Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.112] on Wednesday, March 19, 2014 at 03:49:58 :
In Reply to: small jib type crane posted by jerryinidaho [64.234.49.226] on Wednesday, March 19, 2014 at 01:20:29 :
I had one of the Harbor Freight types with the cable winch (boat trailer winch) on top, and that winch was pretty useless. Ended up just hanging a small chain hoist from the end. I found the reach and capacity of such a small one to be of not much use. It was maxed out in both reach and weight lifting my Onan 6 kW genset (about 700 lbs) into the truck. You might look at the ones the utility trucks have, if they're not too expensive. They seem to be much better built.
One thing to keep in mind no matter what is they put a hell of a strain on the anchor points at the base if you're lifting any serious load. You can't just bolt them to the bed sheet metal and expect them not to pull right through it or at least bend it up badly. They need to be mounted where they can bolt onto some strong cross-member either with through-bolts or U-bolts.