Garage ceiling mounted bridge hoist idea

My chain hoist (lifted about 800 lbs once).

On 7 Mar 2005 04:33:13 GMT, Ignoramus17028 vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

And about which much advice for and against was given....

The best way to mount something like this would be to put a heavy steel channel strongback on top of the joists above the track to spread out the load. Secure the hoist track to the strongback with long bolts through the thickness of the ceiling to avoid weakening the joists by drilling holes in the highly stressed lower edges. With the load spread over several joists overloading should not be a problem. What is the total span of the joists and are they the bottom chords of a truss roof?.

The best way to mount something like this would be to put a heavy steel channel strongback on top of the joists above the track to spread out the load. Secure the hoist track to the strongback with long bolts through the thickness of the ceiling to avoid weakening the joists by drilling holes in the highly stressed lower edges. With the load spread over several joists overloading should not be a problem. What is the total span of the joists and are they the bottom chords of a truss roof?.

Time to up your life insurance policy. If you have to pay for health insurance then double your coverage asap.

Dude, 1/8" angle to hold that hoist plus load? Do you clean your guns loaded and cocked too?

Why not buy a folding engine lift?

It is not 1/8", it is at least 1/4". Held by 1/2" threaded rod.

i

Uni-strut can be used as track and they make matching trolleys. You can make your own trolleys by studying the catalogs.

I would not lift more that a couple hundred pounds on a questionable ceiling though.

Do not under any circumstances try to hang any significant load from the bottom chord of a truss roof. Truss roofs can only support loads on the top chords, the bottoms are limited to sheetrock and light fixtures.

If you have a truss roof an independently supported beam will be required. This beam can be located above the bottom chord of the trusses as long as there is sufficient clearance given so that no load can be exerted on the truss due to beam deflection. This will allow the crane track to be flush against the ceiling and supported by the beam above. The truss can be used to provide lateral support for the beam as long as the connections used insure that no vertical loads are placed on the truss.

If it is not a truss roof and they are "real" 2x6 joists at 24" centers then you *may* be able to get away with distributing the load across multiple joists by placing a suitably sized beam across the joists and anchoring your door track to that beam.

Consult an appropriate architectural engineering reference for the beam sizing and load limits for a 2x6 24" oc structure.

You also can not place multiples of the 500# door hangers close together, the door track is not designed for that loading. If you can lift what you need from a single 500# hanger then it can work.

A company called Spanco

produces a gantry system that is very similar to the barn door tracks. If you need to lift more than the 500# that the door system is rated for I recommend using the Spanco products. If a 500# limitation is ok I don't see any reason why you couldn't use the door tracks within the parameters they are engineered for.

Pete C.

"Roger_Nickel" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news2.actrix.gen.nz...

| > What I had in mind was to install three or so fifteen foot long barn | > door tracks in the area I usually work. Suspend from them on rollers a | > track (or two) that work like a bridge. Since my work area is partially | > under the garage door in the up position, I need the upper tracks to be in | > and out of the area, and parallel to the door track. The bridge has to be | > lower than the door and track, simply because the frame that holds up the | > end of the track is in the way. I'd have to have a rigid drop frame with | > the upper rollers to allow the bridge to clear the garage door track.

| The best way to mount something like this would be to put a heavy steel channel | strongback on top of the joists above the track to spread out the load. Secure | the hoist track to the strongback with long bolts through the thickness of the | ceiling to avoid weakening the joists by drilling holes in the highly stressed | lower edges. With the load spread over several joists overloading should not be | a problem. What is the total span of the joists and are they the bottom chords | of a truss roof?.

The open span across the ceiling is about 24' on a built in place ceiling and roof frame. There's 2x4's at the peak holding up the roof peak, or holding up the ceiling. One way or the other. Not prefab trusses, that's for sure. I've seen the unistrut roller track, until I go looking for it on the web. I can't seem to find it in either B-line or Unistrut's sites. Specifically looking for load ratings. How does the load rating of strut compare to door track? I never knew the load factors of the strut, but I like how strong the doubled up struts (back to back) were. Never had to buy any of it, so I don't know the price/load comparison between that and the door track. I like the idea of a beam or channel strongback. I can put one end directly on top of the wall (actually, it's over the garage door beam.) The joists run parallel to the garage door, so I assume you mean to run it perpendicular to the door. I wonder how to terminate the other end. Can I just dead end it? I'll have to do some rearranging of the stuff for sure, the kids have trashed all sense of organization I put up there! What's a good size/type that won't wind up being more weight than support? I hadn't planned on bolting through the joists, rather bolt around or make a bunch of U-bolts. I figured single legged ones would do the job if I used enough of 'em. I had originally wanted to do a four legged bridge crane like suggested from Spanco (thanks for the link!) but I have a car in the garage. There'd be more room if the car could be moved over, but I've got a compressor and a few engines on one side that are somewhat stored, and three or so on the near side that are in work. Lifting these engines are what I've got in mind. With the car/stuff as well as the garage door and track in the way I can't do that kind of system.

Not all of the Spanco systems are self supporting, a number of them are designed to mount to the building roof structure. Granted this is normally steel I beams, but the smaller Spanco stuff can be adapted to work in a wood frame garage type of structure.

If you want a full bridge and are willing to spend the money for Spanco components that are engineered for this you can make them work in your garage.

With the two bridge tracks mounted flush to the ceiling just in from the exterior walls you can support them with a relatively small beam above the joists to distribute the load across the joists. Since you are just a short distance in from where the joists are supported by the wall framing as opposed to mid span the load transfer is not too bad.

The last 4' of the joist up to and including the part on top of the wall should probably be sistered on at least one site with another piece of

2x6 to provide extra strength in that area.

The Spanco bridge is trussed to handle the load between the bridge tracks properly. The engineering for this would need to be confirmed by the Spanco folks but I think what I described would be appropriate for a bridge with a 1,000# max load rating.

The door track would likely work just fine for a single trolley track with a 500# max capacity and be a lot cheaper, but of course less flexible than a full bridge.

You also need to be concerned if you intend to put a point load in the middle of the garage door header since it may well not be sized to handle the additional load. The Spanco bridge would avoid this problem since it's supports would be along the walls.

Pete C.