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I have a lifted VX with 33" tires and am in the process of moving to a roof rack mounted full size spare. Obviously the stock jack will no longer suffice, so I'm looking into a portable solution for tire changing or getting out of a jam on the trails. Are there jacking points on the VX that could be used with a hi-lift jack? If so, where are they?
Stock bottle jack will lift a 33 off the ground. Mine does, and I used to carry a 2x4x8" piece of wood incase I needed to lift off the frame.
If you utilize the axle tube and control arms to lift from, you wont have an issue with clearance.
I now have a hi-lift that I jack from the boulder bar/rock sliders, get a whole side at once. Or from the front ARB bumper. Nothing in back yey to hi-lift from as I suspect is the case of the VX. without some frame mounted steel you are SOL for a hi-lift.
after lifting mine, I bought a 12 ton 18 1/2" high capability hydraulic jack. Stock one was too narrow of an escape on flat, hard, ground. In instances of offroading, it would be useless.
fyi- my 12 ton jack works great to get lizards out from under 1 ton boulders too ;Dp;
Since your lifted & mounting a full sized spare & planning on doing the trails I suggest you look into getting some Boulder bars fabricated at least 3 point welded to the frame. This will allow the use of the Hi Lift jack for all circumstances. In the meantime a scissors jack with good height may be the way to go. Saw quite a few of these in use at Moab but on the real tough stuff a Hi Lift is your best friend.
Hi-lifts by themselves don't seem to do a whole lot of good on a Vx. You can get some heavy steel (2x2 x length x 1/4 or better wall thickness) to put in your trailer hitch to extend it far enough out that a Hi-lift can be used. or if your slider bars stick out wide enough you can use them.
Like Loco said,, If you're just changing a tire, your stock jack can change a 33" no prob.
Wow, thanks for all the responses. :p I will consider looking into some boulder bars when finances permit, but one question - It seems to me that jacking up one side onto two wheels would be a bit unstable (or at least LESS stable than jacking onto three). Has this been an issue for anybody? Is it possible to hi-lift jack onto three wheels using the boulder bars?