Anyone who’s used a Hi-Lift knows that its otherwise bombproof lifting mechanism is surprisingly prone to jamming when impacted with seemingly minor amounts of dirt and mud. It’s usually easy to get the jack back into operation with a quick dousing of WD40 or virtually any other liquid, but it would be better if you could keep the dirt out in the first place.

One way to do so is to mount the jack inside the vehicle—rarely practical with the 31-pound many-edged beast that is a Hi-Lift. And what about after you use it and it’s muddy? You won’t want to put it back inside dripping goo.

Another approach that helps is mounting it high on the outside of the vehicle. When I had a roof rack on my FJ40 I did this, and indeed it seemed to stay reasonably clean. But retrieving and replacing it was a bit of a pain, and 31 pounds added to the already considerable weight of a ConFer roof rack didn’t help my center of gravity. (As an aside, ARB’s new Base roof rack system offers as an accessory a brilliant one-person Hi-Lift mount that cradles the jack underneath while you’re removing or attaching it.)

Although we drove for one trip in Australia with a Hi-Lift mounted crosswise on the front ARB brush guard, I hate that position (and can now answer, “Yes, I’ve tried it.”). It hampered visibility and hampered access to the engine compartment, and added, yes, 31 pounds in another poor spot to add 31 pounds—right above a heavy bumper and winch stuck way out front. (Finally—and perhaps this is strictly my own prejudice—it had too much of a poseur air about it, as though I was broadcasting that I frequently ventured to places where I’d undoubtedly need it, which is far from true. All it needed as an accent was a pair of limb risers.)

The mounts I see directly under the windshield of Wranglers are better in terms of weight distribution, I suppose, but can’t be very convenient for one person to access; the chances of slipping and gouging the hood must be fairly high. And I worry about the strength of those mounts in the event of a crash—say if you’re rear-ended and that 31-pound jack really wants to come back through the windshield at you.

All this brings me to another way to keep the mechanism clean: simply cover it. This would seem to be axiomatic, yet it took me 30 years before I finally bought one of those zip-on neoprene booties that “protect” just the mechanism.

Why did I put “protect” in quotes? Because I zipped this cover over one of our Hi-Lifts, which then sat on the truck for about a half year without being used. In the course of doing some electrical work on the vehicle I removed the jack, and out of curiosity took off the cover. Of course the plastic zipper (who thought that was a good idea?) took a pair of pliers to undo.

I was astonished to see not only more impacted dirt than I’d ever accumulated in an uncovered jack, but also some significant rust on bare metal parts. It appeared—at least in my impromptu experiment—that the jack cover did an excellent job of containing all the gunk that filtered past the necessarily imperfect seal, as well as holding in whatever moisture our southern Arizona climate let in. I can’t imagine what it would have looked like after the same period in a damper climate.

The cover went in the trash. I’ll just go back to WD40, because I’m not mounting a jack on the brush guard again.