24-ft manlift implement for my loader

[dfkrug]

I have wanted to build one of these for a long time, and at last I
have completed it. I have already used it to trim some of my many trees,
and to lift and attach the last pieces of metal roofing to my new
wood shed. I have created a video of the new manlift in operation.....the
link is at the end of this thread.

I started with a Genie AWP24 manlift, which I purchased used (and non-
operational) from my local rental yard. These units are designed to be
pushed around manually, then they telescope vertically with up to 300
pounds in the basket. Outriggers are attached and leveled first. The
third picture is from the operator's manual.

These units are pretty unwieldy, weighing in at about 650 lb. There are
also 19, 30, and 36-foot versions that use more or less sections in the
telescoping boom.

My goal is to adapt this to the loader on my Kioti CK30 tractor.

 

[crazyal]

Is your plan to use your tractor to just move it around or are you thinking of raising your loader to get extra height? I think the extra height would be a bad idea unless you can extend the outriggers. If you just want an easy way to move it and to be able to move it on rough ground I think you have a great idea.

Does it use a hydraulic cylinder to raise itself? If so are you going to use your tractor's hydraulics to run it?

 

[Sherweld]

Great idea!
You have put together some pretty well conceived and executed projects.
I have little doubt this one is equal.

I couldn't find the video you mentioned, love to see what you ended up with.

I once had a somewhat similar large homemade cable run manlift long ago purchased for a very extensive construction project. They can be worth their weight in gold. Sold it for far more than I paid when I was finished.

 

[dfkrug]

It was no easy task getting this home. It comes with forklift slots, but
they are set at the wrong spacing for my tractor forks. It is also quite
high as it sits in my truck. Fortunately, my boompole attachment to
my loader could reach and handle the weight. Unfortunately, this unit
would not stand up on its own on my slightly sloped paved parking area.
Naturally, it was raining during the unload process.

Anyway....first the disassembly and analysis. I got this for only $500, and
the hope was that it did not need total restoration. Well it did. This unit
needed so much work, I probably overpaid for it.

This unit was left outside for years, and rain got into the chains and
pulley axles, as well as all the many roller shafts.

Kudos to Genie/Terex for providing free downloads of the PDF ops and
service manuals. This is the model that all heavy equipment makers should
follow!

This is an amazing piece of engineering. How it works and how it comes
apart is NOT intuitive at all. (And I have spent a lifetime of taking things
apart!) A very long cylinder pushes on the 2nd of 5 telescoping stages,
which are linked by leaf chain, pulleys, and sequencing cables. The
service manual drawing shows the stages. In the 2nd image, you can see
a bottom view, after I have removed the support framework, drive, controls,
etc. Note the Nylatron rollers between each stage, and the blue plates
that anchor each pair of chains. The 3rd image is of a side view of the
telescoping assembly with the staging cables disconnected. An overhead
crane/hoist was absolutely required for this project.

 

[dfkrug]

I once had a somewhat similar large homemade cable run manlift long ago purchased for a very extensive construction project. They can be worth their weight in gold. Sold it for far more than I paid when I was finished.

I have rented the Genie cable-operated manual material lifts before, as
well as tried several kinds of hydraulic manlifts.

These Genie Arial Work Platforms sell for nearly $10K new, and there is
a used one on my local Craigs for $3800, but it is a 30-footer.

There is nothing like having the right tool for the job.

(CRAZYAL: all will be revealed over the next few days.)

 

[magicheater]

I am curious about why mount this to the loader. Wouldn't the 3PT be a more stable place?

 

[dfkrug]

I am curious about why mount this to the loader. Wouldn't the 3PT be a more stable place?

The FEL has down pressure, which makes it much more stable. The
spacing between the boom arms is greater than the 3PH's inner supports,
too. I also want to leave my backhoe on at all times, and use its
outriggers to level the tractor side-to-side.

Stay tuned.

 

[dfkrug]

Here I am starting the disassembly of the telescoping stages.

