Mr. Crane's overhaul

[Morella]

I did some work on Mr. Crane, more pics in my photo album. Now you can stand and ride on it (maybe I'll even add a chair). The driving switches are both together in one box, so it's easier to go forward, backward, steer, or slew the boom. You can install the smaller front wheels that I got to make it easier to get under a bumper and use this machine as an off-road engine hoist (I pulled the Chrysler's engine out in the back yard with it), or install the boom extension and hook up the electric hoist. This is handy if you have a lot of stuff to raise and lower quickly (like when you're cleaning up your yard and you want the furniture and the propane grill gone, or you want to lift bundles of shingles or buckets of coating onto your roof). To balance the load, you fold down the tow bar and stand on it, and you can actually drive it around that way (it's fun, especially to slew around in circles). You have to be careful not to hit anything, though, because this thing is as long as a car when it's fully extended. It uses two electric drive wheels in the middle, and four more outside wheels are on casters. I welded extra brackets on for the bigger, heavier wheels, and the winch brackets. The heavier and further forward the load is, the further you stand back to balance it. I just rewound one of the drive couplings because it was slipping, and two of the winches weren't working because I left him out in the rain, but it's all fixed. Oh, I mentioned a tow bar. You can declutch the drive wheels, and tow it around at 10-15 mph, as long as you're careful. It moves kind of slowly when you're riding on it, or picking up the back end of a car and moving it (yeah, it will do that), but if you're pulling an engine out, or pulling a load that can swing, you want to move it slowly to get it positioned. It can pull itself onto a trailer or up the ramps into a pickup truck too. Maybe I should patent this machine...for somebody like me who isn't supposed to lift anything. Oh, I mentioned the folding tow bar. If you remove the boom extension (just remove one bolt and slide it out), it folds up to the same size as the original folding engine hoist that I made it from. Every accessory that I added, I made sure that it wouldn't interfere with anything that originally folded. Here are the pics...they're in an album too.



Hop On!



Pretty easy to drive, takes some practice to steer.


This is with the short extension on, and that damned grill that I hate, which I'm going to drive to the dumpster. I'm going to make a long extension boom with a bridge on the top for strength, and a 4-way block and tackle, since I have plenty of winch cable. If you remove the extension, slide in and lower the boom, fold up the legs and the trailer hitch, the whole machine is only about 3' long.



-denise

[Highbars]

Nice looking unit....curious as to why the lower legs don't telescope to help offset the lift weight or to accommodate longer boom...But I guess I had to stand on the back even with them stretched out.... l do like it though...Good job...

[Morella]

I hadn't thought about telescoping the front legs, but that's an interesting plan, or at least slide in some safety stops just in case. Since it would originally lift 1000-4000# at the hook, it can probably lift 500# with a 4' boom extension at full height, a block and tackle on the hoist, and me standing on it for ballast, so that might not be necessary. An electric boom lift is what I'd really like, but the jackscrews are expensive in the 8T range, and I should probably go to 12T. When it's all folded up, it looks like this. You can see the care I've taken to make everything fit just right.



It takes many pumps to lift the boom with an 8 ton ram and a jack handle. I just folded it up for demonstration, and it's actually kind of precarious to move it around while it's folded up, unless you're on a smooth surface. With the four wheels so close together, if one went into a hole, it might tip over. I also have very little traction on the drive wheels. Even if I lower the front wheels, I have to lift the boom at least halfway and put some weight on the boom, or I can't ride on it. If I stand on it, the front wheels bounce up off of the ground once in a while, which is pretty scary. To tell you the truth, slewing it is pretty scary too. It might be safer to put a chair, maybe an adjustable car seat, on that towbar. I have nightmares about wedging a leg in there and breaking it.

This is one of those projects that you just keep adding shit onto, but I am disabled with disk degeneration, so it can be difficult. I won't try to describe the pain that this small amount of work over the last two days has caused me.

I am going to see if I can put the extension on and use a strap or something to remove a wheel from my Chrysler. Lifting the car with a floor jack isn't too hard, but the wheels are really heavy, and I need to do a brake job. Mr. Crane gets his upgrades after everything else I have to do, and usually when I need him for something. Did you notice that he has three power outlets? I use one to plug in my 12v compressor and air up the tires. I was thinking of putting a headlight, spotlight or something cute like that on it.

-denise

[Highbars]

Couple of Halogen work lites would be cool ... but I think a "Noise Makey Thing" is in order..

[Morella]

I have some flashing blue and red lights, but they run on 110v. My little 350w inverter would probably run them, then I could drive it around at night and annoy the neighbors. I was thinking of putting them behind the grille of one of the cars, but I could get into major trouble for that. Getting into major trouble would make me feel young again, but I'm not sure if they would let me have my pain medicine in jail.

-denise