I have a 12'x30' loft, and it's great for storage, but getting stuff up there is a royal pain in, well, everything. I just ain't got the strength I used to, and the thought of hauling heavy stuff up steps results in stuff being piled in corners all over the work area instead. I came up with a simple and cheap solution, and it works great. So far I just used it for a 42" mower deck, but it was effortless. Next up is an electric winch so I can lift from below. This is as useful as my lift table. struggling is for suckers. It's just a Harbor Freight truck bed crane. I have unistrut under the joists, and a steel plate up top with some angle, and bolted through the whole thing. It's more than adequate for my use. I won't be lifting anything over 350# with it. Getting old sucks, but I ain't ready to throw in the towel yet.
I use a gatorlift that I attached the two winch cables to a 3' x 5' wood platform with stirrups at each end... I can load all kinds of parts or materials into my attic with ease...
I was looking at youtube videos of similar lifts, but I don't have enough clear space for that. Too many benches and tool boxes under my loft. That would be the ticket though. I guess I could get another 30' long I beam and add another 12'x30' of storage...
I agree about the getting old stuff. I used to be able to carry a transmission from my truck to the back of the shop. Now, I'd have to use my engine hoist and a dolly to move one.
Just in case anyone would be interested, this is how I mounted it. I have two pieces of unistrut running across three joists, (48" across.) I sandwiched in a 24" piece of 1-3/4 angle to help spread the load on the joist. Up top I made a mounting base that reaches the I beam, and that is on a piece of 1/8" thick 24x24" aluminum just for good measure. I don't know if it helps or not, but it already had a hole in the center. I figured most of the load will be pushing down on the beam in front, and pulling up on the rear unistrut from below. I used 5/8" bolts in the back, and 1/2" allthread in the front. My full weight (250#) doesn't even budge the thing. It's probably a good idea to keep it to one end instead of near the center too.
The problem I see is the wood beam may crush and cause the bolts and all thread to loosen and allow the whole thing to loosen and twist causing it to fail with an extremely heavy load.
Cranking a handle was too much work. I added a 120V HF winch to the boom, and all is well. This will be the typical use it sees. Stuff that isn't too heavy, but a royal pain to climb ladder steps with.
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