Hanging hoist up high on gantry, any tricks

Bill D · Aug 23, 2016

I bought a used 1/4 ton electric chain hoist and muscled it up onto a trolley on my gantry. It weighs in at over 75 pounds, probably over 100 pounds, since a lot of the motor is cast iron as well as the cast iron gearbox.
As I am doing this I was wondering if there is some trick to lift it using it's own power. In industry how do the lift and place the multi-ton hoists? Do they just bring in big forklifts and small cranes? With the rope operated switch I am not sure if it would work in any orientation except the correct one.
Bil lD.

Monarchist · Aug 23, 2016

Bill D said:
I bought a used 1/4 ton electric chain hoist and muscled it up onto a trolley on my gantry. It weighs in at over 75 pounds, probably over 100 pounds, since a lot of the motor is cast iron as well as the cast iron gearbox.
As I am doing this I was wondering if there is some trick to lift it using it's own power. In industry how do the lift and place the multi-ton hoists? Do they just bring in big forklifts and small cranes? With the rope operated switch I am not sure if it would work in any orientation except the correct one.
Bil lD.

Hundred pounds? Usually one rigger or high iron worker just underhands the Mike Foxtrot to his mate atop the beam.

Lazier professionals arrive on-site with all sorts of goodies, specials for the task most of all. Their reg'lar Day Job that is.

Cordage. AKA 'ropes' is all YOU need. Generally kept handy for buckets of tools, fasteners, other small s**t.

A double-sheave pulley, set of two if you must, that you can hold in the palm of your hand makes short work of that mass. Cheap, too, even with poly or nylon line included.

Double-blocking your own hoist, trapped UNDER the crossbeam on its OWN line, no other gear to correct that? Then what? Sit astride the beam or hang off a ladder and try to lift it the last bit while fastening it?

That just makes a problem out of a solution even if you manage to avoid injury in the attempt.

Rope it up. Work tight to one end of the beam so you can tie-off directly onto the A-frame legs there.

Make sure it cannot fall and you don't have to take any real weight to move it about to line-up fasteners. Clamp it. Disconnect and put away the rigging.

Hunter's wild game hoist size and one tag line is all you need for this puppy.

Bill

Ries · Aug 23, 2016

personally, I use a come-along.
I always buy cheap come-alongs at garage sales, ten bucks or less- I have a half dozen of em.
plus, two lug-alls, which are cast aluminum come-alongs that are much higher quality than the ten dollar variety.
1 1/2 Ton Cable Hoist - Cable Hoists - Hoists - Lever Ratchet Hoists by LUG-ALL

Tyrone Shoelaces · Aug 24, 2016

Usually we'd have a fork lift truck on site so we'd use that.

We did have a sort of aluminium scissor type X shaped device that clamped onto the top of the I beam. It had arms with U shapes on the end. You could use this and a rope to lift smallish chain blocks. I never used it myself.

Regards Tyrone

DMF_TomB · Aug 24, 2016

Bill D said:
I bought a used 1/4 ton electric chain hoist and muscled it up onto a trolley on my gantry. It weighs in at over 75 pounds, probably over 100 pounds, since a lot of the motor is cast iron as well as the cast iron gearbox.
As I am doing this I was wondering if there is some trick to lift it using it's own power. In industry how do the lift and place the multi-ton hoists? Do they just bring in big forklifts and small cranes? With the rope operated switch I am not sure if it would work in any orientation except the correct one.
Bil lD.

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if i got a 5 ton chainfall with heavy long chains i use a 1/2 ton chainfaill that i choke a short strap around chains near 5 ton hoist. i lift close with 1/2 ton chainfall then cause 5 ton chainfall is supported or weight of chains held with 1/2 ton i only am picking up the 5 ton hoist itself and only for a foot or 2 and if i need to let it down and reposition ladder it is not a problem as still held close with 1/2 ton chainfall.
.
obviously going up a 40 foot ladder rated for 250lbs it is not a good ideal for a 200 lbs man with a 100 lb hoist on his shoulder so 300lb total it will overload the ladder. they got little 1/2 ton chainfalls you can pickup with one hand and use to easily pickup a much heavier hoist

js412000 · Aug 24, 2016

Here I am lifting a 2 ton capacity hoist into position with a pair of Griphoist come a longs. The nice thing about Griphoists is that they have long travel. In this application I was able to

lift from the floor to 12 feet high, without resetting the rigging.

