Ok, My title does not do this justice, but I thought that this is a great idea. Ive never seen one hanging off of a trailer hitch b/4. Not tied to one vehicle, and easy to take anywhere its needed. I was impressed,
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/tls/3440474551.html
That's pretty dang grassroots.
we have one at work for loading electric motors in to the pick up truck. Ours has a Bi pod on the bottom and swings over to the side for driving down the road. works great.
Not a bad idea. Maybe add a block underneath to increase the capacity.
Cool idea, but it will fail if you actually pick up something heavy, like an engine.
I've got a similar crane mounted on my utility trailer for moving engines and such. It's bolted to a piece of angle, 3" on one side and 8" on the other, that is welded to the frame of the trailer. The first time I used it, lifting a 350 Chevy engine, it broke the welds. The second time, same engine, it bent the mounting plate. So I added some diagonal bracing. Now, anything over 200 pounds the trailer frame starts to twist. Luckily the side of the trailer stops it from twisting too far. The trailer frame is a piece of 4" angle with a 3/8 web that's braced every 24". With that much leverage, that piece of box tubing doesn't stand a chance. It will bend like a wet noodle if you pick up more than a bucket of sand.
they make one specially for this: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200485222_200485222
Woody wrote: Not a bad idea. Maybe add a block underneath to increase the capacity.
He's got jack stands that he sticks under the bottom the jack
this crane appears to be the top half of a crane I used for years with great success on my flatbed truck, btw. $120 harbor freight plus 20% coupon plus $40 sale/coupon'd down 2000 lb harbor frieght electric winch. The flatbed is about 1/4 steel plate and the crane mount was the drop in round style, so I took a piece of 1/4 wall 3" tubing, dropped it into the mount, and slid the crane down over that. Using a pulley to double up the line, I was able to move dressed 460 big blocks still bolted to a c6 transmission and NP205 transfer case, which is around 1000 lbs. I did bend the part where the "arm" goes through the U channel at the top of the tube when I was using my flatbed with this crane, as a tow truck and moving a disabled F150 on my property. Lifted it ok, but once I hit a few bumps it Z'd the pin and bent the U part outwards. I hammered it back together, welded on steel to reinforce the U, and bought a new, larger hitch pin from tractor supply and drilled out the top arm, never had another problem with it. I also welded a removable mount for a long piece of box tubing on the backside so I had leverage to swing the crane back and forth, which was good when loading heavy things. The crane doesn't use bearings, just grease ports, so it can be difficult to move with weight on it.
I'd agree with whats been said, even with a jackstand if you got much weigh on the box tube with no bracing, you could kiss that setup goodbye. even with it securely fastened to an F150 with a 1/4 steel plate bed, it would still tilt the whole truck somewhat scarily if you tried to pick up something heavy (400-500 lbs) next to the truck instead of behind it. Even putting a jackstand under it wouldn't help torsionally.
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