Mod, re-mod, de-mod, all because of theft attempt

[mjmcdowell]

Hello all... well I almost had a bad day/night recently, someone unknown tried to remove my Hi-Lift mounted on my tool box while I was at a mall with my son. They got the wing nuts off and it looked like they then yanked on it and were (thankfully) foiled by the cable and lock that I had threaded thru the jack mechanism and the mount. I check the mount wingnuts often and tighten them with a wrench so I know the did not work loose. the jack mounted also prevented the removal of an "HJ" shovel, axe and a pick axe head , get the jack... you get it all. I have a worklight and a fire ext. on the roof rack and they were not touched tho. Well the red flag went up and as I do not use all of the available space in the tool boxI decided to re-mod/de-mod (which I have been toying with this just made me act), off came the tool box which I replaced with a much, much smaller (more bed space regained!!!) one that holds my recovery gear and is managable enough so that I don't have to haul all the weight of straps, clevis(s), chain etc. around unless I need to slide in, or out and secure with a ratchet strap when I want to have it along. Now I had the problem of Jack, axe, etc. storage. Now this might not be for some but so far (a weeks worth of driving around) it has worked for me, I was able to mount the High-lift behind the rear seat base on the drivers side na with the removal of the stock jack cover I could strap the Hi-lift to its mount. The jack -all was wedged firmly and strapped between the the jack and the rear wall and the shovel, axe, pick handle fit neatly in the space in the piller under the right side rear seat belt along with the pickhead, all strapped in tight. I put an old rubber mat over the part of the jack that came in slight contact with the rear seat back, a pair of gloves, tow strap and the jack pad fit also, amazingly nothing rattles or has come loose (I will check regulary) so far. I have used those tools and the jack twice in the last 4 years so getting them in a hurry is not a concern, after all if I need them then the whole trip experience becomes more interesting and time consuming. Out of sight and not tempting anymore also no weather wear concern any more. The snow,salt season is about to decend on us up here where I live so thats good. Hmmmmm now a "Can-Back" cover or a tonneau cover, perhaps from Santa? I may have to give this some thought, ha! stay safe everybody, and if you have tools mounted on the outside of your rig think of ways to make it hard for the casual thief to get. mjmcdowell