It would have been easier to use a forklift, but mine would not go high enough.

Mark Rand · Aug 24, 2016

It might sound chicken, but before you start manhandling the hoist the last few inches while stood on the ladder, tie the ladder off. Even a G-cramp clamped to the beam with a loop of rope between it and a ladder rung will avoid you hanging by your hands if you slip. This is much more important with modern aluminium and fibre ladders than it was with heavier wooden ladders (which needed tying off to stop the bloody things twisting over when you were halfway up a 30 foot climb.)

Cole2534 · Aug 24, 2016

Mark Rand said:
It might sound chicken, but before you start manhandling the hoist the last few inches while stood on the ladder, tie the ladder off. Even a G-cramp clamped to the beam with a loop of rope between it and a ladder rung will avoid you hanging by your hands if you slip. This is much more important with modern aluminium and fibre ladders than it was with heavier wooden ladders (which needed tying off to stop the bloody things twisting over when you were halfway up a 30 foot climb.)

There is nothing chicken about securing a ladder before use.

SteveBausch · Aug 24, 2016

I have a Vermette material lift, and it's a handy thing to have, though it's limited to 12 feet. At the moment, mine has a plywood platform attached to it, and one could cheat a bit with a box mounted, to get a few more feet of lift. This one has 500 lb capacity.

Easy enough to bring one home from a rental agency; the column can break down into sections, so it would fit into a pickup.

Garwood · Aug 24, 2016

I bought a used JLG scissor lift. It will lift 600 lbs 20 feet. I use it a lot. I got tired of renting the new ones with so many safety systems you can't actually use them so I bought one about 10 years old and like it a lot.

Monarchist · Aug 24, 2016

Cole2534 said:
There is nothing chicken about securing a ladder before use.

Being averse to climbing the b***h to secure it BEFORE it is secured is a bit of 'Catch 22'.

I hadn't even thought of training a chicken to do it. Pretty good with ladders, but how are they with knots?

Tyrone Shoelaces · Aug 25, 2016

I've got halfway up a ladder and come back down. It was an old 30 ft wooden ladder and it was bouncing around for fun. That was when I was wiser and older. When I was young and foolish I roped two ladders together to get up high enough !

That's what age and wisdom does for you.

Regards Tyrone.

Clive603 · Aug 25, 2016

Come alongs are great for this sort of thing but get a decent one and make sure its actually properly rated for lifting. Many of the inexpensive ones aren't really lift capable as the ratchet tends to jam under a steady load. There is one such sitting under my bench! Box says two ton rated, ratchet jams at around 100 lb lift or equivalent continuous load. Great for pulling stuff that stays put at the end of each pull but otherwise ....

Clive

Toolroomguy · Aug 25, 2016

js412000 said:
It would have been easier to use a forklift, but mine would not go high enough.

View attachment 178830

We set the hoist on a short stack of pallets to make up the difference.

m16ty · Aug 25, 2016

That thing must be a old one to weigh that much. We've got a 2 ton electric hoist we use as a portable on jobs, two people can hang it fairly easy. We've also got a 1/4 ton that I can hang with one hand.

CatMan · Aug 26, 2016

The crew that used to work around me had a cradle built into the front of their (small) scissor lift. Set the hoist in the cradle. Get in the scissor lift and could literally position the hoist in the hanger so they could slide the pin in with one hand. Then just lower the scissor lift a little and pull forward a bit to finish the wiring.

wippin' boy · Aug 27, 2016

yep, scissor lift with a board across the side rails. a small scissor lift has 700lb capacity so that will lift a 400lb hoist and a fat guy to put the pin in it.

wippin' boy · Aug 27, 2016

if I had to do a 100lb hoist with no lift I would use a 3/8" nylon rope dead manned on the rail and then looped down to the floor and back over rail with hoist hanging by hook in loop. tighten the loop till hook gets up to trolley throw a shackle in it and be done.

jim rozen · Aug 28, 2016

Always have the young guy on the crew standing by underneath to catch it if the hoist comes loose. I've had to call the fire
department to get me down when I've climbed up a ladder too far....

Dresden · Aug 31, 2016

Block and tackle, rope slings, nylon straps,always worked for me, the stuff that hurts you is the twenty to fifty pounds because on the ground it handles easy, on a ladder , scaffold, or lift it gets deadly.

Hanging hoist up high on gantry, any tricks

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