Installation and Review: High-Jacker Deep Powder Snowmobile Jack

christopher · Dec 26, 2010

As some of you will recall last spring I got myself, and two boys badly stuck on Black Canyon Trail in the middle of a blizzard. (SW Thread) Badly stuck enough that I was unable to dig my sleds out and opted to call for help rather than spend a night on the top of the mountain in what turned out to be the biggest storm of the year. One of the things I learned from that experience is that there was a device made that would have made a HUGE difference in my ability to perform a Self-Rescue. Of the hundred or so comments that other members of SnoWest offered me, many people said I should consider buying a "Snowmobile Jack" to carry with me. Well, I took their advice, bought one, and just installed it this last weekend.

This is a review of that device.

Note:
I bought this device retail and paid for it myself.

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High-Jacker Snowmobile Jack

http://snowjacker.com/
Bill Harmon Enterprises
13520 County Road 76 Pitkin CO 81241

Bill Harmon Owner/Designer
970.641.4250

christopher · Dec 26, 2010

Normally with my reviews I have pictures of everything exactly as it arrives.
In this case I got it and installed it before I remembered I was going to do a review of it. So I failed to take arrival photos.

The unit arrived via UPS as one package wrapped in a heavy gauge plastic sheeting. There was no cardboard or external protective layering. Given that this is a pretty heavy duty item, it really didn't need any more than it came with. The unit arrived with no visible marring, and what few parts came with it, were secured inside a 2nd plastic bag within the main plastic sheeting. All in all the packing was quite sufficient for the purpose.

The unit comes with a single page of instructions, printed in color, that clearly walk you through both the installation and the operation.

Weights.
Jackshaft and lifting mechanism = 6lbs, 14 ounces
Base Plate = 1lb, 3 ounces
Mounting Hardware = 8 ounces

Total Weight of system = 8 lbs, 9 ounces

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

This is the complete unit, without the base plate attached.

The lifting mechanism

The opposite end that mounts into the base plate.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

The lifting mechanism in the stowed position as it would be on the sled while not in use.

Label

Closeup in the OPEN position

Closeup in the LIFT position during the cranking phase.
The small aluminum plate to the right is the release plate.
When squeezed between the thumb and forefinger it looses friction and allows the lift mechanism to slide freely on the jackshaft.
This is how you move it up and down to adjust its position before and after the lift, or when mounting on the sled.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Front Mount.
The tailend of the jackshaft slides through this small U-Bolt.
http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/forum.vb/picture.php?albumid=1821&pictureid=20631

Rear/Tunnel Mount.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Base Plate Mount in center of tunnel.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

The SnowJack is held in place by the lifting mechanism itself, and has NO locking mechanism to the sled! The jack is put into place and then cranked to create friction that holds it in place.

I found this to be a WEAK POINT in the system, as we lost the entire mechanism during a jump when the tunnel much have flexed just enough to allow the jack to come loose and drop off the sled! I am now working on a small retaining strap to make sure that never happens again.

Setting the Jack into place on the sled.
Notice how the lifting mechanism does NOT make contact with the support mounting bolt.

After the jack handle has been "pumped" once to move the lifting device along the shaft and create tension to lock it into place.

Final position ready to ride with.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Mounted on the sled in my trailer ready to go.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Thats the hardware portion of the review.
You have seen all the nuts and bolts, and how it is mounted to the sled.

Now lets move on to USING THE SNOW JACK!!

My son and I took our two Nytros out for a ride on Mount Two Top where we were sure we would have ample opportunity to get well stuck and put this bad boy to the test in real world conditions. My son beat me to the punch by riding down into a ditch and hiting the kill switch just as he started up the opposite side. This sunk the Nytro in nice and deep, setting the stage for the following photos.

Classic Nytro situation. Nose in the air, tail buried in the snow.
Jack is off the sled, base plate is attached.

Baseplate attaches to the bottom of the JackShaft with a simple pin.

He stomps down the snow around the rear tunnel to expose the Rear Bumper to attach a nylon strap to, that will then be attached to the lifting mechanism on the jack.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Jack is positioned, and the strap is attached to the lifting mechanism.
Note, the strap simply rests in the small "V" notch on the lifting mechanism that is used to secure it to the mounting bolt on the side of the tunnel for transportation. The weight of the sled keeps it in place during the lift, while the lack of any retaining mechanism allows you to remove the strap from the lift the moment pressure has been released. This proved to be a REALLY good thing when it came time to move the tunnel left or right out of the trench after the lifting was done and place the sled back onto fresh snow.

And its time to start pumping the handle and lifting the sled up and out of the trench.

A couple of EASY PUMPS on the handle and you can see the tunnel already lifting up and out of the trench.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

15 more pumps and the tunnel and track of the sled are now ABOVE the snow!

At this point, with the track out of the trench, all we did was to PUSH the tunnel over to the right, back onto fresh snow and rode away.

This was the first time we used the SnowJack and the whole process took us about 15 minutes from start to finish including 50+ photos.

Later in the day it would be my turn to use the device, and we would cut the rescue time down to 3-5 minutes total!!

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Later that same day......

Now its my turn.
I buried my 2010 Nytro 162 SE is some fresh powder to avoid hitting a tree that refused to get out of my way!

Dug her in good and deep all the way down to the dirt.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Attach the jack and started to lift the tunnel up.

In just MOMENTS the tunnel is up and out of the trench

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

Fired up the engine and cleared the track.

In this case we just collapsed the sides of the trench back in on itself. Lowered the sled back onto the snow and DROVE AWAY!!

