Club 80-90 Forums

What is the ideal jacking equipment for the below vehicles? Bottle or trolley jack?

The reason....

Since last April, together with numerous others', l've been volunteering for a charity taking used 4x4 trucks to Ukraine loaded with humanitarian aid.

https://www.ukrainianaction.com/

We transfer the loaded vehicle's to Ukrainian drivers to cross the border. Then we fly back to UK from a local airport.

The ideal vehicles are Nissan Navarra's, Mitsubushi L200's and Shogun 4x4's.

These vehicles are generally robust and are serviced before departing on the 1000 miles journey. But some do not have jacking equipment for wheel changing or punctures. We do take Tyre Weld. But it's not been that successful with heavy duty tyres.

The charity has given me the task of buying such jacking equipment including other stuff. So l need to spend their donations wisely.

So trolley or bottle jack? Bearing in mind these vehicle normally get pressed into military service once the humanitarian aid is distributed. So out in the the boonies a lot of the time.

Regards
Stuart

How about something like this...https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184580994383 ... d9fbac8edc

A good choice, Rob. Not sure on uneven ground though? It has to be numpty user friendly l guess. Some of the volunteer drivers' vehicle experiences are limited to Uber cabs

But it starts on the top of the list.

The Syncro folk use them and you can get a foot for them..https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184580994383 ... d9fbac8edc

Thanks. Will investigate.

Bottle jacks are intuitive to use and are small so easy to stow - but they need to be high lift capacity
Hi-lift jacks are a brilliant bit of kit and versatile in other recovery situations - but they are big, bulky and heavy - they are also quickly become bone breakers or skull crackers if you don't know how to use them safely - as said, they are unstable on slping terrain (but then so are most jacks)
Airbag jacks, light to carry, great when off road on mud/sand/uneven ground - will lift entire side of vehicle (as would farm jack) - easy to use but ideally needs two people for effective use or some sure fir way of fitting the cone to the exhaust whilst revving the engine during inflation

I sold my airbag jack as never used it and rarely take van off road - I have a Merc Sprinter bottle jack which does the job

Thanks for the information, Jim San.
Will add your advice to list.

Earlier Sprinter/vw crafter jacks are ok, there’s a few variants I believe with different capacities but all have the shaped saddle.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/22537581033 ... media=COPY

I also gave one of the later versions which has a flat adjustable saddle which I find easier to place.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23487136791 ... media=COPY

Thanks ash1293.
Bottle jacks seem to be more favourable than trolley jacks....

Ive got a 5T two stage bottle jack works well, Only thing I guess with them is you really need level ground otherwise the higher you jack it up the more it wants to move

ash1293 wrote: ↑29 Jan 2023, 21:02 Earlier Sprinter/vw crafter jacks are ok, there’s a few variants I believe with different capacities but all have the shaped saddle.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/22537581033 ... media=COPY

I also gave one of the later versions which has a flat adjustable saddle which I find easier to place.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23487136791 ... media=COPY

The top one is the one I have. I also keep 4 wooden slabs 7 x 7x 3/4" thick in case

If you’re looking for something to chuck into every vehicle as part of a kit, then I’d agree that the best thing would be a high-extension bottle jack. They’re simple to use, easily stored without taking up lots of space, and relatively cost effective. If you’re out in the sticks you just need to have a base made from something like a 10” square of double thickness ply to give you a decent footing.

Hi-lift jacks are great, and they can help with recovery of a stuck vehicle, but they come with a host of issues. Because you can’t place it underneath the truck it means you need a method of getting a decent connection from the jack to the outside of the vehicle. Syncronauts use a Landrover type adaptor which allows the jack to plug into the jacking points, but while there are also specific bumper or wheel adapters available to suit different vehicles, that means you'll also need to provide that vehicle specific adaptor for every truck. Hi-lifts are also pretty unforgiving of casual users - there are plenty of stories of people getting badly hurt by one because they didn't know how to use it safely. Lastly hi-lift jacks are heavy, cumbersome and more difficult to store.

Thanks to all.
General consensus are for using bottle jacks.
Will start looking around for 5 tonnes plus types. That will cover donated ambulances too.

I have narrowed it down to this one. SGS seem fairly good quality and has extra height compared to similarly priced bottle jacks.

What do you think?

Each one will get a 250mm sq piece of scaffold plank for the base.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195451366606