Harbor Freight hoist and trolley

I have a like or the same beam unit. Mine is about 8 feet short for me.

I do have the second trolly on mine - they are 'universal' for different rail systems. Keep the drop loop in the center of the beam by shims. Mine has a motor for transport along the H beam. That is important.

I had a hand chain but went electric chain (a monster I got from my Uncle). I like it but it was a pain in getting it on the eye.

I pickup heavy sheets of metal and move them to a cnc table with mine.

Mart> I have a 10 foot tall, 12 foot wide A frame gantry (I got it kind of > for free).

I have an electric cable (not chain) hoist too. It cost me very little. It has a motorized trolley also. Nicem 3 phase, 18 FPM unit. The problem is that the minimum distance between the rollers is a little bit bigger than would be proper for a 5 inch wide I beam. The hoist would never fall, but it would not ride on ther inside of the wheels either. So, I decided to sell that electric cable hoist.

I modified my 1 ton trolley to fit 3" channel so neither the trolley nor the track are good for 1 ton. It works fine at ~700 Lbs. One of the wheel ball bearings was open on the back side, no seal or shield.

My Chinese (not HF) chain hoist pulled a stump at its measured full rating. The chain was still fairly easy to pull, the down side being that the high reduction ratio makes it VERY slow. It is tricky to keep the hand chain feeding smoothly horizontally or even at much of an angle from vertical but that may not be unique to the imports.

Load scales / force gauges are very nice to have if you are pushing stuff near its capacity. You could hook the lift chain to the gantry's base and confirm the load rating.

jsw

My A frame's I-beam is 5 inches wide. I would like, I think, to have it working at full 3 ton capacity.

What do you think about safety of those hoists. I had my 2 ton Chinese (not HF) hoist for maybe 10 years, and at most used it to lift something that weighed 1 ton.

On 1/14/2012 9:09 PM, Ignoramus5125 wrote: ...

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No way to tell.

Note they do _not_ bear any ANSI or other Standard-conformance notices whatsoever.

What scares me most about HF stuff is the uncertainty--one may be as good as anything from any supplier, the next of the same batch may or may not be. You just don't have anything to go on except they're inexpensive import stuff...

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All I meant was that I can't test it at full load. The ball bearings didn't -look- very good but my experience wouldn't tell. They are easily replaced. I made a new solid shaft that joins the plates, with a necked section in the center to take a lever hoist hook directly and increase headroom.

Well, my 2 ton hoist hasn't broken or dropped anything yet, at least while I was using it. A kid borrowed it to pull an engine hoist back away from the car, became impatient and tipped the hoist over and broke an exhaust manifold, but I can't blame the chain hoist instead of his ADHD. He's the one I mentioned previously who "borrowed" and shattered his father's brittle aluminum tooling plate.

I wish the hand chain fed better from an angle so I could stand further away from under the load. An electric one with a remote pendant wouldn't help when I tie the hoist up in a tree way out in the woods, to pull a jammed tree down. I probably overloaded it that time.

The 2 ton model was the heaviest I could safely hook on or off the overhead hanger eye with one hand while up on an unsteady stepladder. The task is easier with the chain raised up in the bucket, whenever there is a separate hook to suspend it. That shouldn't matter as much indoors or on pavement.

I really can't tell you how safe they are, especially without proof testing yours.

jsw