cars have anywhere to lift without doing damage. And do not put one inside unless you have a very substaial mounting point. They would kill you in a crash.

I have used a bull bag often and never punctured my 20 year old one. It is a great "second method" in really severe stucks where a winch will not move a car. I have only had rolling out problems in deep mud where the sill is on the ground.
I now have a portable 5000Lb electric winch, a bull bag and Maxtracks.

Regards Philip A

[weeds]

hand winch.....not that i have one but if i didn't have twin locker and a pto winch a hand winch would be my pick

i have carried a highlift around for five years and never used it

[Michael2]

Maxtrax now would be my choice particularly if you do sand work . There is a cheap version which is just hessian bags that you fill with dirt for $30-40.
Unless you have a Defender with jacking points and a mount I would avoid a high lift. They are so heavy and very few modern cars have anywhere to lift without doing damage. And do not put one inside unless you have a very substaial mounting point. They would kill you in a crash.

I have used a bull bag often and never punctured my 20 year old one. It is a great "second method" in really severe stucks where a winch will not move a car. I have only had rolling out problems in deep mud where the sill is on the ground.
I now have a portable 5000Lb electric winch, a bull bag and Maxtracks.

Regards Philip A

I agree with Philip, I've used them all, and I reckon a shovel and some tracks would be the most versatile option. Unless you tip the car over, then a hand winch.

[Tank]

A hand winch (Tirfor) used with a snatch block attached to the bogged vehicle will halve the effort required to winch and can be used to pull or lift in all directions, get the 1/2"/13mm cable size recommended, Regards Frank.

[Blknight.aus]

I should point out, in fairness...

I have 2 of each of the items you've asked about.

IVe never had to use any of them on my own vehicle.

The jack gets a workout mainly changing trailer tyres or doing the initial lift of a vehcile thats blown one and cant get the jack under the body work to lift on the chassis.

The tirfor has been used as a gardening implement and strainer when setting up to cut trees down.

The exhaust jack has been used once and it was in a situation like the vehicle in the "morons with snatchstraps thread. We dug out the soub as best we could then inflated the bag, dug out some more and put the second bag under inflated it, removed the first and dug out some more to get it in furhter... rinse repeat on each side till we had the vehicle sitting up on some decent logs to make a track nd winch it out.

I carried all 3 to the cape and the compressor and 8t hydraulic jack did the most work outside of the usual tool box tools.

[I Love My Landy!]

Thank you everyone for your replies! All of your opinions have been considered :)

So with 4 votes the winner is the hand winch, with 2 votes each going for the Hi-Lift jack, exhaust jack and Maxtrax. However after reading some of these replies I am leaning towards the Hi-Lift jack as it has a variety of uses (as opposed to the exhaust jack) and I can use it to winch the truck if I really needed to (albeit not as well as a hand winch). I also have a suitable bull bar for it and will soon have suitable rear bar-work for it too. I like the Maxtrax and agree that they would be very useful, but they are very expensive for what are essentially a couple pieces of plastic. I might just make my own up.

If I do go for the Hi-Lift jack would I be correct in saying that the best model to go for would be the tall one (156.9cm overall height, 126.4cm lift height at the nose) as opposed to the short one (128.9cm overall height, 98.1cm lift height at the nose) as it would be better for winching? (The size of the jack is not a limiting factor in terms of storage on the truck as i will be making a mount for it the roof rack).

Thank you all again!

Edward :)

[Blknight.aus]

yep, the tall ones the more usefull of the two.

however... if you are planning on have you considered

1. its heavy ask yourself it you really want to lift it up and down after a couple of recoveries.

2. it'll be muddy and messy if you get a little rain most of this will wash down onto your roof and gutters and typically over into the tops of the doors down the windows and this is worse if you've been regularly oiling it.

3. if you put the highlift, support plates, and other gear up there you can wind up going over the rated weight for the rack, the recommended weight for the top of a rover INCLUDES the weight of the rack work itself.

I myself am a big fan of making up a mount for it that sits onto the rear cross member or putting it down behind the front bar work hell even on top of the front barwork. If you do the rear cross member setup right you can also unmount the jack and then use the base plate for the highlift as a step so you can see up onto the rackwork on top.

[I Love My Landy!]

Some good points there Blknight.aus, thanks! :)

Yeah i know putting it on the roof rack may be a pain, but i'm a little stuck for areas to put it considering that the back of my 110 is already taken up with a tow bar that sits out from the crossmember, ladder, jerry can holder and lights (semi-truck style) which sit about 12cm out from the body. I also don't really want to put it on the bull bar as i don't want to furthur reduce air flow into the radiator.

I will think about places to put it a bit more though.

Cheers!

Edward :)

[harry]

the hand winch and the maxtrack won't lift the car.
most situations need to lift it to change a tyre or other suspension problem.
exhaust jack takes up too much space in the car, and is useless if the engine ain't running.
hand winch, isn't going to be used that often, is a bugger to use and costs heaps.
buy the high lift, it is the cheapest, most useful piece of equipment you can have, it jacks the car from six inches to about two feet, can be used for winching, yep it is slow, but when winching, usually all the hurry to get somewhere is gone, it's cheap, it lasts- not made of rubber or something else that deteriorates and might be rooted when you need it [exhaust jack]
and you can sell it on ebay when you have no use for it after ten years of not needing it for what you paid for it.

look up philco on here, he sells highlifts, might be cheaper for you, depending on where you are.

[camel_landy]

In order of preference:


Hi-Lift
Hand Winch
Air jack

M

[VladTepes]

Look at my latest Fraser Trip report and tell me if you think an exhaust jack is any use.....

[Fish78]

Get a Hi-Lift and an Exhaust jack..both are useful, but if you can only get one, get the Hi-lift and a bit of wood, off cut of 6x2 hardwood 2-3ft in length is ideal, i used to carry two pieces, Maxtrax are good but they cant take the weight of a vehicle and most times you'll need to put weight on them.

Hi-Lift is essential in my opinion, Exhaust jacks are very handy and can save a lot of time in mud, sand etc, there is a Cape York trip thread in the trip reports, poor guy was bogged in a Disco on a beach, self recovery took all day i think it said (12hrs!) with an Exhaust Jack it could have been less than 1hr, if use correctly.

I picked up a new Exhaust jack today for $99 from Supercheap, plus 2 cheap carpet mats aprox $20 to use as bag protection. i doubt ill use it very often but its good to know i have it.