2000lb ceiling hoist/elevator??

[piaffepony]

I need to hoist a 8’x6’ hay pallet (30 bales weighing approximately 1,950 lbs) about 11’ to the loft storage area.

I’ll most likely *try* to build it myself but have no idea which type of hoist, lift, elevator, winch or whatever would be most cost effective, durable and easiest to build. The space will have 3 solid walls so I could use a 4 post type design. Needs to be electric. Low maintenance is always good too.

Anyone of you awesome geniuses build something like this before? What materials were used? What to do/not to do? I’ve been googling and nothing is really jumping out at me.

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I HATE loading/unloading stacking hay. The thought of having to stack hay in a loft?! Kill me now. Before you roll your eyes and call me lazy, 24 horses will go through approximately 350, 50lb square bales a month (worst case scenario).

I own 10 acres and lease 54. Majority of my boarders are currently pasture boarded and I have 9 stall boarders. My area is quickly developing and I don’t plan on having my land leases much longer so I’m building new stalls in my arena for a total of 24.

I don’t have enough space for a separate hay barn so I’m going with loft storage. I built a couple of pallets that are the same dimensions as my supplier’s grapple so I could just unload/stack with the skid steer forks but Bucky can’t reach high enough for a loft type setup.

Old school hay elevator requires at least 2 people to use and takes up space to store so that’s not an option I’d like to consider.

Not sure how much weight something like this can lift..but it looks like it has a lot of cables to get tangled up in.

The metal one looks perfect but I’m not sure of how much that can lift either and that one is hydraulic. I know nothing of building anything hydraulic...


I don’t want to be this guy...using a winch to lift 1 bale at a time. (Although I find this picture incredibly sexy for some reason...)

 

[MossRoad]

When you get the pallet of bales up to the loft area, what happens to them then?

 

[4570Man]

A mast from a forklift would be my first choice. You can get them pretty easy from scrap yards. Are you unloading the pallet by hand once it gets to the top or are you hoping to set it at the top and move it with a pallet jack? How are you getting the pallet to the lift? How high is it going?

 

[flyerdan]

Do you have enough room and access to use a forklift? Chances are that you might be able to pick up one that isn't reliable or OSHA compliant enough for daily commercial ops, but fine for personal use. You could luck out and find one for less than a dedicated elevator would cost, and it could be used for other things as well.

 

[MossRoad]

A mast from a forklift would be my first choice. You can get them pretty easy from scrap yards. Are you unloading the pallet by hand once it gets to the top or are you hoping to set it at the top and move it with a pallet jack? How are you getting the pallet to the lift? How high is it going?

That sounds like a good idea. You just have to figure out how to anchor it. A 2000# lift forklift usually has a weight of 4-5000 pounds. It's not something you can just anchor to a wall or floor. It needs significant counterweight, or rollers on a beam on the opposite wall.

For that matter, I'd bet a used forklift would be almost as cheap as building a dedicated lift from scratch, and be more versatile around the farm.

 

[4570Man]

Do you have enough room and access to use a forklift? Chances are that you might be able to pick up one that isn't reliable or OSHA compliant enough for daily commercial ops, but fine for personal use. You could luck out and find one for less than a dedicated elevator would cost, and it could be used for other things as well.

That would be my first choice but I made my previous comment on building a lift. The biggest problem with forklifts is they don’t go off road very good at best. Forklifts capable of going off road around nearly as compact and more expensive.

 

[MossRoad]

For example, this one lifts 4000# to 160" and is $3500.

There's more examples on that page. No need to reinvent the wheel, and its probably going to be safer, too.

Propane Fork-Lift ForkTruck - Halla HLF25C - LPG 5 lb Capacity, 572 hours | eBay

 

[MossRoad]

That would be my first choice but I made my previous comment on building a lift. The biggest problem with forklifts is they don’t go off road very good at best. Forklifts capable of going off road around nearly as compact and more expensive.

That's true. They do get stuck in slight mud or snow very easily. But even at that price, you could pour a concrete pad and park it there permanently and use it as an elevator.

 

[4570Man]

That's true. They do get stuck in slight mud or snow very easily. But even at that price, you could pour a concrete pad and park it there permanently and use it as an elevator.

I’ve got cheaper forklifts than that. I’ve got 2 that are operational for less than $2000. One of mine has tiny wheels like that one and it won’t go off a concrete or asphalt at all. The other one has bigger wheels but is still a warehouse forklift. It’ll go on gravel and firm dirt. As heavy as that are anything that even resembles mud is out of the question. I wouldn’t be surprised if the tiny wheeled one could be gotten stuck in hot asphalt.

 

[flyerdan]

A pneumatic tired one like mine does pretty good in packed dirt and gravel, even though it it stuck in the lawn in the avatar pic. Hadn't dried out enough when I tried moving a trailer. Chances are that an area can be prepared well enough to use it all year for hay moving. Mine would be a lot more capable with new drivers on it, they're pretty smooth. One of the reasons it was so cheap.

 

[Randy Gann]

Have you thought about the lifts used at docks to cradle boats and lift them out of the water? Most use electric motor and wind cable on pipes suspended in ceiling.

 

[Egon]

How big is the area you have to work with? Bottom level top level? Is there exterior acess to the loft or how is it set up? What is there to fix a hoist to?

 

[TnAndy]

Don't forget to factor in the weight of the car or pallet you plan to put the hay on. Something 6x8 that will hold that many hay bales is going to have a fair amount of weight JUST in it.

I use a 120vAC "Strong Arm" winch (w/out clutch for overhead lifting) on my wood elevator. They make a model that is rated up to 4000lbs Dutton-Lainson Company - Since 1886. This is often used to lift smaller boats out of the water for winter storage.

I use the SA9000 model to lift a 2x2x4 car of wood from the basement to the ground floor level. I went thru several lighter weight winches over the years before I switched to this one. So far, it's done a pretty good job.