BODY LIFT DEVICE

[Rick_L]

Two things about extending the arm on a cherry picker lift.

As Maddog points out, you need to extend the front wheels to where they further forward than the lift hook. If the hook is forward of the front wheels, the rear wheels will lift. If the hook and front wheels are in the same spot fore/aft, there's no weight on the rear wheels except half the weight of the cherry picker itself. As you move them further forward, more weight will be on the rear wheels.

The other issue is when you extend the lift arm, you reduce the capacity of the jack to lift a load. Let's say the jack could pick up 1000 pounds with the arm that's on it. If you doubled the arm length, you could only pick up 500 pounds.

The way I pick mine up is to use the cherry picker on the rear of the body. I have a brace I put under the trunk floor where the rear gas tank bolts were, and screw two eyebolts through those bolt holes. Then use a chain between them and pick up on the chain with the cherry picker. No need for extensions or anything to the cherry picker. On the front I put a sling through the cowl braces and lift with a comealong from the ceiling. Obviously where you attach to the ceiling needs to be strong enough to accept the load.

There are lots of ways to adapt things using what you have and things that suit your shop's (or lack of it) layout. That's why Nick correctly points out that he probably can't sell too many of these because everyone's needs and idea of how to do it will vary.

[Hotroddder]

I built these about 8 years ago. They work well. I did add casters to make them moveable. I also used a different style crank with a worm gear so it will not unwind and does not need a brake. The only drawback to my design is that if the body were to get tilted too much off level I think it would unload to one side and the result would not be good. I have not found a good remedy as of yet.

Simple to build and I made to come apart for storage. I did lift a body once with doors and tons of stuff crammed inside, I was pretty leery at the time. Would want it a bit stronger to lift a fully loaded body.

Hotroddder

[chevynut]

Dick, I do think you risk tipping the body and there's nothing to stop it from doing so with the pulleys you used. I would consider a sling that went across the body, then connect the cable to the sling. You could use a pair of pulleys on the lifting cable to increase pulling power, similar to what Nick did. You'd really only have to do that on one end and I'd do it in the rear where you have more room for a sling.

What size tubing did you use and what wall thickness? I like the idea of a worm gear winch too.

[NickP]

I considered the worm gear winch but had already purchased the std. boat winch. With it doubled (2400 Lbs) it is effortless to lift a complete body and reversing it only requires flipping the pawl changing the rotation. Mine may be a bit overkill tube size. Top tube is 2-1/2" as all other tubes but 3/16" wall and the remainder is 10 ga. It does assemble and takes about 5 minutes to take down. No casters but I use car dollys for that. My first lift with it the body had everything in it just to test the strength. It's gutted now, in fact it's about to go back on the new front floor, get welded up and sent down the road.

[Hotroddder]

The tubing is 2 X 2 .125 wall mild steel. I had some receiver tube that I used at the top for a slip fit.

It really works well, you just have to be watchful that the body does not tip too far. It wants to tilt going up and down, but it is easy to control. I took off the cranks and shortened the shaft so that I can use my cordless drill. Works great. One other thing I would like to do is to have a spring plate controlling the cable on the reel. Once the cable goes slack, it tends to get out of line on the drum.

I really didn't think about casters at first, but I had a body hanging for a while and needed to move it out of the way. Casters work OK if you have help to move both at once.

Another thing i did at first was to have a length of flatbar that tied the bottom of the gantry together. I had a pin sticking up and it fit into a hole in the middle of each leg. I found it was not needed after a while.

Dick Olsen

Dick, I do think you risk tipping the body and there's nothing to stop it from doing so with the pulleys you used. I would consider a sling that went across the body, then connect the cable to the sling. You could use a pair of pulleys on the lifting cable to increase pulling power, similar to what Nick did. You'd really only have to do that on one end and I'd do it in the rear where you have more room for a sling.

What size tubing did you use and what wall thickness? I like the idea of a worm gear winch too.