Heres my home-made boom pole

   / Heres my home-made boom pole #1  

Tenn_Blue

Silver Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
154
Location
N.E Tennessee
Tractor
Deere 2320, Bobcat 322 mini-ex, Bobcat 763 skidsteer
How many of your projects start with an item that you just need to find a use for? :D

I had picked up a carpet rod for a forklift (FREE!!!!!!) a while back and needed to find a "use" for it. Its a 10 foot long solid steel dowel about 3" diameter - they use them to move rolls of carpet.

I thought a boom pole/crane would be handy to lift suplies onto the roof, pick stuff up, etc.

Aside from the skid steer plate (bought it new), this was all scrap and stuff laying around the shop.

I painted it today - pictures were before painting. Still need to weld an attachment point on the end of the pole. Figure I will add both an attachment ring and a chain hook at the end, then add a ring about half way up for heavier lifts.

I was initially concerned about the weight of the thing - not sure how much it could lift with 10 feet of leverage plus the weight of the pole. But the skid steer (Bobcat 763) hoisted about 300 pounds hanging on the end of the pole with no problem. I will gradually increase loads to see how much it takes to get the skid tippy - just so I know. But I don't see me lifting really heavy weight with it anyway.

The 10 foot pole, plus the skid's lift gives me about 25 feet at max lift.
 

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   / Heres my home-made boom pole #2  
Bet that's a stout pole..
Some ideas..

Here's what I did on my tip. I've removable attachments for it.

boompoleendLarge.jpg


And added strength with a ring and rebar.

boompole3Large.jpg
 
   / Heres my home-made boom pole #3  
Wow, very nice idea. For lifting have you considered a hook near the middle as well? Then if you needed you ocould lift something closer to tour skidsteer and have a better tine with lift capacity and ballance. Also, for counter ballance have you considered putting weights on the back of your skidsteer? My grandpa put weight plates on his skidsteer which is similar to yours and it helps quite a bit for added ballast on the back. He has 2 3/4" plates which are about 10"x2' on each side. But when bolting them on, be careful because one of his bolts rubbed through the auxilary hydraulic hose when he was using the backhoe and spewed hydraulic fluid everywhere. Since it was boxed in the loader arm mounts it took us several hours to replace. Dont put to much on though because once you remove the bucket you will pop a wheelie and wont be able to hook up to your attachments.
 
   / Heres my home-made boom pole #4  
BTW, as for making it before you had a need for it, so did I. However, I just put my trusses up on my new metal building this last year..

Trusses came in, welded a chain to a piece of tubing that fits on my tip, then welded a piece of heavy rebar that I bent, and walla,, 15 minutes had a truss holder attachment for my pole..
Worked great on a 13 foot wall building!
 
   / Heres my home-made boom pole #5  
Looks great.

Just keep in mind that it doesn't take very much weight out that far to cause the SS to get a little tippy:confused2:
 
   / Heres my home-made boom pole #6  
Looks like you're ready for a jousting match!! ;)
 
   / Heres my home-made boom pole #7  
May want to consider as in the other example putting something long the top Sid to prevent bending when loaded at the end

Not sure about the term but it would be for example some flat rolled stock with a piece of square stock in the middle with both ends of the flat stock welded to your pole

Flat to round my be tough fit but you get the idea

Nice project and a crane is always useful to have around

Joel
 
   / Heres my home-made boom pole
  • Thread Starter
#8  
RCR, thats a good idea about the changable ends! I may adopt that. It will be a bear to drill the hole for the pin though...

I had thought about making a sleeve (tube) to go over the end to give me more height for lighter stuff. That could be one of the attachments, but I don't think I would use more height that often and the leverage of the weight gets worse as length increases. This gets on top of my house and barn ok as-is. Don't see me needing more than that.

As for jousting :)laughing:), on anything but level ground, the skid's short wheelbase gets it pitching front to back with any kind of speed - I would be scared of grounding the end in the dirt as it pitched forward. THAT would be a sudden stop I would NOT want to make!!!
 
 
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