3-point hitch lifiting boom

[Capricious]

Yet another homemade ("shop fabricated") boom.

Needed a boom for my old Mitsubishi:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/mitsubishi-satoh/316342-mt160d.html

Did not want to spend $129.99 plus sales tax on a new one; saw several used booms advertised @ about $50 to $75 but either sold too quickly, or were located such a long distance away that the fuel cost to go get the thing would have eaten-up most of the savings.

I had an 11 foot piece of 2" by 3" by 3/16" rectangular tubing that had been laying around the yard for more than a decade, so decided to turn that into a boom. Spent $22.00 on some "drop offs" at the steel yard (did not use all of it on this project) plus spent about 8 bucks on gen-u-wine hitch pins for the lower arms.

The braces are lightweight steel angle from an old bed frame; the mounting plates for the pins for the lower arms are 3/8" by 3" flat bar. I torch-cut the 1" holes for the pins with my recently acquired acetylene torch:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/welding/318494-old-tanks.html

The plates for the top link are 1/4" by 5" I also torch-cut the holes in these, but since these would have a removable pin in them, I cut some sections of pipe and welded these into the torch-cut holes for bushings (something I read about on this site.)

The end of the boom has a piece of 1/4" by 2' flat bar with a hole drilled in the lower end for a hook, and a slot cut on the upper end to hold chain.












I might throw a coat of paint on it this coming weekend, and next weekend hope to use it on it's first real project; removing the bed from my Ranger pickup truck.
The truck was hit from the rear and the ends of the frame rails are badly buckled. While I am driving it almost every day, I can't tow a trailer with the trailer hitch
pointing at the ground:



Will remove the bed and replace the rears of the frame rails with pieces sold for the purpose of repairing Rangers with rusted frames.

 

[jmc]

Well done.

 

[TomSeller]

Nice boom and nice old outboard Johnson Seahorse

 

[Reg]

Hmmm, just LOOKING at that has inspired me to "3 point'ize" an engine crane that I have.

I just need to put two lift pins on it, or maybe a hitch bar across the upright, and then a bit of U-channel to take the top link.

 

[Capricious]

Hmmm, just LOOKING at that has inspired me to "3 point'ize" an engine crane that I have.

I just need to put two lift pins on it, or maybe a hitch bar across the upright, and then a bit of U-channel to take the top link.

I considered buying a Harbor Freight engine hoist and converting it, but decided I did not want to have that much money in it. If I already had the hoist, however, I might have gone that way.

I might add a manual winch to the thing. A little bit of vertical travel at the 3-point hitch translates to a lot of travel at the end of the boom- it would be nice to have a way to make fine adjustments while raising/lowering something critical, say something that needed to be lowered onto bolt holes or mounting studs (like the pickup truck bed). The hydraulic engine hoist would give me that option.

Since I have a small tractor, and the turf tires lower it even more, I built the thing a bit taller than the store-bought booms to try to get adequate clearance under the boom.

 

[newbury]

Hmmm, just LOOKING at that has inspired me to "3 point'ize" an engine crane that I have.

I just need to put two lift pins on it, or maybe a hitch bar across the upright, and then a bit of U-channel to take the top link.

If you do that please keep us posted. I've a truck crane from HF I'd like to transform into a 3-pt boom pole.

 

[olllotj]

That works pretty good

 

[newbury]

That works pretty good
View attachment 416880View attachment 416881

That looks interesting but I'm afraid I'd bend the cross drawbar.

Plus the HF crane can pivot.

/edit - anybody know the strength of the cross drawbars? My M4700 3 pt is rated at 2 tons, my B7610 at about 1300 lbs. The crane at 1,000 lbs. Will a cross drawbar hold 1,000 lbs?

 

[bcp]

The problem with a pivoting boom is that you don't want it to pivot unless the post is perfectly vertical. Otherwise it will try hard to swing the load the direction the post leans. In my opinion a swinging boom would lead to more problems than it would solve.

Bruce

 

[ishiboo]

A drawbar is made for pulling, I doubt it has a weight rating. A cat 1 is usually about an inch thick though, IIRC, I think it should do 1000 lbs no problem. If it's an issue, bend it back with the same load and bolt a piece of angle iron or tube steel on the bottom of it. A new cross drawbar is cheap.

What do you guys do with these lifting booms? Do you still use it if you have a loader?

 

[Leejohn]

Is that Johnson a K35 by chance?

 

[Capricious]

Is that Johnson a K35 by chance?

Just a late 40's PO-15

I have about a dozen of 'em, including (2) WWII surplus "assault boat" versions.

And at least a half dozen of the similar sized, but totally different, Evinrude Speeditwins.

And a whole bunch of others.

Used to be real heavy into antique outboards but not so much anymore.

Here is a Po-15 on an old Crestliner I used to own. Blew-up the PO several years ago, and
sold the boat not long after:

 

[newbury]

<snip>
What do you guys do with these lifting booms? Do you still use it if you have a loader?

I don't do anything with one yet, I don't have one
I'd find a use for it.

 

[ishiboo]

I don't do anything with one yet, I don't have one
I'd find a use for it.

Yeah, that's what I am thinking. I have some left over 4x3x.25 tube steel.

I am also considering using it for a SSQA boom instead, so I could hoist trusses with the skid loader. If I ever get to do that.

 

[countrybumpkin]

Built a ssqa to three point adapter, that way you can use boom pole on either end of tractor. Also you will find many other uses for the adapter too, that's what I did, I'm always using the adapter now. Also works good to load and unload attachments from a truck or trailer.

 

[Reg]

That looks interesting but I'm afraid I'd bend the cross drawbar.

Plus the HF crane can pivot.

/edit - anybody know the strength of the cross drawbars? My M4700 3 pt is rated at 2 tons, my B7610 at about 1300 lbs. The crane at 1,000 lbs. Will a cross drawbar hold 1,000 lbs?

I had meant DRAW BAR, don't know why I typed "hitch bar".
Anyway, I hadn't thought it through completely... I was just musing.
If I do this I will most likely put the DRAW BAR "on edge", quite possibly using a couple of square U bolts.

BTW, it isn't easy to lower anything onto studs with an engine crane.
I have only been able to get fine let-down by discarding the jack handle end and using visegrips on the valve, even then it takes a steady hand to open that valve just a TINY bit.

Fairly sure my engine crane doesn't swing, I've used it for changing ~1,000 lb loaded tires and it has never threatened to "get away from me".

Markings on my engine crane are for up to 2 tons with the boom fully retracted, 1/2 ton fully extended. so it can take the weight, just not the leverage.
It is more about where the load is relative to the center of support than how much it is supporting.
================================================
I just held up a Cat 1 draw bar to my engine crane to do a bit of eyeballing.
I hadn't thought of taking the crane apart and putting it ON the draw bar as olllotj has done.
I would like to have it as "Standard" as possible so that I either use it on the tractor OR use it as sold.
The legs fold up, as most of these portable cranes do - those would have to be taken off, a pin each, or they would get in the way when folded.

I think leaving the base on and mounting the bar on the column would make it easier to hook up than olllotj's set up, i.e. it would be free standing for me to back up to and hook up like any other "implement".