HF truck crane

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:36:44 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus10340 quickly quoth:

I have this one and it has been great. I haven't tried it for a full half ton yet, though. I cut a hole in the bed and welded angle iron to a bracket on the frame for strength.

If I had it todo over, I'd go with the 37555.

-- We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. -- Etty Hillesum

I've got one, and used it until I sold the pickup. It worked. but was a pain in the butt to use. You must have a truck with suspension that can handle it. you need to secure it to the frame, not the truck floor. Lifting a small V8 into the back of a Ranger was an experience. I ended putting jack stands under the rear of the truck. The unit performed as advertized, the truck didn't. gary

No, yes, and yes.

First of all, I have not used the crane. Yet, by optical examination, it seems borderline.

I was Offshore Petroleum Institute certified rigger, and ran a 30 ton crane on an offshore drilling platform for more than two years, so I have a LITTLE bit of experience.

The weak points are:

Steel: HF and the Chicoms are advancing in their metallurgy, and the hardness of their steel is improving. Things that would wear out a few years ago are lasting longer now. It all depends on the application. Hard use will bring out the weak points FAST.

Examine the working loads. Just because the unit is rated at 1,000#, it will last far longer if you only use it to lift 250 or 500, or even 750 occasionally than 1,000 24/7.

Watch the connections. The terminal sockets, the cable ends that have the sockets either pressed on there, or (correctly) have them poured with molten metal are subject to coming off. The sheaves (rollers) are subject to wear and failure. Easily replaced, but catastrophic if not noticed in time before failure mode. Replace roller pins with #8 grade bolts.

They're like come-a-longs. Good ones, you just go out and use. Cheap ones, you have to watch and repair as you go along.

This unit may do well and serve you a long time. But keep an eye on it, and service whenever and wherever you notice wear.

One last thing.

Lots of people over rate their pickups. The basal mounting and the mounting to the side wall are critical. Leverage is everything, and even the absolute spendiest best davit (which is what this is essentially , a davit, not the best and spendiest) will pull out with the right leverage in a millisecond while you are watching it do so. So, be aware of your loads, your angles, and such. BTW, the way this is pictured with the base attached, and not the mast to the sidewall of the truck is an accident waiting to happen, and I don't think would lift my mother-in-law safely. Some lateral bracing would be appropriate, inexpensive, and entirely correct.

Again, I'm no expert. I've just seen a lot of stuff work and a lot of stuff fail. These are the strong points I see and the weak ones, too. Mainly realize that this is no stiff leg or A frame that will lift a lot of weight. And even one of those has to be level or it gets hairy.

Steve

Larry, thanks. Just curious how the bed would hold up to this crane.

i

I have a 3/4 ton pickup, so I think that it would hold up to 1,000 lbs.

However, I am not sure if the bed would.

i

Yes, great points on safety and ratings. I was mostly going to use it for 200-400 lbs stuff.

i

I've got one - you may have seen the grey Dodge with the Orange pole in the back around. It is OK but:

1/ mounting it to the box bottom even with reinforcement doesn't cut it. I have to re-do mine one of these days. The boom has been off for months now since it broke the welds in the box. 2/ the winch is very poor quality - I stripped it - I can't think what I was doing at the time - maybe trying to get the B&S surface grinder off the pallet at about about 700lbs I think. (I didn't have an engine hoist at the time.)

Other than that I think pretty good for the price.

Cheers, rem

For that weight range, I would use it myself, BUT, I would still put in the lateral bracing, and when bolting it to the bed, realize that truck beds are only slightly stonger than aluminum foil.

Any time you can brace or bracket it over to a frame member, the better. No problem for a metal worker.

Steve

I agree with pretty much everything SteveB says but don't attach it to the side of a common pickup truck at the back - I know from experience that a side force here will quickly impare the usefullness of the tail gate. Been there done that - I didn't attach it but I did have it lean over against it. It was a lot harder it seems to get the side back to where the gate would latch than it seemed to be to push it out.