Total time, 3-5 minutes!

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

SUMMARY:

The High-Jacker Snowmobile Jack is everything people told me it was!

This is a Simple, User-Friendly device that WORKS exactly as advertised.

My Yamaha Nytro is no lightweight sled, weighing in at 560lbs dry, and close to 850lbs fully loaded with me, fuel and gear on it. The High-Jacker Snowmobile Jack ads 8lb 9ounces or about ONE PERCENT to my total weight.

While there will be those who will bemoan the thought of ever adding anything to their sled that weighs this much (other than a Turbo or Supercharger) I am here to tell you that this was the best spent pounds I ever put on this sled.

Having been STUCK hard, on top of a mountain, in a blizzard with a sled that I could NOT get unstuck to save my life, and having had the opportunity to walk out several miles in deep snow as a result of it, I WILL NEVER GO RIDING WITHOUT THIS!

What would have taken me a good 30 minutes of digging and pulling and tugging to get my sled unstuck, now takes a few minutes.

What before has resulted in a feeling of being TOTALLY EXHAUSTED and completely out of breath when at high altitudes, now doesn't even raise my heartrate!

While the High-Jacker Snowmobile Jack is certainly not for everyone and does not need to be carried by everyone on a ride, having ONE of these in a group could make a huge difference in a really bad stuck, or just make an average stuck a non-issue.

For me, this device made my ride MORE FUN and LESS STRESSFUL.

I now know that I can get BADLY STUCK and have another tool to help me get myself out of a bad situation and back into having fun in just a few minutes.

Sledding is all about having a good time in the mountains with your buds.
The High-Jacker Snowmobile Jack just makes that goal easier to obtain.

WC · Dec 27, 2010

christopher said:
The SnowJack is held in place by the lifting mechanism itself, and has NO locking mechanism to the sled! The jack is put into place and then cranked to create friction that holds it in place.

I found this to be a WEAK POINT in the system, as we lost the entire mechanism during a jump when the tunnel much have flexed just enough to allow the jack to come loose and drop off the sled! I am now working on a small retaining strap to make sure that never happens again.

Having owned a Bill Harmon Jack for 5 years I can tell you that this is not a weak point. Properly mounted it will not fall off. I've rolled my sled down hills and it has stayed in secure to my sled

christopher said:
Mounted on the sled in my trailer ready to go.

From my experience it is better to put the front mount higher up on the tunnel. It will allow your foot to rest better on the boards.

christopher said:
Baseplate attaches to the bottom of the JackShaft with a simple pin.

I prefer to mount the base plate with the bends pointing down. It creates better grip on the surface.

christopher said:

From my experience it does not work to put 2 straps together. You will not be able to jack the sled high enough in most cases. The only time i have used the "s hook" is to jack from the rear drop bracket on hills. Properly done you can jack the sled up and swing the sled around using the jack as a pivot point.

tivoklr · Dec 27, 2010

Yeah, ditch the straps and just cozy the jack right up against the bumper, a running board, anywhere you can get some friction. There will be times when the tunnel is deeper than your pics show and the straps will not give you enough lift to get the track out of the trench.

The straps can come in handy when you're unsticking the nose of the sled due to crash/rollover/beer/etc. I've used them on the handlebars to wrangle the heavy end of the sled into a better position.

Likewise, I have an entirely different mounting bracket which keeps the rearward end of the mounted way lower, and the bracket seems to wrap around the black plastic portion of the jack.

Another option is to eliminate the d-ring as the mounting point for the front of the jack and just open up one of the holes in the bulkhead area above your foot.

Your jack looks like it'd be in the way, whereas mine is tucked way in against the tunnel. It runs parallel to the tunnel as well, terminating against the bumper vs. hanging out there several inches. If I had a pic here I'd post it but I don't...maybe later tonight.

I would say the high-jacker is worth it at twice the weight. It's saved my *** on many an occasion.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

WC said:
Having owned a Bill Harmon Jack for 5 years I can tell you that this is not a weak point. Properly mounted it will not fall off. I've rolled my sled down hills and it has stayed in secure to my sled

From my experience it is better to put the front mount higher up on the tunnel. It will allow your foot to rest better on the boards.

I prefer to mount the base plate with the bends pointing down. It creates better grip on the surface.

From my experience it does not work to put 2 straps together. You will not be able to jack the sled high enough in most cases. The only time i have used the "s hook" is to jack from the rear drop bracket on hills. Properly done you can jack the sled up and swing the sled around using the jack as a pivot point.

Fair Enough.
Its always possible that the jack was NOT mounted tight enough, but I "thought" we had it Firmly in place.

Moving the front mount UP might be a good idea.
Though we did NOT find the jack shaft interfered with foot placement at all while riding !

Flipping the base plate over makes good sense.

Use the two straps on the first stuck, and only one strap on the 2nd.
I agree with you, there is NO need to use both of them.
What would be nice is to have a strap that is permanently attached to the sled and just left in place.

christopher · Dec 27, 2010

tivoklr said:
Your jack looks like it'd be in the way, whereas mine is tucked way in against the tunnel. It runs parallel to the tunnel as well, terminating against the bumper vs. hanging out there several inches. If I had a pic here I'd post it but I don't...maybe later tonight.

I would say the high-jacker is worth it at twice the weight. It's saved my *** on many an occasion.

If you have the time, PLEASE POST your picture.
I would be interested to see how other people are mounting / Using this device.

Installation and Review: High-Jacker Deep Powder Snowmobile Jack

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