Turned my Harbor Freight Engine hoist into a crane. Will let you guys know how it holds up THE CRANE
Turned my Harbor Freight Engine hoist into a crane. Will let you guys know how it holds up THE CRANE
I'd say the biggest potential problem will be counter-weighting the base for heavier loads, which is generally why you need the legs to stay under the load. Even with long legs that extend out to the hook, I had to weight the base of my crane when lifting a fairly heavy load (a 900 lb scissor lift) out of my minivan.
Maybe add a shortened Olympic bar so you can add weights as needed?
that's a great idea. I haven't used it much, but toppling over is a concern. I will add a mount to allow some Olympic plates to be added. Thanks for the suggestion
Ian F wrote: I'd say the biggest potential problem will be counter-weighting the base for heavier loads, which is generally why you need the legs to stay under the load. Even with long legs that extend out to the hook, I had to weight the base of my crane when lifting a fairly heavy load (a 900 lb scissor lift) out of my minivan. Maybe add a shortened Olympic bar so you can add weights as needed?
The part that will fail is where the hydraulic piston meets those tabs. Mine squished in right there, then bent the top where you braced yours up.
Another thought would be adding an ATV winch. Awesome $35 pos little winch! There are some screwballs on YouTube pulling themselves up a tree on riding mowers while riding the things 
In reply to jere:
Please tell me more about adding a wench? (this is now too funny. I am not correcting) I was going to build a crane, but it was not cost effective...but if I could add a wench to this thing, then that my be worth it
Make sure that wench is capable of bringing you gratuitous amounts of mead and gruel.
LOL...Mead, gruel and dancing for all LOL
In reply to vazbmw:
The retrofit can be incredibly simple. Here's the basic idea ( thank google 
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As far as winch cranes go, I also have one of these from H-F. The one thing I can say about it is the mounting parts are woefully inadequate and if installed poorly it will bend the crap out of the truck bed. The crane itself may be rated to pick up 1000 lbs, but making sure what you are mounting the crane to can handle that load takes a bit more planning.
Let's just say it was a lesson learned... I still have the crane, but I'm not sure what I'll do with it.
I will seriously investigat the winch idea. This looks easy to do
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