Sorry you did all that work...these go for about $45 and mine has worked on every vehicle Ive tried it on, from an F250 to my 2019 Rav4.
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yes i saw these in action before i did my mods and i saw limitations in there. if your all wheel or half wheel is deep in mud , and sinking you wont put any jack up there and lift car, if jack will slip just little you can damage your car , or even brake windows and such. If it slip from front or rear they much farther from car . yes you can use them in worst case scenario or in at least some hard ground but car better be on level at least and you need to have access from side where your wheels are. its just so messy in mud . where i was stuck i wouldnt even try to lift my car like that there, but from front and rear was more stable and more space for me to work there. its just better way to do lifting. and not all rims will work on that , not all subaru rims i mean. they mostly OEM rims.
and my points are for everyday working on car ,as i do all stuff myself, when you need remove wheels to do some jobs there , just lift it from front or rear. Its not just recovery , so i duno i have solution here for all cases recovery and just lifting car to do some work there. and you can do it with clean clothes , as you dont need to go under car and such to put some jack there. And its like 30 seconds for me to lift any wheel in car without need change clothes or even gloves.
need to change brake pads, links, bushes , etc on car so you need to remove wheel, fast and easy and its ready, just for recovery yes no need, but for all car stuff its works so good.
working on my previous outback. bam its lifted and i have all freedom on drivetrain , its loose there as no jack is under something there to lift car
changing wheels , removing struts or puting lift spacers on it, so easy and fast with hi lift jack. So as i worked a lot on my previous car using it i know whats best now for this too, as its lifted its more high now from ground and normal oem jacks doesnt reach that height anyway anymore, plus there is no danger to bent something by lifting car with normal jack under side car as that car was rusted there, but it was fine to do that from front and rear.
so thats why hi lift jack