What will I do with this?

firefighter ontheside · October 15, 2023, 01:15:14 PM

I'm gonna get this hoist. It came from the St Louis airport. They were using it for something important, but I don't know what. Someone with authority decided it was not suitable for that purpose, so my friend, a scrapper, picked it up. He didn't want to send it to the scrap yard and so asked if I wanted it. I'm thinking to use it on my trailer or flatbed somehow to help load logs. It doesnt have a winch of any kind. It is just a hydraulic hoist. Maybe its an engine hoist. Anyone have any great ideas or have used one yourself? Currently its welded to a dolly.

doc henderson · October 15, 2023, 01:25:40 PM

It looks like an engine hoist but for the base. it would be handy on the back end of a flatbed. my brother built one and used round pipe over another pipe, so the whole thing could swivel at the base. he put a winch on it so he could lift stuff to the back of the truck. and you also got a free cart!

Resonator · October 15, 2023, 01:40:42 PM

Looks to be a hydraulic hoist for a small service (mechanics) truck. And seeing the round steel disk below the lower hydraulic ram bracket, I think it spins like a jib crane.
Guessing someone "fabricobbled" it together with a push cart thinking it would be handy, and it got rejected when they realized you need a wider wheel base under the crane to keep it stable while lifting.
If you cut the welds off between the base plate and cart you could mount it to a trailer or truck bed. Just keep in mind it's probably only rated for 1 ton of lift, (the farther out the boom you hook the chain, the less strength), so you'd have to be right next to the object to lift it.

firefighter ontheside · October 15, 2023, 02:27:17 PM

Good point Doc. When I take it apart I will have two free items to use.

I saw that circular plate and just thought it came apart right there. I hadn't considered that it swiveled there. I have only seen the pic and haven't put my hands on it. That would be my plan...to back up close to something and lift it up, even if its only one end, then I could winch it the rest of the way. I'll update you when I get the thing. My buddy borrowed my trailer to pick up the trailer load of scrap at the airport, so all he has to do is take the rest of the stuff off the trailer and bring the trailer and hoist to me. That will be next week though. I'm leaving for a week of training tonight.

Downstream · October 15, 2023, 08:40:30 PM

I have a smaller version of that crane mounted on the front of my 14' 7000# tandem trailer. I used mine to pick up chunks of wood that I could put on my sawmill for large cookie slices. I added a smaller HF electric winch to mine to drag the chunks over to the trailer and then lift up onto my bed. I used lifting tongs to grab the wood.

Tom King · October 16, 2023, 10:17:11 AM

There are light duty jib cranes like that.

Steel Winch Operated Pickup, Trailer & Truck Jib Crane WTJ-4 2000 Lb.

I have an old engine hoist that someone gave me because the hydraulic jack was damaged. The Harbor Freight replacement jack for it has worked trouble free for I forget how many years now. It should be the same jack.

doc henderson · October 16, 2023, 11:39:20 AM

FF I think you are right. the round plate with bolts prob. holds it together. The one in the past pic is made with round tube (pipe) and prob has a length of just smaller pipe inside what you see to make it pivot. If you remake it, you could make it fit a base, and have one on the truck and trailer to use it on both. lift it with your tractor.

firefighter ontheside · October 21, 2023, 09:45:19 AM

I just got home from the mock deployment last night. It was a good time with very realistic scenarios. The victims are fulltime employees whose job it is to portray injured victims of different scenarios. We had to carry them out of destroyed buildings. Several we had to bring down from second stories out of windows. I won't go into detail about what the medical specialists did with cadavers.

I will go out soon and get a better look at the crane and hopefully answer some questions about it like capacity and does it swivel.

firefighter ontheside · October 21, 2023, 10:57:26 AM

Just went out and looked. It looks good, but the ram retracts almost as fast as it extends. The release is tight. I guess it has a bad seal or O ring. maybe that can be fixed. I suspect that is the real reason it was sent to the scrap pile. It does indeed swivel which is nice if I can get it fixed. I'm not sure what the weight rating is. It looks like that has been worn off or it faded. It is welded to a piece of plate steel which is then welded to the cart. Will have to do a bunch of grinding to get it loose. Not sure if I will leave it welded to the plate steel or grind those welds. I think if I leave it on that steel it will stand on its own. Then I can bolt it to the trailer or truck. Hopefully I'm getting that truck back this week. Its been at the shop for weeks waiting for a new, new ECM.

21incher · October 21, 2023, 04:23:02 PM

I have that exact same one I bought 30 years ago at one of those roadside tent tool sales they used to have. Was going to make a stand for my receiver hitch that sat off to the side with a drop foot. Still sitting there collecting dust and probably my wife will sell it for a dollar when I die because there are 1000 projects in front of that.

Old Greenhorn · October 21, 2023, 08:24:05 PM

That should work great on the FB Bill. I had a lighter duty one that I mounted on my mushroom log trailer. I put it just forward of amidships so that the swing radius would let me put log bundles either in the front, middle, or rear. The weight ratings on those vary depending on how far the boom is out. That cylinder/jack is US made so it should be very easy to get seals, etc. It's very common on engine hoists.
2 things come to mind: 1st, when you mount it, put something under the bed to add thickness and spread the load if you bolt through the bed plate and don't bolt through the frame. When those things swing with weight on them, they will lean and flex the bed. 2nd, I don't see any pins to lock rotation in one spot. You may want to drill through that mast the put a pin in, at least for use during transport so it isn't swinging against the cable.
I greased the heck out of my mast and it did what I needed.
I think that will be dang handy on the flat bed. Before you start, just check and see if you can lift some from the ground to bed height with the stroke on that cylinder, otherwise, I'm not sure how you can get thing in the truck without a auxiliary winch added for lifting.

firefighter ontheside · October 22, 2023, 09:30:53 AM

Yeah Tom, I figure I will want to add a winch of some kind. I doubt I would be able to lift a log from the ground to the FB without one. There is a T handle that screws through the outer tube and pushes against the inner tube to lock it from spinning. It is visible in the last pic. I will look for parts this week to see about repairing the jack. I will definitely beef up the under side of the bed. There is no way the aluminum deck is strong enough.