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NEVER, EVER, EVER have your head or other body parts directly over the handle of the
jack (other than your hand, obviously).  Broken heads, jaws, arms, etc are all very
common with improper use of a highlift.

NEVER get under the rig with a highlift holding it up.  Make sure there is another
jack, and some sort of block so that if it falls it will not crush you.

Keep your jack well lubed (white lithium works wonders on it)...or its not going to
work when you need it to.

Be very careful when using the jack.

When used carefully they can be a wonderfully usefull tool ... for getting unstuck.
I have driven off a highlift jack more than once back when my rig was stock.  Or
jacked it up to put rocks under the wheels.

If there is a way to avoid it, dont use the highlift for changing a blown tire.

I am sure the others will chime in with lots more information.

Hi Carl,
    Mike here likes to call the Hi-Lift the Widowmaker, you must treat
it with respect. Like you will see it begin to bow on normal jacking,
the point at which it springs out to kill you can not be guestimated.
Also when jacking it down it may collapsed instantly with any warning.
Read their manual:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041011181145/http://www.hi-lift.com/manual/manual.htm
   Some mount suggestions:
http://www.4x4now.com/bu98tjc.htm
http://www.jeephorizons.com/tech/hilift/
http://www.jdlawhon.com/jeeperman.html
https://www.expeditionexchange.com/roversolutions/indexmain.shtml
http://www.trailquest.com/tools/hi_lift_jack.shtml
   You might have your next of kin bookmark these for the future law
suits: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t9942.html Expert
witnesses: http://jurispro.com/expertSearch_2.asp?SubCatID=6010 
       God Bless America, ßill O|||||||O
mailto:LWHughes3rd@aol.com http://www.billhughes.com/

Carl Sailed wrote:

The best or better said 'proper' place to mount one of those 'widow
maker' jacks is on the back wall of the garage or barn which also is the
only safe place to use it.

It really amazes me that folks bring a farm tool in a Jeep and expect it
to be a miracle tool or something.

Some poor fool farm boy couldn't afford a real jack or even a hand winch
so he got stupidly creative and figured out he could use dad's barn
lifter and fence post puller with a chunk of chain to pull his Jeep out
of the back 40.

Unfortunately someone else saw him do it so now we have a trend of
bringing killing and maiming tools along on an already dangerous sport.

I can change a tire, jack up my Jeep to put logs or rocks under it, push
it over and even drive off my hydraulic floor jack I keep tucked in
behind the passenger seat and if my Warn winch quits, I have a hand back
up winch...

My $0.02,

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
 

...

Aside from all the other horror stories... if you *must* use
this thing, make sure that you watch the mechanism carefully
when jacking, both up and down... make sure the pins are
fully engaged in their holes before ending your stroke.  In
the same vein, don't jack quickly, and make sure that the
handle strokes from lock to lock before reversing direction.
That's the one that gets folks in trouble... aside from rolling
off of it, or having it spit out from under the bumper sideways.
__
Steve
.

Isn't this thing sort of based on the old style bumper jacks?  I have never
seen one (high lift that is).

Snow

I once inherited a high lift jack with a work vehicle, gave it away
the first chance I got :).

If you really must have it on your jeep have a look here-

http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15463

Gotta be the neatest cleanest most sensible idea I've seen yet for
these things.

Howard

http://users.eastlink.ca/~howarde/Tonka.html