@H1Tad thanks for your advice on the hylift - I was a bit apprehensive myself. Where on the control arm is suitable for jacking with a floor/bottle jack?

 

You know thats a good question - and its a task that I haven't actually had to do on account of my Defender's excellent reliability record so far. But thankfully the wife is out of town so I have access to the Defender this morning so I just took the jack out and tried it myself. Now that I actually had to use the Offroad jack on the Defender, its a bit tough to get under the side or front bumper and I had to take the height extender off for the first time in I donno how long.

Now I'm sure this isn't the "recommended" way but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

On the front - I'd jack as close to the wheel as you can get, ideally right under the bolt knuckle area that I put a red arrow on. I couldn't get close enough with my jack on my coil sprung Defender but I'm guessing that in offroad height you should be able to get a floor jack under there no problem.


Rears I assume would be pretty easy as the LCA casting is yuge.

I've got to get to work so I'll leave it to the experts to explain how to do the rear - or if I've got it all wrong.

 

If you do go down the new tire route, the BF Goodrich KO3 will be available in OEM sizes come August. I will be swapping out my slightly oversized Falken Wildpeaks for the KO3 early next year.

 

Depending on what you need it for, you might be able to get away with using the wheel tool - attaches to the wheel, doesn't need to overcome the suspension travel: https://hi-lift.com/product/hi-lift-lift-mate

This jack is sold in different configurations, make sure you have the winch kit in yours, or buy it separately: https://hi-lift.com/product/hi-lift-off-road-kit

There's also a base, in case you need to do it on soft soil: https://hi-lift.com/product/hi-lift-off-road-base/

That said, I honestly hope I won't ever have to use it. And, to Tad's point, everyone using it better watch the safety course on it, if they want to get out alive.

 

I have a Hi-Lift I use for pulling stumps and as an emergency winch. It scares the he’ll out of me to think of lifting a few tons of truck with it.

I’m pretty sure Hi-Lift jacks are why so many Jeep owners are missing teeth! 😜

 

@H1Tad Thanks for getting out into the field and looking and what you could do! I think I’ll just stick to the specific jacking points though and find an adaptor for them…

 

My next question is how the hell do you get one of these on a bottle jack:

To safely mate to these silly jacking points?

 

Short answers:
1. Fittings as you pictured slide over the top of the SafeJack bottle jack primary lift point or any of their lifting extensions. That one is for large round or square tubular frames (axels, frames, etc). I wouldn't try and use to mate to the lifting point you pictured,.
2. There is a SafeJack pinch weld adaptor or the flat plate adaptor rather than the one you pictured. It is possible to use the flat plate adaptor with a rubber pinch weld adaptor on top, or lift from a different point on the LRD. See images below.

For example I might use the fitting you pictured to lift my trailer from its structural steel frame (HSS) assembly. I could also use a puck as pictured below to lift from a pinch weld point ontop of the flat plate adaptor, or from the LRD lift point you pictured with the pinch weld adaptor.

See the pictures below for the 8 possible lift points on the LRD. Four are as you pictures and 4 are slightly father back as noted in blue. I'd pull my SafeJack kit and take photos but I keep it packed with my trailer which, sadly, is not in my home garage.

I hope this helps

Here's a link

to a video on the SafeJack YouTube channel which is linked on their website.

 

Woah, @Huc thanks for the detailed analysis. The puck and flat plate method definitely seems to be the best - but as you said conditions may cause it to slip off. What I’d be worried about is on a trail which isn’t completely flat having the puck slip off side of the plate then a whole manner of other things go wrong as a result. Is that fear warranted, or is it really just an issue in really steep areas?

 

This is just a FANTASTIC thread. Lot's of great advice. I think if you took it all, you need to tow an M416 or other trailer behind you to carry it all!

I think someone (multiple someones) hit every item I could put on a list. So, I'm just going to write about two concepts.

The first one came to me from Andrew Skurka. He's a legend when it comes to backpacking. Even a National Geographic Explorer. I attended one of his lectures one time about ultra-light and he said that there is a continuum between being the ultimate hiker and the ultimate camper. If you edge towards hiker, it's less gear more miles. If the ultimate camper, you have more gear less miles. Then he said something I will always treasure: "The more you know, the less you carry". Meaning the better your skills the less you need with redundant gear or gear that does things for you. Overlanding is exactly like that. The more you learn, train, practice - the less you will find yourself carrying. Right now, I think everyone has given you a trailer load of gear to carry.

The second one is almost a critical item: have another rig go out with you! This covers a LOT of errors. Hiking alone vs. hiking with others is the similar analogy. You take on a LOT more risks when alone and need to be a lot more skilled, experienced, etc. Until you know what works for you, I'd seriously recommend going out with others. Short trips, long trips. Heck if you are going to do something epic, maybe someone on this forum would be inspired to go to AU to join you! If I only had the time off....

Finally, a question for all: someone posted about the Garmin inTouch. At times, I've carried devices so that parents at home could follow along on back country trips and where their sons were (lots of Scouting adventures). I've had a lot of satellite "stuff". Is that mainly irrelevant now? Now that the iPhone has the SOS texting feature, did that just kill the inTouch? Anyone have any real world experience using it when well off the grid to communicate with others? Thanks for the insights.