After setting the assembly down flat, I removed the sequencing cables,
then pulled out the cylinder. The cylinder is almost 6 feet long
retracted, and about 10.5' extended. It has a 1 GPM piston-type
flow restrictor to control the retract speed without causing much
extend restriction. This is mounted to the base of the cylinder. The
cyl rod acts on the place marked with the yellow X in the 3rd photo.

So far, so good. Then I ran into my first major problem. The brackets
that hold the pulley axles to the boom sections are hex socket
head bolts (photos), recessed into the aluminum boom. They did not want
to come out, using single allen wrenches, or ratcheting socket wrenches.
I broke one trying. I soaked them for days in PB Blaster, and even tried
impact tools. The only thing that eventually worked was repeated
heating/cooling with a propane torch. There were 16 of these. It took
over a month of re-visiting this project to get then all out. In the
midst of this effort, I found that virtually all of the plastic rollers (4 per
section) had frozen up on their shafts. You can see why in the photo.
Water had invaded them and caused rust. This meant that once the
chains, pulleys, shafts, and cables were removed, I needed to use a
come-along to pull the sections apart. The rollers had become skids.

I ended up buying 16 new roller shafts, and 5 or 6 new rollers. I reused
all the nuts, washers, shims, and roller caps.

 

[magicheater]

The FEL has down pressure, which makes it much more stable. The
spacing between the boom arms is greater than the 3PH's inner supports,
too. I also want to leave my backhoe on at all times, and use its
outriggers to level the tractor side-to-side.

Stay tuned.

That answers my question, was unaware of the backhoe. I'll be watching......

 

[Cat_Driver]

As stated the outriggers are the most important part of the whole rig.

There needs to be a lot of engineering calculations involved on this contraption. These are designed to be used on a solid level surface. Venturing away from the LEVEL solid surface all bets are off.

Going up 24' attached temporarily to the tractor is sketchy at best. Remember the out riggers are designed for the max weight of a man ( I think they calculate 250lbs, ). Now if you attach this to a tractor you are now asking the out riggers to support a 250 lb, man, the lift, and not the tractor if things start to go south. It ain't gonna happen. The outriggers will fail like a cracker under the weight of a bowling ball.

The idea and concept is brilliant but unless you do it right, make sure you have your life insurance paid up.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Nice to have the brain tools and time to do that kind of stuff. Thanks for showing the process. I am always looking for easier ways to do my tree work. So far climbing spurs, flip lines and rope are the best way.

 

[Farmerford]

dfkrug:

I still can't figure out exactly how each section makes the next one move up with it. I hope you send some pictures all along so perhaps I can understand it.

I am with Sherweld; considering your past projects I have no doubt that this one will be well thought out and very useful.

 

[dfkrug]

I still can't figure out exactly how each section makes the next one move up with it. I hope you send some pictures all along so perhaps I can understand it.

The are 4 sets of pulleys and chains. The cylinder pushes up on the
axle of the first pulley, which is attached to the top of the 2nd stage. The
first stage is stationary, attached to the base. The chain goes over the
pulley and one end attaches to the stationary stage, and the other end
attaches to stage 3. If you can see how stage 2's chain acts on stages 1 and 3, then then another pulley is at the top of stage 3, and its chain is
attached to stages 2 and 4. Clear as mud? Perhaps I can draw a sketch
and scan it later. It won't be pretty.

Since chain has little resistance when you push it, the cables keep everything
tight (hold the stages down).

Here are some pix of the chains and pulleys, after I got everything cleaned
up and re-assembled. In the first photo, you see the socket head bolts.
The roller caps rub inside the stage's channel, and the shims (see prev
photo) give you the correct clearance. The channels are waxed before
final assembly. The second photo is an end view where you can see all
the stages, each with different size chains and pulleys.

The chain is not your garden variety roller chain, like you have on your
bicycle. It is called "leaf chain", which is much stronger and much more
expensive. Each segment is made of multiple plates or leaves. Forklift
enthusiasts know about this stuff. I cleaned all of mine and all were within
spec, so I did not replace them. All lubed up with gear oil, too.

Next will be the framework.

 

[dfkrug]

Rebuilding the telescoping stages was the hard part; the custom
frame was quite easy in comparison. The photos are pretty
self-explanatory.

