Inflatables...

[murph7355]

Jacks.

 

Saw one of these at a car spares place and was wondering....

 

3tonne lift capacity. Fills from the exhaust (!). Packs away to next to nothing and is pretty light.

 

Has anyone used one before and are they any good? Bit more expensive than std. trolley jacks (45 quid or so) but no probs with getting it under the car and would seem to be an interesting idea.

 

The bag almost looks wide enough to sling in the middle of a 7 and lift all 4 wheels at once!

 

I think the only problem might be what sort of back pressure it puts on the exhaust, but if you're not filling it 100% maybe this isn't an issue??

[CHRIS CLARK]

OK, let's be honest. Who clicked on here thinking Andy was talking about a 'woman' !!!

[paulyb]

.....or sheep

 

 

[Taran Las]

Come on Guys lets keep sheep out of thiswink.gif I'm Welsh smile.gif

 

Phil Owen.

 

Edited by - taran las on 10 Feb 2002 09:44:09

[Andrew Dent]

So we had better keep away from your national rugby side thenteeth.gif

 

Andrew

[caterhamnut]

I think this sort of thing started out being used by rescue services to lift vehicles?

That BBC1 Inverntors program had a similar thing, about the size of the existing electric tyre inflators (in fact based on one) from Halfords, but that ran off the cigarette lighter that we do not have in the car!

I guess the advantage of this type of jack is that it can probably be placed almost anywhere under the car and not cause damage. Not sure how long it takes to fill and lift a 7, guess it is not too long, so maybe back pressure is not an issue?

[murph7355]

I'm sure it says 50secs for a 2 tonne car with engine idling or something. Wonder how quick it would be at 8k revs...

 

Hmmmm. Might give it a go t some point if no one has duff experiences.

[caterhamnut]

Andy, there is definitly a cartoon card there somewhere!

[Simos]

Andy,

 

I used one to respond to a medical emergency in the outback.

 

A couple had been camping on one of the sandstone escapements that festoorn the dessert in the Northern Territories/Western Australia when the woman decided to drink from a "spring" (dozy cow). Anyway she had dysentery and the husband was madly covering the 500km to the nearest tarmac road and further 250km to the nearest hospital after that.

 

Of course they had a puncture and we stopped to help (as you do in such a place). He had a funky inflatable jack to lift the Shogun of which I was very sceptical. However with the engine ticking over it whopped the shogun about 2ft into the air in no time without the engine labouring at all - ok about 5 litre diesel but also about 2+ tons of car - I was well impressed.

 

Of course the downside is that it turns out a Shogun has more than two feet of wheel travel and there was no way we could replace the wheel... but the principle was sound.

 

With a grin I whipped the stone age post and ratchet jack out of my trusty Landcruiser and easily lifted the beastie sufficient to change (the remains of) his wheel and send him on his way to hospital with his wife being extremely ill at both ends.

 

Per the first line of this reply I should add " and it failed" but of course that would be unfair, it was the car and surroundings that stumped it. It would happily lift all four wheels of a Seven off the ground and probably the trailer it was parked on and the rear wheels of the Discovery towing it.

 

Go ahead and do it Andy, I'd be interested to hear your experience.

 

Cheers, Simon.

[singlespeeder]

The Welsh rugby team could be sheep,they wander around on grass,they're docile and don't know what to do.

[caterhamnut]

of course, the one obvious flaw in this design is that your engine has to be working to be able to use the jack, fine of course if you are just changing a wheel.

[Taran Las]

Please don't mention the Rugby anymore - I can't take anymore! (it's the truth that hurts!)

 

Phil

[murph7355]

That does it. Off to buy one at the next opportunity and will turn the 7 into a bouncy castle.

 

I wonder if I could test the principle with an electric blow up airbed I have upstairs...

 

I'll be the envy of Le Sept if it works smile.gif

[Jam Mad]

saw one recently and had the same wonderings, andy, until i noted a+t's point... your engine has to be working !

 

let's face it, driving the cars we do, at some point it won't be...

 

i guess in london you could always wait for a bus to drive past, and hope your car was in the air before it pulled away.. teeth.gif

 

j

[FH]

C'mon chaps. This is TechTalk you know - far too much frivolity going on mad.gif... but alzo very amuzink cool.gif

 

FH

[murph7355]

I mainly want it for changing wheels. When the engine's knackered I take it to someone who knows what they're doing to fix it. I think.

 

You could also use it as a temporary seat or maybe even a small bed type thing (it'd even be warm for a bit with the exhaust gas). The more I think of this the better the idea gets.

 

So, has anyone any more uses they could think of for this contraption (and no remodelling of the device is allowed.

 

Unfortunately I can't try one out as I won't be in a position to buy/try until 1st March.

[paul jacobs]

Hmm, yes, I've actually got one of these devices, and they do work well, can't say what it's like to use with a Seven, as I only got to use it a few times with a normal car, before it pumped itself up then impaled itself on something sharp under the car, and it been pretty useless since. I really must dig it out of the far reaches of my garage, where I flung it in disgust, and see if I can put some sticking plaster over the wound and try it again.

 

It doesn't need much pressure from the engine, just tickover is fine, just make sure that there is something inpenetrable on the top of it before using it.