DIY Wood Gantry or 2 Ton Engine Hoist/Lift??

[RichardJ]

If you are buying a hoist there are a couple of things to look at. You'll notice that some have a medium to large offset at the rear of the boom. Before I bought this one called a Big Red by Torin, I borrowed and rented a few different styles.
The ones with a straight boom can have limitation on the amount of lift. The straight boom works fine lifting an engine out of a car, but on a truck, a straight boom can rest on the radiator support. The offset allows the boom to reach over and down. If you use long chains or a leveler, then you have to make sure the hoist has a total lifting height to get the engine over the radiator support. The offset boom also provides more clearance for bed side rails when lifting a bed from the side. A straight boom will come in contact with the bed before you have it half way up.

That extra tall cherry picker that 68'Orange has, can avoid the problems that many normal size hoists have, but at a cost of storage space.
I do have concerns about the mast bracing location on that hoist. The bracing and the ram terminate at the same spot on the mast. The bracing on many hoists including mine, extend farther up the mast to provide overlapping triangulation points.
My hoist, like most are rated at 2 Tons, but the Ram is rated at 8 Tons. There is a lot of forces acting on the mast and shouldn't be concentrated on one point.

The ram on mine is really long and has a pneumatic pump. I would say the pump isn't really necessary, but it would take half a day to pump it up by hand from the collapsed position. The boom has to be completely collapsed before you lift the legs on my foldable hoist.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by RichardJ

If you are buying a hoist there are a couple of things to look at. You'll notice that some have a medium to large offset at the rear of the boom. Before I bought this one called a Big Red by Torin, I borrowed and rented a few different styles.
The ones with a straight boom can have limitation on the amount of lift. The straight boom works fine lifting an engine out of a car, but on a truck, a straight boom can rest on the radiator support. The offset allows the boom to reach over and down. If you use long chains or a leveler, then you have to make sure the hoist has a total lifting height to get the engine over the radiator support. The offset boom also provides more clearance for bed side rails when lifting a bed from the side. A straight boom will come in contact with the bed before you have it half way up.

That extra tall cherry picker that 68'Orange has, can avoid the problems that many normal size hoists have, but at a cost of storage space.
I do have concerns about the mast bracing location on that hoist. The bracing and the ram terminate at the same spot on the mast. The bracing on many hoists including mine, extend farther up the mast to provide overlapping triangulation points.
My hoist, like most are rated at 2 Tons, but the Ram is rated at 8 Tons. There is a lot of forces acting on the mast and shouldn't be concentrated on one point.

The ram on mine is really long and has a pneumatic pump. I would say the pump isn't really necessary, but it would take half a day to pump it up by hand from the collapsed position. The boom has to be completely collapsed before you lift the legs on my foldable hoist.

Space was not a problem, so we built it stout.
As far as engineering, it was our first cherry-picker, so we just made it work.
We may have copied existing lifts. Quarter inch steel straps were used on diagonal bracing, like the in-store versions.
In retrospect, I would not have ''dumb-wheel'' casters in the mid point again, swiveling-type would be better for moving the whole unit under load. The straight casters were unwieldy.
After 13 or 14 years, the lift has held up well. But I don't change an engine every week.

[Artofdeath]

Originally Posted by RichardJ

If you are buying a hoist there are a couple of things to look at. You'll notice that some have a medium to large offset at the rear of the boom. Before I bought this one called a Big Red by Torin, I borrowed and rented a few different styles.
The ones with a straight boom can have limitation on the amount of lift. The straight boom works fine lifting an engine out of a car, but on a truck, a straight boom can rest on the radiator support. The offset allows the boom to reach over and down. If you use long chains or a leveler, then you have to make sure the hoist has a total lifting height to get the engine over the radiator support. The offset boom also provides more clearance for bed side rails when lifting a bed from the side. A straight boom will come in contact with the bed before you have it half way up.

That extra tall cherry picker that 68'Orange has, can avoid the problems that many normal size hoists have, but at a cost of storage space.
I do have concerns about the mast bracing location on that hoist. The bracing and the ram terminate at the same spot on the mast. The bracing on many hoists including mine, extend farther up the mast to provide overlapping triangulation points.
My hoist, like most are rated at 2 Tons, but the Ram is rated at 8 Tons. There is a lot of forces acting on the mast and shouldn't be concentrated on one point.

The ram on mine is really long and has a pneumatic pump. I would say the pump isn't really necessary, but it would take half a day to pump it up by hand from the collapsed position. The boom has to be completely collapsed before you lift the legs on my foldable hoist.

She should work just fine there Maynard! Gratz on the new lift!