Ive seen advertised in a fue mag's and on internet sites, a Inflateable airbag / jack. You some how attatch to your exhaust and with the engine running it will lift the vehicle out of t sand dune or other terrain to change a tyre etc.

Has anybody used of seen one work?

It just seems to me that it would take alot of exhaust pressure to inflate the bag enough to lift a 2.5ton truck? - Could this harm your engine as well?



Jas

Normally large heavy duty bags. Not cheap/light/small

Large area/low pressure = several tonnes

Often used by emergency services/recovery services

Am not convinced about their use in the overland vehicles

HTH

Brendan

Brilliant things IMHO ... for the right situation. Sand and snow are the two situations in which an air-jack will excel. Having such a wide footprint it’s ideal on soft surfaces, whereas a High-lift would need a large baseplate if it wasn’t to sink out of sight.

Most other situations however, the all-conquering Hi-lift/Farm-Jack/whatever will do the job and so much more.

Surprisingly, air-jacks take very little to inflate and won’t harm your engine – unless of course somebody knows better?

off topic but i can't help but wonder if this could be adapted to create a vehicle flotation device aswell as recovery

Standard everyday tyres are fine - 205's for instance - and just drop 'em to 20psi in the sand. If reinforced sidewalls they can go even lower, but personally I wouldn't go lower than 10psi. The key is speed - SLOW is the only way.

no ferries across the bearing straight

Mines rescue use these jacks they did a demonstration a few years back where they showed it in use it was very impressive

They are a compact and often useful device in the right circumstances, some situations have been mentioned, but there are many more in which they are useful.

I used them regularly, and still have a couple which are used periodically, but you have to be careful to avoid the cheaper ones flooding in from Asia as they are cheap and nasty and burst very easily, instead go for a reputable brand of good quality and they will survive off road conditions.

Avoid using them on stoney ground which is sharp, in forests where there are numerous small twigs, and in conditions where there are thorns; and always ensure the underside of your vehicle has no sharp edges as these will burst them. I always find a good smooth underbody protection is best as this eliminates many of the brackets and screws which can burst them, in addition i always carried a piece of plywood to place the jack on to prevent ground conditions bursting them.

They also make good seats.

I have a Draper airbag jack, and as long as you have a "conventional" exhaust i.e. round tube, not flat, then you should be ok to use it. It comes with a groundmat, to help on stoney gorund I guess.

I didnt have much success with it on muddy ground TBH but it worked well on my Suzuki here....(I broke the rear axle u bolts here) so I used my spare wheel to act as a placemat, you will notice that I also had a hi-lift supporting the Zook.

i've got an airbag (Bushranger) but similar to the Drapper one. Cracking bit of kit. I've used it to lift my Discovery 3 without a problem on muddy ground. It only needs about 10psi to lift the car so the exhaust is more than capable of lifting that. If you have two exhaust though you'll need a bung to block the one you're not using to inflate the jack.