Installing a Winch

[oh4]

I have a metal garage that consists of hollow square tubing only all around the walls and ceiling. It’s 2 1/4” x 2 1/4” square. I’d like to install my electric hoist on one if these tubings from the ceiling to be able to lift between 300 lbs and 700 lbs.

I plan on getting flat steel braces to brace the upper and lower square tubing together by drilling a 1/2” hole and adding a class 10.9 bolt right through the upper and lower tubing separately using the steel brace to join them. This way if the existing welds were to ever give, those bolts will hold the tubing together. I plan on using 4 bolts on each end for this so 8 bolts total per pair of tubing.

Finally, I plan to add a new support square tube across the existing tube to form a T. This new square tube would sit on top of the existing one so that gravity isn’t an issue when under load since it’ll sit on top of the existing tubing instead of underneath.

Having said that, will this square tubing of my garage be strong enough? Would my additional reinforcements give it additional security? I want to be able to lift heavy automotive components like engines and transmissions but wouldn’t exceed 700 lbs per the types of engines I primarily work on.

 

[Bogie1632]

What is the span between supports? How thick is the metal? Will this be a trolly setup or stationary? Pics or drawings may help on this. Just a thought, but if you have room and a budget, a 1T A-frame hoist is ~$500, its mobile, and purpose built for lifting.

Good luck.

V/R
Bogie

 

[cvairwerks]

BTW, most winches, unless specifically designed for overhead loads, have a high probability of not surviving long in that type service. Typically they use a different style geartrain and braking setup. Not saying it will fail in your use, just making the fact known.

 

[rsanter]

You need to specify the span and the wall thickness, but you can assume it will not as those garages tend to be built with the thinnest tubing they can get away with.

If it was me I would buy some thicker tubing and sister 4 of them to the insides of adjacent garage uprights, then from there go up,to the peak and connect between these 4 new tubes to have a place to mount the winch

 

[laser3kw]

I have a metal garage ..... I’d like to install my winch on one if these tubings from the ceiling to be able to lift between 300 lbs and 700 lbs.

winches are for pulling horizontally (mostly) and most likely do not have safety braking capacity. Hoist are for lifting vertically and do have safety braking capacity so the load doesn't "free fall". Please make sure you are using the correct equipment for you application. Your life depend on it.

brace the upper and lower square tubing together by drilling a 1/2” hole and adding a class 10.9 bolt right through the upper and lower tubing separately using the steel brace to join them

would that be a 12mm bolt for a grade 10.9?
The column strength (direct vertical load) could be good enough for what you plan. The concern is when you start lifting / pulling at an angle. Then you are not depending on the column strength but the shear strength of the joints. That shear strength is multiplied by the leverage generated by the various components. A 10° angle on a long span could over load a joint quickly.

 

[readhead]

I sell this type of building and the answer is no. The frames are designed to hold up the sheeting and nothing else. You could fabricate some kind of separate frame to hold the hoist ( not winch ) and attach it inside the building. I think some kind of portable hoisting device would be more practical.

 

[oh4]

winches are for pulling horizontally (mostly) and most likely do not have safety braking capacity. Hoist are for lifting vertically and do have safety braking capacity so the load doesn't "free fall". Please make sure you are using the correct equipment for you application. Your life depend on it.



would that be a 12mm bolt for a grade 10.9?
The column strength (direct vertical load) could be good enough for what you plan. The concern is when you start lifting / pulling at an angle. Then you are not depending on the column strength but the shear strength of the joints. That shear strength is multiplied by the leverage generated by the various components. A 10° angle on a long span could over load a joint quickly.

Sorry about the confusion, I keep calling it a winch but it is definitely a hoist and designed specifically for vertical lifting and not pulling. It has an emergency stop brake on it as well and designed for 1300 lbs of load. I’ll adjust my title and wording. [emoji6]

Yep, it would be a 12mm bolt for a class 10.9.

 

[oh4]

What is the span between supports? How thick is the metal? Will this be a trolly setup or stationary? Pics or drawings may help on this. Just a thought, but if you have room and a budget, a 1T A-frame hoist is ~$500, its mobile, and purpose built for lifting.

Good luck.

V/R
Bogie

The garage is pretty small and these take up a good amount of floor space. The smallest one I found takes up 48” of depth and 123” in length. This was the first solution I looked at. It would be nice if they had any that you could easily colapse to stow away like an engine hoist but I didn’t find any.

The other issue is the height. The lowest setting is 8 feet and the height of my garage door opening is 8 feet. However, even if my garage door fully got out of the way, that would be too close. The garage door hangs at least 4” below that top clearance so I’d never be able to role it out of the garage and stow it away outside unless if I laid it flat on the floor and dragged it on it’s narrowest side. They are too heavy to even want to be doing that anyway.

