My garage has 2x4 trusses approximately 25' span. What can I do to hang my chain hoist from a truss so I can pull engines? Can I glue and nail/bolt a bunch of 2x4's together and make a sort of "glue lam" to one of the trusses? I would hate more than anything to crack one of my trusses or drop an engine. Could I run some sort of tube perpindicular over a number or trusses and hang the hoist between two trusses from the tube? Anyhere here a structural engineer who can keep me from caving my garage in on myself or dropping an engine on my fingers?? Thanks-
how far apart are the suports for the trusses. if its 25 feet from one side to the other with out anything in the middle when you put that kind of weight in it its gona snap. just a factor
umm,,, instead of trashing your rafters, and your shop... why dont you just buy a stand alone hoist for the $200... youll use it a lot more than you think once you have it
i would****ume them to be on 24 inch centers? if that is the case i could probably try to slip a 2 inch pipe perpendicular to the bottom cord (2x4) and span across 4 trusses at the intersection of where the webs (cross brace 2x4) are located. this will spread the load across 4 trusses, and if the pipe is kept in the crotch of where the webs are plated to the bottom cord you should have no problem with up to the weight of 750 lbs or so. what you dont want to do is load the bottom cord anywhere between where the webs are plated to it.. this places bending forces on the lower cord, something it was not disigned to do. when you load at or very near the web plate you put a tension load on the web, that is in the design of the truss.. also dont do it with a heavy snow load on the roof, i guess that goes without saying. you will hear some creaking and groaning,, but that is normal. snapping and popping are not normal... bob
Dan, my last house had a 20 x 20 detached garage with 2x4 trusses. Pulled many a motor/trans combos with a treated 4x4x8 thrown up in the rafters. I made sure to never be under the motor, and it was always a quick up and down, never hung for long. Don't do that no more, either 1 rent a hoist, on 35 a day 2buy one, not alot of money 3 make friends with someone with one, and borrow it. BE SAFE....Scott
WHe I was 5 Dad bought us kids a swing set, but he knew we were a bunch of screw ups so he bought one made out of some fairly hevy wal pipe instead of thos light-ass tubing set that if two kids swing even on they tip over. So when we got older and started screwin around with engines we would press the old swing set and carry it into the driveway and put the chain fall over it and yank any engine out with it. It obviously didn't have wheels on it so we had to keep the wheels on the car so we could roll it out from under the engine rather than roll the engine away from the car. If you build an A frame make sure you triangulate the legs with the cross-bar of th "A"
Every swap meet has a vendor selling tools & hoists. Josh & i bought one about 10 yrs ago for $175, use it alot, does a good job, & folds up to store in a corner of the garage.
Buy the engine lift. You can rent it to friends for cases of "Beverage". Your fridge will never be empty again. If your hell bent on the trusses, marry some plywood to the sides for that glue-lam effect you mentioned. Be safe, BUY the hoist!
bought mine from Checkers about 10 years ago for i think 180 bucks or so(it's a fold -up). hell, you priced wood lately? or even found a 2X4 that's straight..
I have to go along with the "buy the hoist" advice.It is a hell of lot easier to move the engine on a hoist that rolls,than it is to try to jockey the car in to get it under the engine hanging from the rafters....... I have used my "cherry picker" for everything from lifting engines,moving equipment,to removing fence posts
I am a superintendent for a builder in California. We build homes for people with Ferrari collections and almost all garages have "beam mounted" trolley systems. In other words, once you pick the motor out, are you going to pull the car out (while the motor hangs in mid-air) and put it on a stand? If so, dont. you will hurt yourself or your little boy handing you wrenches. The "I" or "H" beam systems come complete with trolley track and electric motor to hoist and move the motor. Obviously in an existing garage (rather than one designed around the unit) you would span the headers with a 6x6 beam and install the hardware. Of course you also need 4x4 king studs and a 4X12 header and 220 to run the motor. Total unit cost is about five grand imported from England. Or you can go to Sears and spend about 200 bucks for a cherry picker (they are almost always used in the classified section) and spend the rest on********s and beer. Just a thought.
I always wanted a setup like that...when I worked for Baldor a few years back, they had hoists like that for moving the motors around, and it got me to thinkin... build an A-frame with the top tube replaced with I-beam, and some angle iron on the garage floor lengthwise to make an inverted "V" shaped track, tabs welded onto the sides and bolted down, wheels on all four of the "legs" of the A-frame with a v notch to ride on the tracks....any suffiecient hoist would work if attatched to some sort of rolling device on the I-beam overhead.... sorry a lil vague on my description, im better at drawin stuff than explaining with words...this is the same setup we used at Baldor to move thousands of LARGE electric motors that weighed more than yer average short block...im sure it would have handled a complete engine....
[ QUOTE ] Buy the engine lift. You can rent it to friends for cases of "Beverage". Your fridge will never be empty again. Be safe, BUY the hoist! [/ QUOTE ] Mine's been in so many friends shops; and used so much; that I had to replace the hydrualic cylinder a while back. BUT, like you say, the fridge is never empty, and I never worry about pulling engines!
If I were to build an "A" frame (aren't they called a gantry??) for the chain hoist, what size tubing would work best? How long should the "base" of the "triangles" be??
dan, I see your in MT. which to me means you may not have access to as many parts stores as some of us.. however. I would also make the case that you should buy a cherry picker or find one to loan one from, I never thought i would want one but I picked one up for 100 bucks last year and its been the second most important investment I have ever made (after my sawzall). the one I have folds up and stays in the corner of the garage when Not in use. its good for lots of stuff in addition to lifting motors (i am gonna use it next month to lift my body off the frame.) and best of all i dont have to worry about the roof fallin on me when I am pullin a motor.
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