Uni-Strut Trolly Lift Capacity

[mod600]

In my shop, I was planning on mounting an I-beam/S-beam from the trusses. I found one that is 2-3/4" wide x 4" tall, my brother has a similar setup in his shop and it works very well. He welded some plates to the beam and used long bolts that when against the trusses and to a plate that went over the top of the bottom stinger of the truss. Kinda like a U-bolt, but top part was a thick plate instead. He only uses it to lift up sleds, atv, etc...he has an air powered 1/2-ton winch to do the lifting. I was going to do something similar, but I stumbled across the Uni-Strut with the trolley parts. What is this stuff rated at for lifting? I too, would mainly use to for unloading sleds off of a trailer/truck box. So wondering it this might be an easier option...

Thanks for any input..
mod600

 

[Aquamoose]

Super Strut TR294 is the part number for the trolley, it's rated for 1,000 lbs. Hard to believe but it's true. You can use it on any brand, 1-5/8" or deeper.

 

[mod600]

Thanks! I will have to check into that once I get to that point. I have a ribbed steel ceiling in the shop. So I was going to run it parallel to the ribs on the ceiling. But now I'm thinking if I could make spacers to space it below the ribs, I could run it parallel to the trusses and then hang some 90 degrees and be able to roll in two directions...might be handy. Not sure on how hang it from the ceiling though, unless I run strut over the top of the bottom truss stringer up in the attic and drop down thru with threaded rod...that might work. Thanks again.

 

[John in OH]

Be very careful you don't overload your trusses!

Typically, a pre-fab truss (or any truss) is not designed to carry very much non-roof weight. You can get away with some slight additional loading (such as a monorail) if the rail is perpendicular to the cords as the weight is "somewhat" distributed over multiple cords, BUT if you run parallel to the cords, the added weight will be essentially supported by only the two adjacent trusses.

Not say'n ya can't do it, but be very careful!

 

[mod600]

I'm not planning on lifting that much...mainly just to pick up a sled and spin it around or lift it up onto a table to work on it.

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

A fellow near me did this with sliding barn door track hardware and is very happy. He has a 1000 lb capacity cable-type winch on the trolley and has been lifting snowmobiles and ATV's for several years with no problems.

His track runs perpendicular to his trusses and where the track passes under a bottom chord he put in a long lag bolt which goes though the top of the track and then into the 2x6.

My garage is "in design", but this part, I'm certain that I'll copy.


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