Using my Hi Lift Jack as a Winch

[sae70]

Following my winch installation I decided that I no longer required my dedicated Hi-Lift winch kit

So on the eBay it went and sold fairly well making about £50

I spent plenty of time playing with it in different configurations and there's no doubt in my mind that there's a place for a Hi-Lift as a winch, but I'm not convinced that one needs the Hi-Lift winch kit to make it one as nice as it is to have another bit of kit

Then, when Ben fell off the road we needed to put some side ways load on his truck and the Hi-Lift was the tool for the job. Luckily I'd kept my towing chain with clevis hooks either end even though I'd cut it down in length from four meters to two in another of my weight shedding exercises. The chain is pretty essential for taking up the largest part of the slack in the straps, but because I'd sold my Hi-Lift winching kit we didn't really have an elegant way of attaching the rigging to the the Hi-Lifts shoe! Hence having to strap the Hi-Lift to the chain once we had taken up as much strain as we required, just in case the chain slipped from off of the shoe.

The clevis chain was also very useful for easily and quickly taking up the slack in the safety strap as we winched Bens truck back up onto the flat.

After returning home and stowing all the gear away I popped round to see my m8 Pete at his steel fabrication workshop to chew the fat over the weekend away and to see if we could find a more suitable solution to attaching the chain to the jacks shoe when using it for winching. Pete suggested using my Hi-Lift lift M8 as it's some thing that I carry anyway

So I had a play and it seemed like a good plan should I require the use of my Hi-Lift as a winch ever again

A couple of days later Giles came around for a cupa and to show me his newly created center console We got to chatting about what Pete had suggested and agreed that it was a great solution, but I could tell he had a glint in his eye as he was pouring over my Lift M8!!!

A couple of days after this Giles dropped the little beauty that he'd made for me around

He's a good m8 It's lovely

I drilled the hole at the top of my Hi-Lift's bar out to 20mm to accept the pin of a larger bow shackle and now have a pretty sexy looking Hi-Lift winching system again Should I ever need one

And because I cut my chain in half down to two meters there's room in the chain box for the G-Adapter and two Bow shackles to be ready and waiting for use

I left the adapter with Pete for a couple of days and he got it Galvanized for me to boot

Can't wait to get it out in anger now

 

[warrenpfo]

Having had some good experiance with chain what have you found to be the best compination when it comes to length and hooks or hoops on the end. I need to add a length or lengths of chain to my recovery gear and welcome your input.

P.s I was bidding on your Hi lift Kit on eBay but was not around when it sold.

 

[Ben]

Top work Steven, and Giles's creation looks spot on.

During that recovery of my truck, the only other tool for the job would have been a tirfor, but anyone who's used one will know how heavy they are.

Where as we all carry high lift jacks anyway for changing wheels should we get a flat, so it makes good sense to carry an adaptor like that and a bit of chain and then you can use it like a tirfor should the need arise.

Must get some chain for my recovery setup.

 

[sae70]

Having had some good experiance with chain what have you found to be the best compination when it comes to length and hooks or hoops on the end. I need to add a length or lengths of chain to my recovery gear and welcome your input

I guess it depends upon your use for the chain. My m8 Giles does a lot of dragging stuff about so keeps a couple of lengths of chain as its better for this than a strap or rope that would wear through very quickly. Some say that a chain is better than rope or strap for heavy recovery, but I've no experience of this myself and I am happy with my straps and 12000Lb Kinetic for this purpose. I originally bought my chain just for winching to take up the slack in the rig when using the Hi-Lift as a winch. So long as you have a good selection of different length straps I do think that all you need is the 2 meters of chain that I now have. As well as the chain I also have a 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 meter strap that I carry and by joining them together and folding them in half you can make up almost any distance that the total length of all of the straps will allow. For example a 2 meter strap is a 2 meter strap, but fold it in half and it's now a 1 meter strap, fold it in half again and it's now a 500mm strap and the same for the rest. That's why I feel that 2 meters of clevis hooked chain is ample for the type of use that I may put it too. Another excellent light weight way of gaining rigging length that we used when recovering Ben's truck was a couple of 15+ meter lengths of 10mm synthetic rope with a thimble on each end. Super, super light and can also be used to extend the electric/Hydraulic winch line length whilst in use even through a snatch block.

I bought my chain from off of Ebay, it was 4 meters long with a clevis hook on each end all in a little plastic box for around £20. The other 2 meters of chain is now in my shed with a quick release hook on either end that I'm sure will prove handy one day.

P.s I was bidding on your Hi lift Kit on eBay but was not around when it sold.

To be honest you had a lucky escape! The ORK kit is a lovely thing to own, but it's a lot of kit to be lugging around just to turn your Hi-Lift into a winch when you consider you also need the 4 meter chain to make it work! The only issue that you have without ORK kit is how to effectively attach the chain to your Hi-Lift shoe the one time that you may ever need to use it as a winch. I've got to say that the Lift M8 option that Pete came up with was a good'un as my Lift M8 has been used often for all kinds of situations and I wouldn't leave home without it and such is always in the truck and available to be attached to the jacks shoe.

 

[sae70]

Top work Steven, and Giles's creation looks spot on.

Cheers Ben I shall let Giles know

Must get some chain for my recovery setup.

Perhaps you and Warren could buy a chain between you and share it, 2 meters each and one Clevis hook