I bought the Sears Yellow Professional jack to lift my new Heritage. Problem is, with the Heritage, or any Softail I think, the Shock Absorbers stick down a little lower than the frame, so you need to add spacers so the Jack is on the frame and not lifting via the Shocks.

I know Harley makes "Frame Protectors" for this, but here is a different idea if you have the Sears jack.

The Sears jack comes with two extra plates in case you have a dirt bike with a higher frame and need more lift height. I didn't need them, so I cut off the mounting shafts on the back of the plates.

I then removed the rubber bumpers, drilled holes, and attached the plates to the jack at the same distance as the frame rails on my Heritage. Then I used Contact Cement to re-glue the rubber bumbers back down.

The extra height is just enough so that the jack contacts the frame and misses the shocks while still being low enough to fit under the frame rails. Works pretty good.

 

Sweet Mod, Im going to try that one.

 

very cool ill have to look for an xtra set due to needing them for my dirt bikes and make them removeable great idea, thanx

 

I have the same jack but don't jack up that far back to hit the shocks. With that jack if you were to put it that far back most of your weight is forward and unless it is strapped down well, that thing is going to tip forward.

Yes I know there are times when you need the jack out of the way but I usually aim to balance the bike on the jack so that the straps just keep me from doing something stupid, not hold the entire weight of the bike. So is my heritage an oddity or am I missing something?

 

Good ingenuity on your part - I know quite a few Softail owners w/this jack who used blocks, but this is a better solution. Thanks for sharing.

 

Smart move. Necessity is the mother of all invention.

 

I'm using the old standard Sears Red jack and don't have any problem with the double shocks on the softail preventing the jack from lifting on the frame. Could it be that the lift pads on the Yellow jack are closer together then on the Red Jack?!

 

You will not damage the shocks if the lift pads hit them. If it did, my shocks would be toast. I've had my bike in the air to many times to count. I now have the progressive 422's and jack it the same way. Everyone I know jacks it the same as I do w/o a problem.
Personally I think it looks like an accident waiting to happen jacking it that way!

 

Hi, I try to find the "center balance point" also so I don't have to use straps. With my Heritage, there was no way I could balance the bike on the jack and not have the jack pads hit the shocks (at least on the rear), the front might have cleared, I can't remember.

This way though, wherever you need to lift, you don't have to worry about hitting the shocks instead of the frame.

 

I've got the same jack but I just use the HD frame protectors. I figured out where they needed to be so the bike is balanced and cut out a little bit of the edges so that they fit nice and snug to the frame. The only problem I have is when I work on the bike and then forget to take them off before I go for a ride. Not cool going out with bright orange rubber strips on the frame.