PhilCase
Member
The internet is an interesting social phenomena. Because of the relative detachment most people feel with their posts, what they post tends to be an unfiltered look into their nature, as opposed to in-person conversation where they tend to *audit* their communication for various reasons. As a result, this it makes it relatively easy to figure out, from peoples posts, who's a good go-to resource on future projects, and who you are glad isn't your neighbor.
Special thanks to those members here who made meaningful suggestions on the crane project. Notably Mock1 who noted some of the cable clamps reversed; mbohunter, who pointed out risk-potential with the turnbuckles; and jimgerken who pointed out the potential problems with the plastic coated cables.
The award for most accurate analysis has to go to jlrsn, whose first observation was "overbuilt" which proved to be correct, and his observation that the winch was "something else to go wrong".
Here's the story:
The crane worked great, exactly the right tool for what I needed. I did decide to safety wire the turnbuckles, but it turned out an unnecessary precaution as the turnbuckles performed flawlessly. The RF control on the winch, however, failed to respond while working the 2nd truss. (Harbor freight - go figure.) So I stripped the RF control module off the winch and using two sets of jumper cables and a bungie cord I created my own home-brew winch control system. By connecting like polarities together the winch would extend, and opposites would retract. This actually worked out great.
I put stop blocks on top of the headers ahead of time so I could set the trusses against the blocks and not leave the tractor until I knew the trusses were already on their marks. This went very well, in fact I never had a single truss that required more than a half inch of position adjusting to set. The crane was easily able to lift the trusses, and carrying them over the tops of the ridge posts was quite useful as getting the truss above the building then allowed for easy tractor positioning to get into setting position.
The process after transporting the trusses, then lifting and sitting them, was with the truss was still attached to the crane, to climb the walls and use clamps to clamp the truss ends to the stop blocks (or in some cases posts), then, using scaffolding put in temporary bracing: 2 top-chord, 2 bottom-chord, and 2-diagonals. Then toe-nail the trusses to the headers, detach the crane, and repeat on the next truss.
After getting a stretch of 5 trusses, I'd go back and put in the permanent bracing.
Final analysis, despite the "opinion" of some, this was an effective, efficient, and safe tool allowing me to do a job myself that normally would require a crew of several people.
I haven't had time to build a good presentation, but all raw images are available here. Video of first truss lift test is also available here.
All the best,
Phil
P.S. Final video next week that will feature one more modification, this one dedicated to jlrsn.
Special thanks to those members here who made meaningful suggestions on the crane project. Notably Mock1 who noted some of the cable clamps reversed; mbohunter, who pointed out risk-potential with the turnbuckles; and jimgerken who pointed out the potential problems with the plastic coated cables.
The award for most accurate analysis has to go to jlrsn, whose first observation was "overbuilt" which proved to be correct, and his observation that the winch was "something else to go wrong".
Here's the story:
The crane worked great, exactly the right tool for what I needed. I did decide to safety wire the turnbuckles, but it turned out an unnecessary precaution as the turnbuckles performed flawlessly. The RF control on the winch, however, failed to respond while working the 2nd truss. (Harbor freight - go figure.) So I stripped the RF control module off the winch and using two sets of jumper cables and a bungie cord I created my own home-brew winch control system. By connecting like polarities together the winch would extend, and opposites would retract. This actually worked out great.
I put stop blocks on top of the headers ahead of time so I could set the trusses against the blocks and not leave the tractor until I knew the trusses were already on their marks. This went very well, in fact I never had a single truss that required more than a half inch of position adjusting to set. The crane was easily able to lift the trusses, and carrying them over the tops of the ridge posts was quite useful as getting the truss above the building then allowed for easy tractor positioning to get into setting position.
The process after transporting the trusses, then lifting and sitting them, was with the truss was still attached to the crane, to climb the walls and use clamps to clamp the truss ends to the stop blocks (or in some cases posts), then, using scaffolding put in temporary bracing: 2 top-chord, 2 bottom-chord, and 2-diagonals. Then toe-nail the trusses to the headers, detach the crane, and repeat on the next truss.
After getting a stretch of 5 trusses, I'd go back and put in the permanent bracing.
Final analysis, despite the "opinion" of some, this was an effective, efficient, and safe tool allowing me to do a job myself that normally would require a crew of several people.
I haven't had time to build a good presentation, but all raw images are available here. Video of first truss lift test is also available here.
All the best,
Phil
P.S. Final video next week that will feature one more modification, this one dedicated to jlrsn.
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