Jinman's Lift Project

[wroughtn_harv]

We decided to put this thread up in Rural Living because this is where most of us know Jinman. As most of you know for the past year of so Jim has had some serious health issues. His beautiful home has three levels and it is great except it isn't handicap friendly and Jim's mobility has been limited.

I offered to help install the new outdoor elevator lift him if he had issues getting local contractors doing the job. The lift arrived July 18th. Glenda and I went up to Sunset the 20th to see what all I needed for the installation. Here's what we found.

The package was about 14' long and weighed in excess of a 1,000 lbs. The delivery 18 wheeler had a lift gate. Sunsetkat (Kathy) used the TC45 with forks and the truck's lift gate to get it out of the truck. That had to have been a ton of fun.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

We arrived in Sunset Tuesday the 22nd. One of the issues I seem to have with TBN is anytime I find a way to enjoy myself the other members have to become involved. TxDon arrived shortly after we did.

I'm sure glad he did. You see Jim had chosen a deck that made the installation easy on us but left it still very difficult for him because there was still six stairs for him to navigate inside the house to get to the deck where we were to install the lift.

Don and Miss Glenda grabbed me by the ear and we had a discussion with Jim about moving the lift to another location where he would have no issues with stairs to have access to the lift. Jim was a little hesitant at first because it meant a lot more work for us. There was a vote taken it was decided to change locations.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

You folks done good. Period.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

A couple of notes about the project. Jim is an accumulator, a trait shared by just about everyone on TBN. So when we looked for something required for the project we first looked around the place for it. Most of the time it was available. So a lot of the stuff we used was stuff left over from previous projects, real handy when the closest hardware store is an old fashioned one about fifteen miles away.

Where the new sidewalk was placed the ground has enough clay to be harder than a bad girl's heart. But down aways there on the place there is this wonderful sand. Day one Don was doing the getting the sand with the TC45. Day two it was Mike and Bird getting it as needed.

At the original location for the lift I had figured all we needed was about 30 square feet of pad formed and poured. So I brought fifteen bags of Maximizer and stuff we would need to mix what we needed ourselves. The new location would require a couple of yards so we called a local redimix plant. Their minimum was 3 yards and all we needed was to give them an hour's notice. We set the pour for Wednesday at ten in the morning because Don and myself forgot we were no longer supermen.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Due to our lack of supermaness we put off the pour until they got the phone call. 2:00 or so they arrived, we timed it for ultimate sunshine arrival too.

We used the TC45 to deliver some of the concrete. Mike did good with the tractor on that one even though he did complain about it not being just like his TC45, sounded a little like Don and Bird mentioning the New Holland being different from the Kubotas in their lives.

The redimix driver even got into the middle of the helping out getting the concrete placed. I don't think anyone took a breath for about twenty minutes, it was all get it down while we can time.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

All of us got after it. One of us even found a way to lay down on the job and look cute.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

After the pour was done and the concrete truck was out of the way we attacked the package. Think of those kitchen kits for your daughter way back in the day except much bigger, much much bigger.

One of the issues was the lift height on the tractor was 8' 4". The lift itself is about 149". Plus the pad is about 14" higher than the front tractor wheels. It was a problem.

Don found the three point boom. I think it was Mike that found the chain and binder. I contributed the idea of using the forks as the bottom pin holders on the three point boom and using the chain and binder to secure the top link pin to the headache rack on the fork attachment. That evening we had it figured out that with that we could get fourteen feet of height. Don and Mike did a test with a huge boulder for strength, they have a photo of that test to contribute. It worked.

 

[dave1949]

Bless all of you for pitching in to help Jim and sharing with us. I can't think of anyone on TBN more deserving of your help and support, and our respect. That lift is going to be a real improvement.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

One of the issues with the new location was electrical power for the lift. We decided to use the panel in the pump house because it was closest. There just wasn't an open breaker slot. Mike picked up a mini which gave us a dedicated breaker for the lift. He then installed a GFI outlet next to the lift location. I think he did a great job on the installation.

We hooked up the straps for a test lift and made it the final attempt. It worked great and we were able to get the lift installed on the pad.

We also had to install a 6" X 6" X 12' cedar post to support the top of the lift and build out the deck to meet the lift.

Thursday afternoon we had it working and after promising on the lives of all of our first born to make sure all the safety stuff was working properly before we finished we let Don head home to Lee County.

Mike likes to say that Don is the hydraulic arm man because the way Don works a hand tamper. That's only the half of it. Don is a head down mouth shut just plain getting after it worker. He is the man when you need to get it done.

Thursday night we had just a couple of issues with the electronics and the Florida tech help line was already done for the day.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Here are some more photos of Thursday's work. If you look closely you will see Bird, TxDon, Jinman, Mikim, and me. What I hope you see is a team working as a team.

There is a special feeling that one can only get from working as part of a team and having great success. We did it.