It is cheap steel - the p>

Ignoramus10340 wrote in news:GcadnXr15MUxF7vanZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I had one. The cable snapped (I can't estimate the load). Luckily, no one was hurt.

You sure about that 700 pounds? B&S didn't make lousy equipment, which means that a surface grinder, for which they have a respectable reputation, would likely weigh in more like 3,000 pounds.

Harold

....

I bought the smaller one from Homier and made a removeable 4" pipe extension and winch mount plus end pulley like the tall one for appliances. Since you stand on the ground to operate the short one and in the bed for the taller one, the short one is easier to operate on sloping ground where the load wants to swing and the taller one is better for stuffing in several pieces of heavy equipment, like moving a friend's machine shop. The short one is fine for single items.

It mounts on steel cross bars held by the bed bolts so I didn't have to modify the truck at all. Both the mounting bars and the suspension of my Ranger were maxed out lifting a 700 Lb oak log behind the truck, although they took it better within the bed.

It's a handy thing to have when welding up something heavy or to lift a lawnmower or snow thrower up onto the tailgate to work on them.

Jim Wilkins

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:59:34 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus10340 quickly quoth:

A Ford bed will, but I'm not sure about a Dodgy, er, Dodge bed, Ig. Truck frames aren't built to support that kind of lateral stress, either, though. It's all a crap shoot unless you use a 1T truck with a utility bed on it. They're heavily built to handle the stresses.

-- We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. -- Etty Hillesum

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:58:36 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus10340 quickly quoth:

I didn't measure it but the hole I cut in my '90 F-150 bed felt like

16 ga to me, and it was tough to cut with my impact chisel until I let the compressor top off. Chisels like 120psi better than 80 for some strange reason. ;)

Given my druthers, I'd cut a clearance hole in the bed, lift the bed, weld a section of 2 x 6 (8?) x 1/4" U-channel across the rails, and bolt the crane upright to it. Then I'd boot the opening. YMMV

My new Tundra will have a composite bed. That ought to be interesting to work with.

-- We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. -- Etty Hillesum

I have a Chevy now.

I will look to see if I can find a steel plate that is wide than the base of the crane.

i

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:55:05 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, Jim Wilkins quickly quoth:

I used mine like a tow truck and lift for my neighbor's Deere riding lawnmower. His front end lost a balljoint so I roped the steering column and foot pedals, hauled it in, and kept it on the "hook" to replace the joints. Very handy. One drawback, I mounted it on the right rear of the truck. That puts the pump bar close to the bedside and isn't optimal. Luckily, until there is weight on it, the pump will swivel around.

The winch/pulley combo is an addition I'm considering if I keep the crane when I get the new truck.

-- We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. -- Etty Hillesum

Larry, I googled "harbor freight" "truck crane" and there is a consensus that the crane would completely mangle the bed.

Some some reinforcement is needed.

I am thinking about finding something like a 3/8", 16x16 steel square that I could bolt to the bed, and then I would mount the crane on that.

More pain in the butt.

i

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:48:33 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus1285 quickly quoth:

Condolences.

See my other post in regard to beefing up the mount on the frame. Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Not even that will do it. You will need to make a mount under the bed that goes to the frame to carry the actual load. Beds are not made to handle the kind of load a crane puts on it.

The mount needs to be something like a piece of 2 x 6 x 1/4w" rectangular tubing (you need tubing not channel in order to handle the twisting load). Run this across the top of the frame under the bed and attach it to both frame rails. Then a plate on top where the hoist mounts that is tight up against the bottom of the bed. At that point you will need to make spacers to fill the grooves of the bed between the plate and the base of the hoist. Then you can bolt through and clamp the bed between the two plates.

The only other way would be to have a piece of 1/2" plate about 3 to

4 foot square to mount it to and then I wouldn't trust it for full rated load.

It's worse than that.