Light duty rail hoist

[Ron_J]

I decided to add a light duty hoist to my garage ceiling. I bought a track for a sliding barn door (450lb limit) and plan to pick up a 400 pound electric hoist.

My problem is I can't decide if I want the track to run the center of the bay with the lift, or the empty bay. 400lb won't be enough to lift a motor or such, so I'm not sure there would be an advantage to having it over the lift.

Anyone do anything similar or have any thoughts on the matter?

 

[zippyslug31]

I don't have a ton to offer, but I'll just toss it out there that if I was going to install a hoist, I'd want it to be movable along both x and y axis, such as this. I saw this video a while back and thought the idea was pretty cool and would offer the most flexibility.

 

[NUTTSGT]

What are you planning on attaching the track to ?

 

[Robbie B]

If it’s on a smooth floor I’d consider a moveable gantry crane.

 

[nadogail]

Either of the ideas mentioned will save your back.

 

[oldmachinenut]

This is the one in my shop, actually 2 separate rails. I used 1 5/8” Unistrut supported every 28” with trolley hangers from McMaster Carr. The actual trolleys are Unistrut 600# capacity. The Dayton cable hoist is rated 500# and the small chain hoist was my Grandfathers and is similar capacity. I obviously will not use this set up to pull engines, lift my 80 gallon Quincy or my Syncrowave but it is sure a blessing on my 65 year old arthritis riddled body since my 3 Sons are all grown and I need to do most projects by myself. The last pic is my bench base, Craftsman 10 drawer 40” wide cabinet with a Harbor Freight side drawer cabinet on the end and a Snap-On wall cabinet on the back. I made a wheel carriage to support the whole unit and the rail hoist easily lifted the whole cabinet.

 

[matt_i]

Personally I'd keep it out of the lift bay and put in an open bay. If you ever were working on a car and needed it for a project or to unload a pickup truck, etc, you'd be blocked.

Also the ability to trolley the load will be potentially blocked by the upper crossbar/cable track of the lift unless you have really tall ceilings.

 

[Ron_J]

Thanks all. I am planning to run a 2x4 above the trusses then attach the tracks to that 2x4 with through bolts. (and we can skip the "the trusses aren't designed for that" discussion. that's not why I started this. After all, we are talking 400 lbs spread over 8 trusses)

After a little more thought, I think I am going to put it in the open bay. Not sure what I was thinking, but it wouldn't do me much good to put it in an area that I can't use when the garage doors are up, so that means I'd have to back the whole way thru the lift to get anything out of the back of a truck.

I considered a gantry. We had one at work for a while, but it was always in the way. Both when in use and storage. Definitely better than nothing, but I didn't care for it.

 

[Innovate1]

I would just suggest going to something a bit bigger than 2 x 4. You are right the load is light but for the span it will flex a little and most of the load will be on the closest trusses. Still not much as only 200 lbs per truss for the closest trusses if they support it all.

I am setting up a fixed lift point (no track) and plan to put the "beam" to spread the load to multiple trusses in the bottom of a V where the truss bracing meets with a cross piece several inches above the bottom cord and bracing to keep the 2 x vertical. I figure that 200 lbs per truss is acceptable for temporary loading since it is like me standing on a truss and no one gives a thought to walking around on the trusses.

One thing I didn't quite follow was how everything fits together. Track below the bottom cord and 2 x to spread the load perpendicular to trusses and track above the bottom cord? Or is the track perpendicular to the trusses?

 

[matt_i]

After all, we are talking 400 lbs spread over 8 trusses.

I don't think that's valid to claim that point, a unistrut simply isn't rigid enough to transmit the load to a large group of trusses.

You should plan for the load to be shared by two trusses if the midpoint can be enforced (parallel) or 1 truss if the monorail is running perpendicular to the bottom chord.

 

[Innovate1]

I don't have a ton to offer, but I'll just toss it out there that if I was going to install a hoist, I'd want it to be movable along both x and y axis, such as this. I saw this video a while back and thought the idea was pretty cool and would offer the most flexibility.

Definitely cool video but not something worth the effort for me.