Recessed Trolley & Hoist

Here's my take on a shop trolley/hoist system, partially inspired by others on this site, so thanks.

As part of my current house/shop addition, i added a loft above the garage to store the tools, parts, and clutter that doesn't get used that frequently. A unistrut based system seemed like a no-brainer for this.

With only 8' ceilings in the loft, the first real problem i had was height. the unistrut hangers are 3.75", the unistrut trolley mounts hang down 2" below that, and the HF winch hangs down at least 14" below that once the hook is accounted for. in addition, if you've ever hoisted anything, you know by the time you do the rigging on whatever you're lifting, it can sometimes add quite a bit of height to your load. I was afraid i'd be too limited in what i could lift, basically not able to grab anything over 4 or 5 feet tall.

My solution was two-fold. To recess the track and trolley in between the ceiling joists, and make a custom housing for the winch so it was actually above the unistrut track. the finished product leaves the hook only about 6 inches down from the ceiling, comparted to the almost 2 feet below that it would have been otherwise. i'll let the pictures do most of the explaining.

single hole, plate style unistrut trolleys. rated at 437 lbs each.


standard unistrut hanger brackets, otherwise it's difficult to get a bolt head small enough that the trolley doesn't hit.


almost no clearance in the track after the trolleys are in


custom housing, made from 1/4" plate, fully welded and painted

i ran 2x4s across doubled up 2x8s to support the load. they are on 16" centers, which was the closest span the unistrut engineering catalog had for their load calculations. i spanned the 2x4s over a 4' length to help spread the load just a little bit to the next set of joists in hopes of preventing and drywall cracking in the future on heavy lifts.


storage loft spackled and ready for paint, you can see the recess for the tracking near the top center of the picture


painted


closeup of the hangers and track installed.


you can see just how recessed the system is above the ceiling here

a few more miscellaneous shots






first lift


this is the temporary cabinet configuration while i finish the garage below. everything in the picture came up via the hoist. it was awesome, totally worth the effort.

Nice Job!!!

That is a great idea with the unistrut and HF hoist. Unfortunately, I don't have any means of lifting other than an engine hoist/cherry picker. I also don't have a loft to consider. That hoist setup would work great in the garage as well. I will have to store that one in the back of my mind, in case I end up with a place where that is possible to use.

Thanks for sharing.

Brilliant !

genius, nice work! but now I wish mine was on a track.

That is a great hoist setup - I especially like how you recessed it above the ceiling. I have an attic above my garage that might be perfect for a system like that. The way you made the track out of unistrut and trolleys is a great idea.

How did you insulate the loft? What kind of temps do you see in your area in the summer?

nice work
you know that there are several grades of unistrut dont you?
once youve used the 12 gauge you wont go back

Great set-up, and slick idea.

Very nice set-up!

very nice loft you got

Killer system you got there.

Also, whats the lab for? (nice looking cabinets!)

I'm looking to attach some unistrut to the ridge beam in my gambrel framed (barn) roof. these arn't trusses but rafters that i cut and framed. i bought the 1100 lb electric hoist at HF yesterday #60345 and id like to make it "slide able" on the strut using a trolley. i never plan on using the hoist to capacity but i like to over build things so i want to make sure its sturdy and does'nt pull my roof down or fail and fall etc.

so will using regular strut like i can find at home depot/menards etc what is the capacity when used as a track with trolley?

RickP said:

That is a great hoist setup - I especially like how you recessed it above the ceiling. I have an attic above my garage that might be perfect for a system like that. The way you made the track out of unistrut and trolleys is a great idea.

How did you insulate the loft? What kind of temps do you see in your area in the summer?

Click to expand...

The insulation is r30 in the joists, followed by r11(I get it free) running perpendicular. R13 in the walls. All fiberglass, but I sealed every stud cavity to the exterior sheathing with caulk to keep air infiltration to a minimum. I see fairly hot temps in the summer, but I have some pretty kicking attic fans that keep the attic around 120 max even on the hottest days.

tarbellb said:

Killer system you got there.

Also, whats the lab for? (nice looking cabinets!)

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Thanks. The lab is just lab cabinets, I don't do actual lab work. They will be mounted and hung in the garage once I finish the drywall down there. I have stainless wire shelving and other lab cabinets that will actually end up in the loft.

rsieracki said:

I'm looking to attach some unistrut to the ridge beam in my gambrel framed (barn) roof. these arn't trusses but rafters that i cut and framed. i bought the 1100 lb electric hoist at HF yesterday #60345 and id like to make it "slide able" on the strut using a trolley. i never plan on using the hoist to capacity but i like to over build things so i want to make sure its sturdy and does'nt pull my roof down or fail and fall etc.

so will using regular strut like i can find at home depot/menards etc what is the capacity when used as a track with trolley?

Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with big box store unistrut, so I don't know how it compares to the capacity of the higher grades of unistrut. I'm sure if you look into it, you can find the gauge of the big box store unistrut to find out if it's the same.