Tame Your Trolley Jack

Trolley jacks are awesome tools. But they can be uncooperative during transportation. Fed up with it crashing around in the back of your truck, endangering pets and causing other mayhem? Wheels make it useful. Wheels make it unruly. What to do?

Step 1: Study Your Unruly Jack

Jacks vary in size and shape. Study your jack to discover where placement of four simple vertical rods would prevent any movement but up. In front of the rear wheels and behind the front wheels are good choices. But the opposite would work equally well.

Step 2: Find a Scrap Board and Some Dowels

Use one inch dowels if you can. With the jack on the board move the dowels around until you find good positions for them. Draw around the dowels with a pencil to mark the drilling points. Drill all the way through your board and glue the dowels in. Spoiler alert: the two little 5/8 inch dowels have a special purpose. Do them once the four main ones are secure.

Step 3: Immobilize Your Jack

Put your jack in its place at last. No more rolling around in the truck or trunk. It works. The only place it can go is up, so avoid inverted flight or consider adding a bungee cord.

Step 4: Stow the Jack Handle

That's what those two little dowels are for. No more handle rolling around either. Find the best placement as you did with the four main rods. They should hold your handle in place but let you remove it easily.

Step 5: Make It Pretty

Bevel the cut edges of your dowels with a sanding block and splice on some nice hemp rope handles. Serve the ragged ends of the splices with jute twine. Love your newly tamed jack.