Considering @readhead said these tubings won’t hold, I guess my next best option would be to fabricate something stationary that doesn’t take up much space. [emoji848]

The width of my garage has 17.5’ of floor clearance. Maybes I could get an I-beam that long and sit it on some metal posts with some base plates anchored down to some concrete? Would thick pressure treated 6x6x10 wood posts suffice to hold an I-beam instead of metal posts?

Just exploring ideas and thank you all

 

[readhead]

Wood posts would work. That is a short span but the connections are critical. The beam must be properly restrained so it can’t roll over if you have an off center dynamic load. When you connect the post/beam to the existing exterior walls try to connect to at least four posts. The building relies on the sheeting for shear value so anything you can do to spread the connection will help the stability. Another option would be to incorporate some diagonal braces at the top and bottom of the new posts into the existing frames.

 

[oh4]

Wood posts would work. That is a short span but the connections are critical. The beam must be properly restrained so it can’t roll over if you have an off center dynamic load. When you connect the post/beam to the existing exterior walls try to connect to at least four posts. The building relies on the sheeting for shear value so anything you can do to spread the connection will help the stability. Another option would be to incorporate some diagonal braces at the top and bottom of the new posts into the existing frames.

That's a good idea!..pretty much legs and arms at the top and bottom to the existing frame and directly to the new posts. I like it.

I've been holding out on buying myself a welder but this is a good reason to now get it

I haven't touched a welder in almost 2 decades and have been itching to try it again so I'll have to get some practice in before tackling this project.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[nadogail]

I don't mean to rain on your parade but, overhead loads are very different that what your building may have been engineered for.

Have you consulted with the building designer?

 

[laser3kw]

basically, you will end up with something like this:

Gantry crane link

keep you eye out on CL and you can find a project for cheap

 

[logical]

I don't mean to rain on your parade but, overhead loads are very different that what your building may have been engineered for.

Have you consulted with the building designer?

If he had done that, would he be here.

Sent from my garage.

 

[matt_i]

A monorail I-beam is ideal but I would support it from its own column structure instead of the building.

A winch may not be the ideal device for this but might work. A manual chainfall or a lever chain hoist or electric chain hoist would be better. Even Harbor Freight makes a line of electric cable hoists powered by 120vac which are acceptable for light work.

Anything powered adds a lot of bounce or jerk as the load is started and stopped for inching. You can see it even with a manual chainfall going "one click" at a time. The building ~might~ be just barely adequate for the static load but the jerk/bounce would be the straw that makes a very bad day. This is one reason that overhead lifting has a relatively large safety factor in it...nobody wants a simple overload or an unintended bounce or a sling slipping to the path of least resistance to cause the system to fail.

 

[cj7jeep81]

The garage is pretty small and these take up a good amount of floor space. The smallest one I found takes up 48” of depth and 123” in length. This was the first solution I looked at. It would be nice if they had any that you could easily colapse to stow away like an engine hoist but I didn’t find any.

The other issue is the height. The lowest setting is 8 feet and the height of my garage door opening is 8 feet. However, even if my garage door fully got out of the way, that would be too close. The garage door hangs at least 4” below that top clearance so I’d never be able to role it out of the garage and stow it away outside unless if I laid it flat on the floor and dragged it on it’s narrowest side. They are too heavy to even want to be doing that anyway.

Considering @readhead said these tubings won’t hold, I guess my next best option would be to fabricate something stationary that doesn’t take up much space. [emoji848]

The width of my garage has 17.5’ of floor clearance. Maybes I could get an I-beam that long and sit it on some metal posts with some base plates anchored down to some concrete? Would thick pressure treated 6x6x10 wood posts suffice to hold an I-beam instead of metal posts?

Just exploring ideas and thank you all

Assuming its 100% indoors, I wouldn't get treated posts, try to find non-treated. That way you don't have to ever worry about corrision with fasteners. I was able to get non-treated 4x6's from Menards, but they had to special order them.

 

[oh4]

Assuming its 100% indoors, I wouldn't get treated posts, try to find non-treated. That way you don't have to ever worry about corrision with fasteners. I was able to get non-treated 4x6's from Menards, but they had to special order them.

I considered pressure treated because in the winter, I get a lot of moisture due to the high humidity here in FL. A lot of good points on this thread, though. I have a few options to explore for sure but thanks to you all, I have a lot of good possibilities to pursue as opposed to what I was considering.

 

[CraigStu]

I'd be thinking about that gantry crane in laser's link and a kids swing set as design ideas. Then I'd build it out two 2x10s for the top piece supported by 2x6 legs. Look at the metal pieces that the box stores sell for building pergolas. I think you could figure a way to make the two triangle supports relatively easily detachable from the 2x10s so all three pieces could stand up in a corner when it's not in use. I just googled swing sets and found a bunch and then found these metal joint parts.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z9GZNW9/?tag=atomicindus08-20
The top piece is a 4x6 which could be plenty depending how wide you need your support to clear the car you pull the engine from.

 

[tarmy]

This...need to spread that load. You also need enough structure to actually support the load...