The Homestead Jack!

You don't have to buy or rent a lot of expensive equipment to handle your tough homestead lifting jobs.

January/February 1978
By Pat Laffery 
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You don't have to buy or rent a lot of expensive equipment to handle your tough homestead lifting jobs. Chances are, you already own the only tool you'll ever need. It's a simple, non-polluting, human-scale lifting device cleverly disguised as ... your automobile bumper jack.

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You can use one of these handy gadgets to perform a wide variety of chores: stretching wire, uprooting posts, and lifting and supporting all sorts of heavy objects. Some readily available models will safely lift loads as large as 4,000 pounds. Jacks are easy to handle, too. They're light-weight (10 to 15 pounds), and require no supplemental power source or provision for overhead mounting.

Best of all, a jack is a first-rate money-saver. If you don't already own one, you can buy a used unit for as little as $4.50. Besides that, you'll save additional money—over and over again—every time you substitute the jack for some other, more conventional, piece of equipment.

Summing up: It's versatile, powerful, easy to use, and cost-effective. An automobile bumper jack ... your homestead jack-of-alltrades.

A jack and chain can make fencepost removal an inexpensive one-man operation ... two of the minihoists will support a water heater while its rotted wooden base is being replaced ... a jack and a lever can be used to move almost any object that's too heavy to move by hand ... hoist a massive timber onto some solid concrete blocks with a jack and a chain and you've just built you self a rustic bench ... or let the jack alone support a sagging gate while you reinforce its post ... then stretch woven wire fencing with a jack, some chain, and an "S" hook ... and — finally — just pick up your compact jack-of-all-trades and carry it back to the toolshed. A jack can go anywhere you can go.

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3 Comments

  • Drew 1/10/2009 8:21:58 PM

    Wow, I remember this article in print from years ago. My dad used to subscribe. this was the article that started my fasination with jacks, winches, etc. since I was at the time a proverbial 96 pound weakling, it apealed to me, since I could with a little intelligence and a couple tools, do what any big strong person could do. I now have collected several jacks of all styles antique to modern, and it's all your fault. Levers are really cool too. How about an article on them?

  • spatin 12/13/2008 5:05:51 PM

    The idea of a bumper jack for lifting things like stumps and fenceposts is a good idea. I would use a hi-lift jack though. It is rated for around 5,000 pounds, I think, and if you look at one it is considerably stronger than the cheap bumper jack you might get with a Detroit doo-doo.
    The hi-lift is made in the USA and is built to last a lifetime. I got one for about $60 at a four wheel drive specialty store.
    Sidney

  • Bill 8/10/2008 4:02:55 PM

    The article about the "homestead Jack" was interesting, and frankly just a little frightening. Please remember these were engineered to be as cheap as possible, and not designed as an all purpose tool. Should any part, jack, handle, chain, etc. give way while under a load it is going to release hard! I have had some personal experience with that. We once had a chain break on an engine hoist. The long lift bar of the hoist was flung twenty feet through the air, burying itself in the grass. No one was hurt, by the grace of God or by pure dumb luck who can say. One of us could have easily been killed. Just a word to the wise.
    Bill

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