My son's 85 F250 (302, T-18, BW 1345 X-case) has a pretty nasty oil leak at the back of the engine... pan gasket or rear main seal we can't tell yet, but either way it needs to come out. Pulling the trans/T-case is another way to get at it, but with the engine out we can seal up everything...

My cherry-picker won't lift high enough to clear so I'm thinking about an overhead lift. I'd rather avoid removing the core support and this type of hoist has been on my mind for awhile for other things anyway so it seems like a good idea.

Questions for those who have one...

How did you mount it?
What did you build-in for adjustibility of placement? A gantry would be ideal, but way too much money.
What single-pull weight do you consider to be minimally acceptable?
Was it money well spent?
Recommendations of ones to buy (or stay away from)?
Helpful suggestions?

Those are my questions, what follows is simply the ravings of a madman;

I will be using this to lift the shell off my Daily Driver pickup from time to time and, eventually, the l6 from my own 85 F150. It would also be used to lift the bed off for various body/frame restoration work.
I'm also considering placing a threaded collar in the garage floor for an eyelet/clevis/pulley/******-block to accommodate a horizontal pull... handy for getting an inop vehicle up my sloped driveway and into the garage.
✔ Rationalization?
✔ Daydreaming?
✔ Out of touch w reality?

 

A chain hoist with a one ton capacity would not cost very much and it would be way more than adequate. The real problem is finding an adequate structure from which to mount the hoist. It needs to be pretty solid something which a typical structure might not provide. Our shop building has 6x6 oak posts and beams which support the ceiling and hanging a chain hoist from one of those is no problem. If it had trusses it would be different unless they were designed for that type of use.

The anchor in the floor and a winch can be really handy. A friend of mine who does transmissions has that in one bay of his shop. Every once in a while it gets used to pull a dead car inside and on the lift.

 

After some more codgitatin' on the subject, l came to the same conclusion; the rafters are the weak link.
Unfortunately, even anchoring the thing in concrete would stress the ceiling joists when l try to use them as a lift-point.
Without re-engineering my roof truss system, the only solution l can see from here is a gantry setup which is still pretty speedy, upwards of a G and they only go up from there..
bummer.

 

the harbor freight gantry is a good deal for homeowner use.
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-...ane-41188.html
they can be bought on sale for $599 once or twice a year.

i have had one for close to 15 years now at home and use it quite a bit.

 

Those look really nice and I was going to get one for my shop to use for loading and unloading blocks from my honing machines. The problem was it just wasn't quite wide enough. For engine swapping, lifting up the body etc it would be awesome.

 

i got some 1/2 inch steel plate and made extenders for each side. it is now 10 foot wide instead of .

 

I thought about doing something like that or swapping out the beam for a longer one to make it wider. That way it would work on my brother-in-law's boat so maybe I could get him to chip in because it would sure be handy.

 

my first reason was to put bodies on cab chassis trucks.
at 8 foot wide the body would fit, but the trailer the bodies were brought in on would not.
at 10 foot i had 4 inches each side of the trailer.
i then left it that way when i closed the shop and brought it to the house to make it easier to get vehicles under it or inside the garage.

 

When you're not using it does it just sit by the door and everything can just drive through. That's a good idea too.

 

actually sits outside about 15 foot from front of the garage.
i use it regularly to load/unload gensets, engines, axles, and other heavy crap in/out of the trucks as i am usually doing things by myself.
i have also used it to load/unload dead vehicles on/off the trailer too.
lift the front end, back trailer under it till back is near rear wheels.
unhook, move crane back, lift rear and then finish backing under.
to unload i lift, pull out, then reset to other end of vehicle and finish pulling trailer out.