I have the following chain hoist setup in my garage. A cheap chinese 2 ton rated manual chain hoist.It is hanging on a 2" about 5/16 thick T beam that spans three joistsin the garage ceiling. It is attached to these three joists with six5/16" lag screws, two for each joist. It is about 5 feet away from awall that supports these joists. The joists are spaced 16" apart. WhenI screwed the lag bolts, I drilled pilot holes for them with a 3/16"drill bit. None of these bolts was overstressed during screwing in.Now, I am not asking for what is the maximum weight after which theceiling will buckle. What I am asking is what is a conservative weightunder which it would be extremely unlikely to buckle.Specifically, would it be able to handle 700-1000 lbs?i

I did a quick look through my calculations manual under the heading of lag screws. I would STRONGLY advise against using your setup. A few things to keep in mind:1) Your 'T' beam is unlikely to be stiff enough to distribute the load across multiple beams. You need to figure all the load is on just one (possibly 2) joist(s).2) you are hanging all the load verticaly on the threads of the lag bolts. You didn't say how long the bolts are or what kind of wood they are going into but your max load is a low few hundred pounds per bolt. Most lag bolts are pretty wimpy steel so even with good wood you are limited by the break strength of the bolt itself.3) Even though you used 2 bolts per joist, they are fairly close together, they will tend to pull out together when the wood splits. It's better than just one but not a lot better.4) Sounds like you plan to pull an engine. A lot of times it will get stuck on something as you pull it out, you lift the car a bit, it pops free. Resulting load can...

How much load can this chain hoist setup handle?

Oct 30, 2004 23 Replies

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Ignoramus19950 21 years ago

Thanks to all. Here's my plan for now. But a 6 foot or so of 6x6 or

4x8 wood. Put it in the attic, on top of the joists, perpendicular to them, right above the T beam that holds the hoist. Put 3/8" or 1/2" threaded rods through the wood piece, down and to bolt some metal brace underneath the T beam to these rods. That, I think, could easily hold a ton, which is more than I need.

The wood piece above the joists would span something like 5 joists.

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Ignoramus19950 21 years ago

Yes, they are joists, I have attic above them. There is some stuff in the attic, but not a lot (some kids toys and clothes).

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j.b. miller 21 years ago

Sure hope those are JOISTS and NOT trusses !

Trusses aren't designed(usually) for ANY kind of 'hanging' load on them...

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Ken Sterling 21 years ago

Yeah, Brian, ya just never know what'll crawl out from under that pile of swarf.... teehee Hiya Fitch - it's been a while - you must be getting caught up on your honeydew list... Glad to see ya. Ken.

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