When Cruising the aisles of SEMA in late 2005, I came across the booth of Hi-Lift Jack Co. Now if you have anything at all to do with 4-wheeling, you know about the Hi-Lift Jack. It is THE Swiss Army Knife/Gerber Multitool of rescue and extraction related 4x4 gear. So when I asked what was new, i did not expect too much more than a nifty new accessory for the old jack. I was surprised by the new X-Treme jack on display. Besides having a cool new look, it had a few improvements that Steve Dowden from Hi-Lift said was targeted at 4-wheelers.

So, now the Hi-Lift X-Treme is rolling out to dealers near you and it is time to take a look at this new beauty. Other than the unique finish of the jack which is a charcoal metallic powder-coat with gold zinc coated hardware, the jack is all-cast construction for strength and durability.

The coolest new feature is the unique winching/clamping attachment that replaces the standard top-clamp clevis on the regular jacks. This thing is beefy. You can see by the pics that it is a serious piece of metal and it is designed to fit along the "I" beam of the jack wherever it is needed. You can see the slots in the far right pic that fit the "I" beam perfectly.

Hi-Lift takes the old standby to the X-Treme!

By the staff of C4x4

See the way the new Clevis is shaped like a foot? That allows for a jaws-of-life kind of application as the jack can be placed between two surfaces and jacked apart. Or, it can be a clamp if the foot is reversed. The new design allows for attaching a chain as well as a shackle to the holes and slots in the Top-Clamp Clevis. Very cool. See below. Also, we sampled the Hi-Lift Handle Keeper. It solves the 'rattling' Hi-Lift handle. Made of poly-urethane, it slips over the clevis of the standard models, but not the new X-Treme Jack. You need to remove the clevis on this new model. No biggie, cuz it does a nice job of keeping that handle secure.

Check out www.hi-lift.com for more info or a dealer near you.

800-233-2051