I have a similar jack. I just put some wood blocks under the jack to get the desired height.

 

So not a dumb question to me but maybe to other people..... I thought the same as you ill just lower the car all the way which then easily 16-20 inches will jack up. But I went out and tried it and it doesn't lock the air suspension in that height from what I saw and just continues to jack the car up the full suspension travel..... Again I am new to this with air suspension cars and am still surprised this jack didnt work as it does for stock land cruiser etc haha

 

Correct. In my experience, the air suspension is too "smart" for us to use any bottle jack I could find. I have been futsing around with it for a while now. All in an attempt to avoid the cost of the ARB jack -- which seems to be the one I must buy.

I have not yet figured out a way to "lock" the air suspension in a point of location which STOPS the air suspension and its sensors from using the entire allowance of its travel to keep the wheels in contact with the ground. When the wheels are jacked up, the vehicle reads the effort as a being high-centered, and it makes every effort to get the wheels back in touch with the ground.

I won't bother to recollect the approaches I tried to outsmart the vehicle, here. Practically, what I am doing is traveling with two jacks -- a bottle jack with a built in jack stand (for safety) -- and then the factory scissor jack to obtain the last 3 or 4 inches of lift.

 

Wow very interesting.... learned something new today. Have you tried "locking" it in the lowest suspension setting. I know the button has a lock on it not sure what that actually does. I will give that a shot later today if you havent.

 

Yep, I tried that one -- it overrode the lock and tried to keep the wheels on the ground.

Also, tried disabling the vehicle by turning it off -- did not help either. Also, tried various combinations of open doors -- which disables when the lowering of the vehicle, but unfortunately not when raising it. Also tried fiddling with the mode -- comfort, auto, off-roads, etc. This had no useful effect.

The thing I did NOT try was to disconnect all power to the computer. This is because I would never do this in the pouring rain, off-road, miles from home -- it would be impractical for real use purposes.

Oh yeah, also, I tried to remove the air from the tires -- this worked. With no sidewall, coming off and going on, the bottle jack can function alone. In theory. In reality this turns a tire change into a 45 minute event -- which in the mud and rain is not viable.

In the end, I am going to need to buy the ARB jack.

 

Ya ok went out and gave it a shot and you're right, no practical way around it. So crazy to just watch the suspension continue to grow.

Only thing I could get to work with my setup is to put the car in off-road mode so I could fit the jack all the way extended and the plates under the car. Then I was able to get enough height to change a tire but still not a lot.

 

Yep. works on-road -- but not off road -- where the ground is uneven.

I tried carrying wood blocks of different sizes to make up for the topography, but that was unrealistic. This did work once -- did not need the scissor jack (which is silly off-road), but I was just lucky with the ground clearance and blocking spacing.

I have been ignoring this, in favor of the two jack approach and to avoid the ARB cost - but even this is getting to be a pain also -- storage wise.

Going to have to bite the ARB bullet (before the spring mud).

Best to you!

 

Confirm that the Defender will do everything it can to keep a tire on the ground! Inater, no worries, I appreciated the suggestion, and now we both have our answer before we are out there in the rain or sun trying to jack up offroad. TrioLRowner thanks for testing all the combos of turning off vehicle doors open, suspension lock, etc. Very helpful. Dj200, the blocks are certainly one way to go, but not a good solution offroad due to the uneven surfaces and angles that are sometimes involved.

Best solution for my use case is a stable and intergrated jack.


This is probably the next one i will order, due to the extensions it includes. Less than half the price of the ARB and claims it can lift up to 36" with the extender (to recap by my measurements you need 17" to get off the ground, and i'm thinking about 5 inches of lift will do the job, so need minimum lift of 22inches. The question will be: how high can it lift with the tallest extender THAT CAN FIT under offroad height. I'm sure the top extender is designed for traditional offroad vehicles with a lot of lift built in from the get go...

 

@Pangea123 - I was just about to point out the same kit. I think that's the way to go. Should all fit in the loadspace storage if not already full with other "stuff". Only mod I would suggest is to go to a welder (or anyone with their own basic level of welding abilities) and create a better lift point for the channel attachment (the one that looks like a US Football Goal). For the life of me, I don't know why the lifting point on the Defender is shaped like it is. Seems very unstable unless you have a dedicated lift tool that fits into the "V" lifting spot.

 

Yep, the solutions to date seem built for traditional, lifted, spring supported 4x4s. In the end what matters is the movement allowance vertically of the piston when under action of the hydraulic fluid -- not especially the lengths of the extensions -- neither at the base nor above the piston.

I did scour for a superlift floor jack piston (a very long one in a custom made long cylinder), but had no luck.

I am looking forward to someone cracking this nut without the ARB cost. Please keep us informed!