I used some 4x4 thick walled tubing along with some larger rectangular
tubing for the forks. From the original frame, I chopped off the angle
steel that supported the base of the hydraulic cylinder. I added some
bracing and the result is in the second photo. It is quite heavy and
stiff.

To brace the first (stationary) stage to the fork frame, I used 3/4" ID
DOM tubing and .30" plate. The outer 2 braces are IMC conduit
(1 5/16" OD, 1/8" wall) welded to more DOM. All attached, there is
no discernable play in any of the stationary elements.

 

[dfkrug]

Maybe this helps describe how this thing works.

Stage 1 is attached to the base.

The hyd cylinder pushes up on the pulley (red) on the top of Stage 2.
Since one end of the chain on that pulley is anchored to Stage 1, the
other end pulls up on Stage 3. As Stage 3 goes up, ITS pulley does
the same thing as the cylinder did to Stage 2, but this time to Stage 4.

 

[dfkrug]

Finally there are the electrical and hydraulic systems.

I kept the Genie's Fenner 12V hydraulic power pack, which delivers
2000 psi to the cylinder through 1/8" plastic hoses. Two solenoid-
operated spool valves control the up and down for the single-acting
cylinder. I replaced the fluid (ATF) before I operated anything.

I am using the tractor's battery, and new 4-guage cables, hardwired to
the contactor solenoid and chassis ground. The motor draws about
100 amps, so I have decided to forego any plug/socket arrangement for
power. You can see where I made grommetted holes in the tractor's
grille for power. Generally, I will keep the tractor running while using
the manlift in order to keep the battery charged. I can see my parking
lights dim a bit when I run the power pack motor. I certainly could have
converted to the tractor's hydraulics to run the lift, but that would have
required plumbing auxilliary lines, and use of a flow divider to reduce
the flow to 1GPM. I would have done that if the Fenner power pack was
bad.

Most of the Genie's existing electrical system was composed of safety
interlocks for each of 4 outriggers, as well as keyed enable and 120VAC
power for the basket. I replaced it all with 2 simple waterproof momentary
SPDT toggle switches, one for the basket, and one on the frame.

The wire to the man basket goes thru several plastic pulleys, including one
I added, so there is no slack in any position. I bought some coiled wire
and use a lead weight to achieve this (3rd, 4th pix).

Next: the final pix and video

 

[porta mill]

all I can say is make sure your out riggers are well placed and the unit is level . I used to use one where I used to work that lift gave more than one person brown underware . they are not very sturdy when they are fully extended . I just purchased a used van with a bucket lift, I much rather the van than the unit you have only paid $700.That being said good luck and be safe.

 

[dfkrug]

Here are the final pix. I also made a 4-minute video, which is posted on
Youtube:
YouTube - manlift_attach.wmv

In the first 2 photos, you can see how I use the loader to plant the base
of the tractor firmly against the ground. My intent is to use the lift
only with the loader down, leveled fore-and-aft as well as left-right. I
plan to add a bubble level in the future for easier 2-dimensional leveling.
Now I just use a 2-foot level in the basket. Left-right leveling is
accomplished by using the backhoe outriggers, though I generally try
to position the tractor level in that dimension.

I first tested the lift up to max height with the basket empty, and a rope
attached to the basket. I pulled sideways on the rope to see how much
sway I could generate, and how stable the base was. The results were
excellent, whether or not the backhoe outriggers were down.

In the last photo, I have set up the tractor on pavement with a slight
slope to the right. Notice the right hoe outrigger holds the right wheel
several inches off the ground to provide a level basket.

Everything works great, and I have already used it to trim some trees,
finish the last panels of a metal roof install, clean my gutters (20' up),
clean some windows, and check soffits for bats (24' up). Soon I will
add some sort of tool holder.

 

[teg]

WOW!!! :shocked::shocked::shocked: Great Job!

 

[relaqbr]

Here are the final pix. I also made a 4-minute video, which is posted on
Youtube:
YouTube - manlift_attach.wmv

add some sort of tool holder.

Very Very nice.