recovery.

Agreed,you may only need to be pulled back a foot to then get traction and reverse out and try again. Rather that than pull yourself forward through an obstacle risking getting stuck worse or damaging the vehicle.

I was thinking I could mount the high lift to my roofrack and carry the straps inside a box in the boot.any thoughts on the ratchet strap idea?

I'd go for the 5 metere strops, the first ones you put up are only realy for tying down onto a trailer
Weve used strops to recover range rovers with out any problems

In what way would the strops be used?please enlighten me Im talking for self recovery.

The limitation with the ratchet straps is you can only get about a foot of pull before the drum is full, and half of that will be taking up the slack. I've recovered a stuck quad with a ratchet strap and it was effective but very time consuming.

The farm jack has similar limitations, is heavy and bulky and needs an assortment of other bits to 'rig' it up.

I'd go for the Tirfor type hand winch because you can get a nice long pull, it's fairly compact and easy to set up. 1600kg is fine for pulling you back out of trouble.

I think youve slightly mis understood my idea for the ratchet straps, I thought they could be used instead of the chains you generally use in conjunction with a high lift jack as you could ratchet it all tight taking up any slsck rather than the jack taking up the slack first thus maximising the pull you get with the jack.

so it would go tree then ratchet strap to the high lift then tow strap to the jimny, so you would the ratchet the jack to the tree taking up the excess slack then use the full extent of the high lift to winch with.Then if you need to readjust the jack for a second pull you employ the second ratchet strap to hold the jimny like the short chain in a high lift recovery kit.does that make sense?

anyone got a picture of a tirfor winch in the boot of a jimny so I can see how big it is?

Reading this with interest cos I reckon you'll end up wanting a bumper mounted winch!