We have a couple projects that we'd like to get a little deeper into. We've got decent space... but no concrete. Nor permission to lay concrete or bricks.

So, in terms of car skates, engine hoists, body rotiseries.. that kinda stuff, I'm trying to find equipment that will roll over hard-packed dirt/gravel. One option we may have is to lay down some sheets of metal to improve our surface for moving things. -- Or other solutions, like ones we can easily replace with heavy duty pneumatic castors, maybe?

Thoughts?

 

Google the name FastDeck and see if that might be something you could use. You might need to add some plywood over it to prevent denting from metal wheels.

 

Depending how far you need to move this stuff 3/4" plywood.
I have used thinner plywood on asphalt to keep engine hoist for sinking into it.
Dave ----

 

I put my engine hoists on proper outdoor wheels back in the 1980s and they've pulled big blocks with transmissions in my sandy yard.
Casters are fine on concrete but more serious wheels make life far easier. Rear spindles are space saver spare tires (they still roll when flat and I leave my stands outdoors) while fronts use solid lawn equipment tires or large diameter wheeled casters. I put wheels on engine stands and anything else that will hold still long enough.
Good donors are rear spindles from front wheel drive cars and Dodge Caravans etc.
Use matters. I don't like pushing anything. I pull instead using a variety of winches, mostly Wyeth-Scott comealongs and Ramsey commercial (bought cheap used) electric winches.
Deadmen help. I always look for pull points and have a Reese hitch welded to the steel beams which are my shop foundation. To pull a vehicle into the bay I clip a ****** block to that deadman, place chocks to stop vehicle in place, then winch it in. If I have to break a sweat I'm doing it wrong. You don't strictly require a winch since sufficient wire rope with chain grab hooks (chains are your friends!) works a treat. I discard most slip hooks and use chain grab hooks for best control. I also move machine tools so I want "cheap, safe, and versatile".
If you don't have a welder, get one and make and mod as needed.
Plywood isn't very good but I use it now and then. For engine hoists I prefer to lay old mobile home rail on my path of travel. Engines only need to go straight in and straight out.
You'll figure it out. Look for used large industrial casters, industrial carts with same etc. Spend time on Craigslist checking out the oddball stuff people sell. I avoid buying new since I'm going to mod it anyway. Also remember steel is very reasonable from most local US suppliers (NOT hardware stores). On big jobs I learned to get three quotes, but no need for hobby use and my nearest supplier is easy to work with.
I also nail all the free/cheap heavy steel I can score on principle. With a torch, 6" angle grinder & cutting wheels and a decent welder the world is your oyster.
Spend time on forums like Weldingweb and the Miller forums. Look at projects for ideas.

 

I have a farm and often move things between barns, have plenty of heavy equipment including three JD tractors, Kubotas, a JD 410E backhoe, and a Doosan 40K excavator, but normally just use a car trailer with a winch to move things around on the dirt, gravel, crush n run...........................................incl uding things on rotisseries...........but I would not recommend rolling engine stands (with 400-1200 lb engines on them) around (too top heavy)---- i typically use the small 55 hp JD tractor 5055E w/loader to move engines......

Not sure I would use plywood, metal plates, etc to improve pathways --- seems like a waste of money..............

 

Your (excellent!) situation with ample heavy equipment is completely different from the original poster who obviously doesn't own the property or have hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets. Were that his case he could put down his own concrete and a shop on top! OTOH throwing down free/cheap bits of whatever is handy as basically temporary deckboards can work very well for hobby level work. A couple sections of MH rail is sufficient load spreading for backyard engine pulls and handy because it is mobile. OP doesn't have a farm or much of anything else by the post wording. Making his setup easily mobile is cheap and effective for pottering around on toy projects. Buying a bobcat likely worth more than all his other tools and equipment, not so much.

Another way to move and lift things conveniently when one isn't wealthy is a wrecker. Old Holmes booms are cheap and easy to mount to a spare truck. 440 booms are standard square tubing and cheap to replace if bent. I have one on my dentside F350 which has proven quite handy over the years. It's pulled engines, raised building panels and much more. The truck it came from cost only 400 bucks.

 

Thank you for noticing that...I see that a lot across the internet these days from people who I can only imagine must be thinking "well, I had no idea that there are people out there who don't own a 100K tractor!", lol.

