JC's Unlimited

Hey Everyone,
I’m curious to see how you all are using your bottle jack on the trails or in your driveway. I only use my bottle jack on the trails but am looking to see if anyone is doing anything unique with safe usage with their jacks on the trail. Looking for pics or comments of trail or driveway use of bottle jack and what you do to keep it sturdy.

I have always been a little nervous whenever I use my bottle jack. Common thoughts that run through my mind are: 1) Is the ground too soggy or unstable? 2) Will the jack slip off the mounting point or tip over? 3) Was my jeep going to come down on top of me as soon as I got the flat tire removed? 4) Was the jack going to reach my lifting point or would I have to stack it on rocks or blocks, further increasing the “slip or tip over factor”?

I’ve seen my fair share of jack fails…stock scissor jack, hi-lift, and bottle jack. In my opinion, many of these fails are operator error but many are also due to lack of stability at the base of these jacks and also on the lifting points.

I had been searching the internet for something that could be added to my bottle jack, to reduce the risk factor mentioned above. I was done relying on something that had the diameter of a 50 cent piece on one end and the area of my wallet as the base on the other end, to keep my 4000lb+ jeep in the air while I was removing a wheel. After a number of hours of online searching, I found the coolest product ever…a jack cradle that slides right on top of the bottle jack with a surface area to cradle the axle or frame rail (think of an attachment that slightly resembles the letter U.)

Jackpot! I just hit the mother-load with this find. I couldn’t believe it. Finally, someone had spent time engineering and developing a product that just took my bottle jack off the “Widow Maker” list. 

SafeJacks.com was the company web site I landed on. I saw that they had a variety of attachments for different sizes of bottle jacks and for a variety of needs. Not only did they have this cradle attachment but they also had ram extensions and a base plate. The extensions are used to reach those higher lifting points. The base plate is used to improve the jack stability and spread the load being lifted.

After a quick call with a member of the Safe Jack team, I had the products I needed to enhance my bottle jack. When I first received them, I tried them out in my driveway. I used my 12 ton Harbor Freight bottle jack and was happy to see that the attachments fit perfectly. The base plate connection to the jack was fast and I easily lifted the jeep, with the cradle attachment. I gave it a good rocking for 15 seconds. I couldn’t shake the jeep off the bottle jack. #impressive

A few days later, I hit the unpaved roads and used the jack in a super soggy field where it had rained for the past couple of days. Instantly I saw an additional benefit to the base plate. Not only does it make the jack stable but it spread the load that was being lifted and didn’t push the jack down into the soggy ground. It just started raising the jeep in the air. Again, I shook the jeep vigorously and could not tip the jack over or shake the jeep off the cradle. At 6’8” and 275 lbs, I have pretty good shaking power. I really tried to rock that sucker off the jack. I was not successful.

The base plate measures 18” long by 8” wide. For storage, my bottle jack bag sits right on top of it and it doesn’t take up too much space in my cargo area. The cradle and extension attachments all fit inside the same bag with the jack.

The quality of their products is superb…A+. Their staff was super friendly and very helpful. The products are compact and fit into the jack bag, allowing me to maximize space. I no longer have the anxiety I once did about the jeep sliding off the jack while changing my tires on the trails or helping someone else who is changing theirs. This by far is the safest way, that I have seen, to use a bottle jack. I’m looking forward to seeing what you all do to improve the safety of your bottle jack. I highly recommend that you check out safejacks.com and see all the things they offer for bottle jacks and hi-lift jacks. I’m confident you’ll be just as impressed as I was.

Happy Wheeling and Stay Safe out There!

jedg

Wow... they sure are proud of their products. I made mine for under $10 plus the cost of the 12T jack. I use the adapter with a piece of 2x12x12.

resharp001

Was thinking the same thing.

Nice write up. I can see how those items would make an incredible difference. I had some sticker shock when I went to the website to look em up. One of those things where it's hard to put a price tag on safety, but dang.....

JC's Unlimited

Hey Jedg,
looks like you got the right tools for the job. #jealous I love it when people are able to accomplish great DIY projects!

i'm assuming you used a plasma cutter and a welder. under $10...not bad at all.

unfortunately, I don't have the tools or skill for what you were able to accomplish :(. I'm sure a plasma cutter and welder would have broke the bank on my budget for this stuff. :-)

The equivalent part to what you fabbed is only $29...so if you spent $10 on material and took an hour to make it, that's gotta be worth at least $19/ hour in labor (you're prob worth more than that though LOL) ...maybe the price of their cradle isn't too far off on the price of what you put together.

now the baseplate...ya, it's pricey but again, I don't have the tools to cut the sheet metal, bend it, and give it al the nice round edges and integrated handles. ;-) it has an integrated quick release lever that allows the bottle jack to be locked in and slid out in seconds.

how are you mounting your jack on to the steel plate you made? sounds like your plate is nice and compact.

thanks for sharing...cool stuff!

JC's Unlimited

Hey Resharp001,
Thanks for your thoughts. The base plate gave me some shock when I saw it too. but like you said, the safety aspect was what I had on my mind. The cradle piece...I thought it was a reasonable price. $29 for that piece and it fits right on my jack (actually I bought an adapter for the cradle cuz it's sized for an 8 ton jack and smaller and i stepped up to a 12 ton jack which has the larger pad diameter) I've spent more money on bad lunches during the week than I did on the cradle piece, so I was cool with that.

the baseplate...that's like buying the $35 A pillar light mounts...it's just bent steel, why does bent steel cost so much? Perhaps it's labor intensive. i'm guessing here... i'm in no way educated in the fabricating industry and what true costs are to make something like that.

jedg

No plasma cutter. A reciprocating saw and a Lincoln welder from Lowes (which is has been used for bunches of stuff).

That said, the $10 worth of steel actually got me 1 foot of DOM and 1 foot of C channel and I made 4 of these adapters (gave the other three to friends).

I think they have a good idea, but I don't see their 12 ton bottle jack 'kit' being worth $279.

JC's Unlimited

I need a welder....that is a lot of material for $10...you're friends should buy you lunch and dinner. :-)

resharp001

Man, I'm right there with you! I've watch so many videos on learning how to weld. It is one skill I desperately wish I had. Few years back I would have dropped $1k+ on getting set up with equipment and what not just to play around and see if I could figure things out. These days the budget doesn't allow for that kind of experimentation without some justification of being able to get a significant amount of use out of a purchase.

jedg

pshhh... no need to drop that kind of coin initially. I started with a Harbor Freight flux wire welder and then moved to a cheap Lincoln from Lowes... they certainly won't do what the really nice ones will, but they give you the experience to know if you want to invest further. I use the Lincoln I have and it works great for light welding.

Honestly, the Harbor Freight isn't a bad welder and it's good to start with because it's like $100. (the trick is to use Lincoln flux wire in it) The HB welder is still working, though I moved to the Lincoln.

kevinlee

I use one of these. Got it for 35$ at tractor supply. Actually have 4 it make tire rotations easy.