Now I've taken you through it's operating sequence you can see why the handle must be left upright against the rack can't you? Because in this position both pegs are in place - good, got it!

Finish changing the wheel. If you have a shovel handy, use it to position the new wheel into place by lifting the wheel over the studs, then lightly tighten the wheel nuts up against the rims.

Back to the jack, knock down the reversing catch lever making sure one hand is holding the handle still up against the rack. Then with BOTH hands, grab hold of the handle bring it right down through the first click, lift it up through the second click and so on and so forth 'walking' the mechanism back down the rack.

As the weight starts to come off the toe replace one hand back onto the rack and finish lowering the mechanism. The moment the weight comes off completely, the mechanism will collapse to the ground with a thump. Be warned! This is because as there is no weight on the toe, the 'pegs' are no longer trapped.

Having completed the wheel change don't forget to tighten your nuts well! A smile indeed, but seriously it is very important to ensure that the wheel nuts are re-torqued as required by the handbook. For now, place both hands on the wheel wrench and pull upwards with a reasonable effort. With exactly the same amount of effort, go around the remaining nuts working in a diagonal fashion. When back at base, check again, using the torque wrench. It is good practice to check those wheel nuts again after doing a few more miles. You will be surprised how often you can keep tightening, especially if you have 8-spokes fitted.

Finally, don't forget to disengage the centre differential lock if fitted and come back into high ratio if continuing on the road. In case I've left you wondering why you had to engage the diff lock in the beginning it is simply this: when you jack up the corner of a full time-permanent drive vehicle, if you haven't locked your front and rear propshafts together, they can contra rotate allowing the vehicle to swivel and fall off the jack - as simple as that.

The next jacking article will continue covering many other uses of the high lift.

Index [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

(c)Goodwinch Limited 2006