I'm in a similar situation to the OP, though I do own my house and the land that it's on, the only concrete is under the house and in the garage. I was just thinking about this whole situation recently, while pulling the center section out of the rear end in the 2.5 ton flatbed truck in my yard. Said center section was too heavy for the neighbor to pick up with the backhoe of his $20K tractor, and although we got it into the garage using the loader bucket up front, the tractor itself was too large to maneuver in my garage, so I had to use the engine hoist to get it up on the work bench (in his defense, due to the inability to move a lot of this stuff outside the garage, I have the proverbial 20 pounds of crap stuff in a 5 pound sack going on in the garage right now, lol). It worked, but was far from convenient....and also limits me to move heavy things when he is available. I also just swapped out the rear end of my F350, and now have the old rear end taking up space in the garage.

The metal sheeting/fast deck/plywood would be impractical as my storage area outside is 400-500 feet away from the garage down the same path that I run the trucks over routinely, and the driveway out of the garage is on a considerable incline, so I wouldn't want to attempt to manually walk something like a loaded hoist down it even if it was concrete.

I'm thinking this may end up being a mutlipronged solution to the problems. A buddy of mine suggested a gin pole set up that he somehow fabricated to fit on a Suzuki Samurai, but I'm not wild about doing the same to my Samurai. So I'm thinking of doing something similar to mount up to a garden tractor for the lighter stuff, and at some point a much larger set up on the back of the F350.

I've also been thinking about something like the pickup bed cranes that Harbor Fright sells, but mounting it on a larger version of the open deck wagons that places like Northern Tool, Harbor Fright, Tractor Supply, etc sell, and pulling it around with the tractor. Of course, these are only ideas in my head at this point, and I haven't done the math on any of it, so it may well be a "good idea in theory, but relatively useless at a 200 pound weight limit" kind of thing.

 

I like monkeywrenche's ideas...I'd like to see some pics.
I'm so tired of working on gravel....
I did find that a couple pieces of that 1/4" blue sheathing insulation is GREAT to lay on in the gravel.
I now have some left over industrial office carpet that works well now...
I've been blessed that I can get by with an aluminum floor jack on a piece of scrap ply...if not right on the gravel.
I have a couple of double layered 3/8"x12x12 pads to put jack stands on. I often have small pieces of metal under the legs themselves.

 

I use a couple of 2x6 boards about 6' long to roll my floor jack under the truck. I also have a few scrap 12x12 blocks/cubes I use for jackstands. As wiskeyVI stated, insulation board is great for keeping you warm and dry when laying on the ground. A local rental store may have engine cranes and gantry cranes etc for a reasonable price.

 

Those wanting gin poles can find many examples online to copy. They work very well. An electric winch in the bed (front mounted winches are the worst location for getting work done) makes life easy. I'd do that but wreckers are more versatile, old mechanical units are cheap because new cars don't always do well when sling-towed, and ordering a stick of box tubing to replace my boom was cheap and easy. (Cut out socket from old boom, weld into new boom, drill suitable pin holes in new boom. If all you have is a holesaw that'll work because that's what I used before getting a mill. A mag drill with rotabroach cutter would be ideal.

My gallery pic wouldn't embed (might be a script blocker on my end but I'm too busy to troubleshoot right now) so here's the URL: https://www.ford-trucks.com/g/picture/952239

Hoist is at left holding the cab. Wyeth-Scott cast comealong does the winching and with the ram locked full up (piece of pipe over the cylinder rod) I can reach down into engine bays easily. I've used that one since the 1980s. Space saver spares still roll when flat or even when coming apart due to old age as mine are. I don't tow it behind vehicles but do slowly pull it away for a few feet with my trucks to avoid pushing it.

 

This (the eye beam) rolls good on gravel and hard packed dirt. Looks fairly easy to build. But it was the best $100 I ever spent.

 

Agreed!!!!!!! a great $100 spent!

 

Oh and I for got to mention the guy delivered it, already built and bolted together AND it came with a new 2 ton/6000 lb chain lift. Double score. In about 15 min I can have it unbolted and in the back of the truck or just load it assembled on my 16' utility trailer.

 

Sounds like his "wife" really wanted it out of their lives----so to speak!!!!!!!

 

I got a deal for sure. Its good enough that I unloaded a 79 Bronco (body on frame only) with just it.