Not for use in Europe

I have identified a problem using a hi-lift jack. You can never really jack under the car because you invariably bend something or dent something because cars are designed to be jacked from the chassis, not from a sill or bumper.
The second part of this problem, is although on some bull bars you can jack up the car… but you nearly use the whole length of the jack just taking up the slack in the suspension. See how there is only about another 5 inches of jack left to use, and this is on hard, level ground. On something soft like sand or mud you need much more length to get the job done allowing for sinking and to be able to pack under the tyres.  You can see below, that this bull bar has hi-lift jacking points on each side which are a great safety and convenience factor.

Ideally, if you could lift lower on the car, you would get more lift. And you usually want to get something under the wheels to get you moving again… this is where the lift-mate comes in.

Note the WD-40… hi-lift jacks run on WD-40! See how you can use the jack at the side of the car now, without denting panels or sills. In this photo, the wheel is already 6 inches off the ground. Much higher than the bull bar method.
The other disadvantage the bull bar method, is that you end up lifting the whole front of the car, even just when jacking on one side. It means more stress on the jack, but higher chance of something slipping.
One tiny trick to watch out for, is not to pinch the valve stem between the hook and the wheel. I nearly did on this attempt, and for the exercise, jacked up just one side of the wheel to rotate it around to get the stem out of the way. The jack does all the work!

I also experimented with this at the back of the car. The rear step was already dinted, so ignore that. I think it would work a treat, but I wasn’t too keen on lifting the wheels with the handbrake on them off the ground. If your bogged, you don’t run much chance of the car moving on it’s own as opposed to tared ground.

I’m really liking this jack stand. It is intended for the hi-lift jack to stop it sinking into soft surfaces due to four times the footprint, but works a treat with the bottle jack. It also functions great as a wheel chock.

We went and ‘tried on’ one of these space case’s. They are hideously expensive, but will last a lifetime. This one pictured was $360+. You can see it does sit a bit high. The biggest problem that presents is that you can’t reach anything in it. It’s too high to get your elbow over to reach in. We came up with the idea of a mirror in the lid to at least see what your reaching for, but it doesn’t help if you can’t physically reach it. I’ve since gone back to the drawing board and come up with another idea. Two slightly smaller boxes, at  each side. It means you’re stepping up about a foot higher on the wheel rather than the rear step. It also has a bit of wind protected ‘tray space’ which comes in very handy with muddy recovery equipment. When it’s wet and muddy, you just want to throw it somewhere and get the hell out of where you are. If I keep the spare tyre on the passenger side, I’ll be able to get the maxxtrax up there in the ‘tray space’ when they are all muddy. This gap down the middle also allows for a bit of a ‘runway’ to stand and pack the boxes, or roll the spare tyre towards the back of the car to lift it off. The second problem is, they will be one hell of a wind drag, which I’m desperately trying to avoid.

Thursday night, when Cassie was at her final Russian lesson, I ate noodles alone beside a train track. Not real romantic, but it certainly was peaceful. I did a timer shot, and captured this uncool shot of me stuffing my face.

So, to solve the question of the weird post title…. the new globes we purchased are 100W/90W H4’s which I think although made in Germany, are not permitted  on European roads. Twice the wattage of regular bulbs, they are much better and seem to not have any detrimental effect on the wiring or lens assembly. It’s a bit funny how that although they wouldn’t be for sale in Europe, we’ll be driving through Europe with them. It’s all slowly coming together.