Air Bag Jack?

[Watchdog]

HI All from Long Island.
I recently did a trip through the NJ Pine Barrens. Along the way we needed to check a noise coming from my sons 2017 Tundra. Luckily we were on pavement so broke out the bottle jack that came with the vehicle only to find out it would not extend high enough to lift the back of the truck. No problem I had a 12 ton bottle jack brand new (blackjack I believe was the brand). That was completely DOA. Would not even extend a little bit after 15 minutes of priming with the handle. Fall back now is on my 2016 4runner OEM bottle jack. Would jack up but did not have any lift capability when encountering resistance on either vehicle. Triple failure!! None of the OEM jacks were ever used nor the Blackjack. No fluid leaks, just non functional (yes we pumped the handle on all of them 100's of times to no avail). Hence my inquiry if anyone has any input, suggestions, or tips as I am looking at an air bag jack. I was considering the one from Vevor (link below). We wheel mostly on sand living on LI. We don't do any crazy trails or rock crawling. Mostly easy novice stuff.

My concern with the air bags jacks that run off the exhaust is, does it cause problems with sensors being you are restricting exhaust flow?

Any thought or comments are very much appreciated.

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[akdigital3d]

Kyle from Offroad Consulting in PA posted a few videos to Youtube testing them out. I don't know if he's on the forums but you can probably reach out directly to him. Any time I've talked to him he's no nonsense.

 

[Gary T. CLARK]

I have the ARB air bag lift and use with my on board air to pump it up.
I would use the exhaust but I have dual exhaust and have to plug the other end to make it work.

 

[Kent R]

We have used them during training classes to lift a Jeep JK, worked well. Good addition if you have room to store it.

 

[Watchdog]

Kyle from Offroad Consulting in PA posted a few videos to Youtube testing them out. I don't know if he's on the forums but you can probably reach out directly to him. Any time I've talked to him he's no nonsense.

Ok great, I'll do that thanks!

 

[Watchdog]

We have used them during training classes to lift a Jeep JK, worked well. Good addition if you have room to store it.

Thanks

 

[Watchdog]

I have the ARB air bag lift and use with my on board air to pump it up.
I would use the exhaust but I have dual exhaust and have to plug the other end to make it work.

So far a lot of positive feedback, thank you!

 

[FishinCrzy]

I have but have never had to use it. It packs fairly small. I had seen them used by emergency services back on the job and I liked the concept. I also try to carry a board or two for chocking a jack. You never know what kind of base you may have to deal with. When I pull a trailer I have a small, portable floor jack that can make things quick and easy. It's still too heavy to pack on most trips. The bottle jacks and air bag is always on the rig.

 

[Alanymarce]

We had one which came with a vehicle we bought some years ago. Never used it, so I can;t give real life experience with it, however...

It was fairly big - we could have carried ten big bottle jacks in the space it occupied. We understand that it's a good solution if you have to lift a vehicle and you're deep in mud. There is a risk of puncturing it if you inflate it and there's a sharp stump in the wrong place.

We carry two bottle jacks and a jack stand, to provide a good base - these take up little space and are not heavy. If the geompetry of the situation impedes use of one, then we use both and have always (so far) been able to do what we need to do.

I'm surprised that none of OPs three jacks worked - I guess it's a good idea to check them from time to time.

 

[Watchdog]

We had one which came with a vehicle we bought some years ago. Never used it, so I can;t give real life experience with it, however...

It was fairly big - we could have carried ten big bottle jacks in the space it occupied. We understand that it's a good solution if you have to lift a vehicle and you're deep in mud. There is a risk of puncturing it if you inflate it and there's a sharp stump in the wrong place.

We carry two bottle jacks and a jack stand, to provide a good base - these take up little space and are not heavy. If the geompetry of the situation impedes use of one, then we use both and have always (so far) been able to do what we need to do.

I'm surprised that none of OPs three jacks worked - I guess it's a good idea to check them from time to time.

All good input thanks. We were so shocked with all 3 bottle jacks crappin out. We wasted an hour messing with them figuring we were being idiots and user error was the reason. It just wasn't sinking in we had a triple failure. But after we got home, tried all 3 again and none would work. We learned to make sure everything is in working order before wheels up, not just the vehicles.

 

[pluton]

You can make the OEM-style bottle jacks work if you carry some 1'x1' x3/4" plywood pieces that you can stack under the bottle jack to make it taller. Extra points if you drill fixing holes in the wood and carry at least a couple of bolts/wingnuts to solidly attach the wood to the jack. Helps in sand also.