School me on Jib Cranes

[tracyb]

You just need a wireless remote to control the up/down of the forklift.

i put a wireless winch remote on my raymond reach fork. i use it all the time. from changing the shop lights, to making tandem lifts with only one operator.

i'm a huge fan of the electric, reach fork/ order picker..... whatever they call them type forklight. i dont like starting up the big forklift a bunch for little jobs an the little lift is perfect for 90% of what i do. not to mention being so small and lifting so hi, has really inclreased my usable shop space

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

If I could back a 1-ton flatebed truck into the area served by the crane I would think long and hard about it. There's a lot of shit that's a 2-man job with the fork lift and a 1-man job when you have a crane with an up/down button. They're different tools for different jobs but for what I do the crane would be tits.

I've done a bunch of "2 man" jobs with my skid-steer/crane setup. Whatever I was lifting would get a lever hoist between the crane and the load. Get it close enough with the machine, then lift/lower with the lever hoist. It's certainly not ideal, especially when fighting the clock because everything creeps.

That's why I'd like to be able to turn my forklift into a brick (eliminate all creep by locking the lift/tilt) so it'd be useful with a homemade jib crane attachment, similar to what fireball tools did.

If I built one like fireballs did, I'd have lockout tabs on the swinging parts so I could drive with a load without everything flopping about.

Turning my skidsteer into a brick would be pretty straightforward. Lift already has lockout pins that I would guess are rated at full load capacity. Just need a way to lockout the tilt cylinders, which would be as simple as adding some weld-on D rings to my boom and using chain to limit tilt.

 

[Tinstar]

i put a wireless winch remote on my raymond reach fork. i use it all the time. from changing the shop lights, to making tandem lifts with only one operator.

i'm a huge fan of the electric, reach fork/ order picker..... whatever they call them type forklight. i dont like starting up the big forklift a bunch for little jobs an the little lift is perfect for 90% of what i do. not to mention being so small and lifting so hi, has really inclreased my usable shop space

Handn't thought about one of those. What does a used one run and how much can they lift? That would be useful for running more air/electric drops and maintenance for the security cameras. Off to search.

Edit: nope, still too big a foot print to store and use.

Panzer drop a build thread in here on your jib crane build. You can drop it in this thread if you want. I'd like to see how you do the bearings.

 

[AlxJ64]

Turning my skidsteer into a brick would be pretty straightforward. Lift already has lockout pins that I would guess are rated at full load capacity. Just need a way to lockout the tilt cylinders, which would be as simple as adding some weld-on D rings to my boom and using chain to limit tilt.

I have a QA backhoe (Bobcat 709) that I use on my T190. It didn't come with all of the fancy lockout brackets and my shop wasn't up and running fully when I got it and rebuilt the cylinders, etc. Well, I just used the arms of the attachment and sank some pin holes into the neutral axis of my lift arms. You can see the pull pins in the picture. Cross drilled them to drop a cotter through them as that bracket has a hollow section inside for catching on the correct brackets that bolt to the main chassis box and actually lock the loader down and the tilt action all at once. However, that would prevent me from getting this machine into some of the weirder spots on my property because the backhoe frame rides so low then. But at least these pins lock the QA plate from moving around. I use the backhoe as a crane sometimes because essentially thats what you are talking about building. Out riggers and all... could you find a trashed QA type backhoe and modify the booms to extend and fold rather than dip, and curl.. Already has swing and outriggers built in.

 

[aczlan]

Handn't thought about one of those. What does a used one run and how much can they lift? That would be useful for running more air/electric drops and maintenance for the security cameras. Off to search.

Edit: nope, still too big a foot print to store and use.

Look at a straddle type electric drive stacker, something like: Big Joe S30

I have an older version of this, takes about 2.5'x3' of space when parked with the forks stuffed into a pallet.
Has a couple of old 12v golf cart batteries on it and they are tired, but it works for my limited use.

Aaron Z

 

[Tinstar]

I appreciate all the great ideas. Here's a typical load. As mentioned, I have some lift equipment. It's just not always real handy.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

I appreciate all the great ideas. Here's a typical load. As mentioned, I have some lift equipment. It's just not always real handy.

I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I looked into building a unistrut bridge crane. I figured on 5 feet wide (half length of strut) and being rated to 500 lbs. Length as long as you want, obviously.

Track is low profile enough to clear a garage door in the open position, obviously a ceiling mount opener would be in the way.

While not being able to lift heavy stuff, it would be incredibly handy for most of the shit that fucks up your back (because we're all fucking morons when it comes to hurting out backs).

 

[vetteboy79]

We had one of these at my old factory in Charlotte...it was for moving large gearboxes from the final assembly bench over to the paint area.

I know it still requires a clear ground path so probably not the best thing for your situation, but it was handy as hell at that facility. Shitty thing was the mechanic had to put in a forklift pick request anytime it needed to be used, as technically (perhaps just within our facility?) it was classified as a forklift and needed a licensed operator.

 

[arse_sidewards]

We had one of these at my old factory in Charlotte...it was for moving large gearboxes from the final assembly bench over to the paint area.

I know it still requires a clear ground path so probably not the best thing for your situation, but it was handy as hell at that facility. Shitty thing was the mechanic had to put in a forklift pick request anytime it needed to be used, as technically (perhaps just within our facility?) it was classified as a forklift and needed a licensed operator.

Seems like a 3pt hitch version would be great for solving the "my 2500lb garden tractor with 1.75" hydraulic rams that are fighting 6ft of leverage sucks at lifting shit" crowd.