24-ft manlift implement for my loader

[ampa]

<>I'm so glad to see u had ur doubts about saftey.... Dave..I for one had no doubts....seems everything u buy or whatever...... ur the only one on this TBN forum who can.... and..... will restore something to better than factory spec's..... ur work is just truely amazin'.....happy holidays Dave to u and ur family......take care....Ampa <>

 

[dfkrug]

Thanks for all the positive responses.

On the subject of safety, there is no one-size-fits-all. But the
manufacturers are forced to try to achieve that goal. Beyond what the
makers of these lifts include in their products, OSHA even requires that
users must have a non-expired fall harness on them. Of course, OSHA
has no jurisdiction over non-commercial activity like use by the owner at
home.

You bring up an additional safety point, AMPA. Equipment that has not
been cared for eventually can become a safety hazard. With respect to
this project, I was not going to entrust my skinny rear end to a lift
with rusty lift chains, for example. These structural elements are almost
completely hidden from view in the retracted state. My own safety
standards required that it had to be at least fully dissassembled to see
how safe it was.

BTW, I DID wear a hardhat in the video!

 

[ampa]

<> I could have not expained it no better...yes I did notice the hardhat ...take care Dave as always Ampa <>

 

[two_bit_score]

WOW.....!

 

[J_J]

dfkrug,

That is a great attachment to have, and you showed it's capability quite well. Outstanding project.

Merry Christmas to all

 

[Treemonkey1000]

That made my sphincter pucker watching that video. The lift tubes if you can call them that don't seem beefy enough for me. Then as you raise beyond each section it seems like your center of gravity would be further out causing a bit of wobble. You are braver than I am. I think I will stick to spurs and a flip line or a regular ladder. That sure would save me time on some jobs if I could get it to the site.
My hat is off to you and your craftsmanship which is to be admired! :thumbsup:

 

[crazyal]

You may want to add a tilt gauge just in case your eye is not off a little. 24' is a lot of leverage. Otherwise it looks good. Still would give me some pucker being up that high. I may have opted for to use two outriggers up front, pucker factor reducer.

Of course I say that when I use my Case BH as a lift. I bought a couple of jet engine work platforms off Govliquidation.com. The hydraulics were shot from being outside but I just locked it at the highest position and use my bucket forks to lift it to what ever height I need. I can get about 14' feet of height out of it and even that high gives me a little pucker.

 

[dfkrug]

You may want to add a tilt gauge just in case your eye is not off a little.

Thats what the orange 2-ft level is for for now (see photo above). The
Genie came with a 2-dimensional bubble level, but I could not salvage it. I
would like to get one, but it won't work better than my temporary level.
I do not just eyeball it for level!

I was just up in a 42' manlift a few days ago (not all the way), and I gotta
say that ALL of these manlifts sway a LOT up at the business end. Not
for the faint of heart, that's for sure. Far more secure than a ladder,
however.

The guy at the rental yard that sells me this stuff was telling me a story:
a manufacturer's rep was demonstrating one of the 36-ft Genie manlifts. He
went up all the way and shook it as hard as he could, without a problem.
It swayed so much, the guys on the ground were more scared than he was!

 

[swick1]

Just in case anybody was wondering, the formula for the torque applied at the base of his structure is:

Torque = Force * Distance

If the basket is off level by a certain number of degrees, the relation between horizontal force and angle of the tractor is as follows:

horizontal force = weight * tangent(angle from vertical)


For example, if the tractor was 10 degrees off level, the horizontal force would be:

650 lbm * tangent (10 degrees) = 114.6 lbf

Since the force is acting on a lever arm, the torque it applies to the base at full extension is:

114.6 lbf * 24 ft = 2750 ft-lbs.

It is apparent that we had better be careful about using the lift at an angle. The lift parts were not designed with this in mind. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. Good luck with your project and be safe!

 

[bx24]

Thanks for all the positive responses.

On the subject of safety, there is no one-size-fits-all. But the
manufacturers are forced to try to achieve that goal. Beyond what the
makers of these lifts include in their products, OSHA even requires that
users must have a non-expired fall harness on them. Of course, OSHA
has no jurisdiction over non-commercial activity like use by the owner at
home.

OSHA was created to protect the worker from their employer (as well as from themselves for those who don't have a full grasp of what they are doing)

If you take appropriate precautions and due dilegence, you should be OK. Rules are there as guidelines. If I were you I would do some research to see what are the most common accidents when using these and modify your behavior accordingly.

Your project turned out great. I had found a mast from a fork truck that I would like to put on the back of my tractor with some stabilizers to do basically the same thing (although much lower). The squishy thing between your ears is your most important safety tool