The life of a farmer is quite interesting and filled with adventures, but without some of the modern tools that we have nowadays, it wouldn’t really be like that.
As far as we all know, if you want to live a life in which you need to take care of an entire farm on your own, things can sometimes get pretty messy, in the exact meaning of the word.
Luckily, there are tons of items that make the entire experience a lot more enjoyable, and one of them is the famous farm jack.
Today, we’re going to talk about farm jacks, what they are and how they can be used. We’ll give you a lot of useful information on how to properly set these up, as well as what kind of safety equipment you can use in order to avoid any possible injuries.
If you are currently in a situation where you need to use a farm jack, or you’re simply curious to learn what this is, make sure to stay with us until the end. Let’s end this introduction right here and jump straight into the content.
What are farm jacks?
If you ask an off-roader or a farmer what they think of a farm-jack, they’ll probably tell you that this thing is sent from the heavens in order to make their lives easier, and it’s absolutely true. It’s a very versatile tool that help you in many different situations.
So, who invented this and what are the origins?
Believe it or not, the high-lift jack is something that was made more than 150 years ago, and it was mainly meant to help farmers. But, as technology kept evolving, and people constantly kept searching for ways to improve these tools, they made an improved version of the regular jack and gave it many other names such as Jackall, Vaporjack and Unijacck.
Although this tool can be extremely helpful in many situations, you should know that it’s pretty dangerous to use it since the design and mechanism are both pretty “hardcore” with no added safety features and all those fancy things that we can see in modern tools. The farm-jack is meant for people who are experienced with using these types of tools, and if you are not being careful enough, you can “earn” a couple of injuries.
So, you’re all probably wondering how this thing works, right?
How does a farm-jack work?
These tools use a system that’s called a “ratcheting system”. The use this in order to lower or raise a certain load, basically anything that you decide to put on it. The “build” includes an l-beam spine with a few holes in it, a pin which is used to block the motion, a handle and a gear. It’s to too complicated, and once you see how it works, you’ll immediately understand it. When you’re moving the handle either up or down, the mechanism can lower or raise. Now, you’re all probably wondering what some practical scenarios are where you can use this tool in order to solve a problem. Let’s take a look.
Pulling out your vehicle from a tricky situation
At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that both farmers and off-roaders love using the farm jack. If you’re an off-roader, you already know that you should always have a way out in case you and your vehicle get stuck in mud, or in a tricky terrain where the engine itself is not enough to pull you out of it.
Lifting your vehicle to perform a repair
You can lift up your vehicle very easily using a farm-jack, and by doing this you will be able to identify a problem, change a tire or perform a certain repair if you know what the issue with it is. Before doing this, however, you’ll need to make sure that your brakes are used and your vehicle is parked properly unless you’re somewhere off-road where it doesn’t really matter.
You can always use bigger stones and rocks, or even tree-logs if your brakes are not working, so do anything that it takes to keep that vehicle in place while you’re lifting it up. You don’t want it to start moving while you’re still performing the lift. To learn more about farm jacks, visit https://toolsdoctor.com/best-farm-jack/
Preventing injuries when using the farm jack
Just like we mentioned earlier, there are many movable parts in this tool, and if you are not being careful enough you can injure yourself. This is why it is very advisable to use working gloves, preferably ones made from sturdy leather or with plastic protection added to them when using the farm jack.
This way, even if your hands somehow end up in the moving parts, you’ll not suffer any serious injuries, which is what matters the most when you’re in the middle of nowhere.
A farm jack can be seen as a double-edged sword. It can be extremely useful, but extremely dangerous as well if you are not sure what you’re doing with it.
But, when you think of it that way, we used knives every single day in order to prepare our food, and they are also really dangerous, right? So, if you spend some time learning how this thing works, maybe watching a few YouTube tutorials, you will never have to experience anything bad happening to you.
Make sure to use enough force
The farm jack is a manly tool, there are no doubts in that, but even this one is made for almost anyone to be able to use it. However, when you’re lifting something as heavy as a jeep or a car, you’ll have to use enough force on the level in order to make it work.
Use both your hands and position your body in a way where you can generate the most force, but don’t stand too close to the jack. If something ends up breaking or going wrong, you want your most sensitive body parts to be the furthest from the accident. We’re not trying to scare you, but these things happen sometimes, and it is better to know what to do.
