How do I build a hay/barn pulley?????????

[BungeeII]

I have such a beam in a gambrel roof shed. I put a 4x6x12' on top of my collar ties. 3' sticks out the front of the shed. I put a pair of 45 degree braces under where it passes thru the wall & a 2x4 to the ridge on top of the other end to keep it from lifting. Since I only use a single pully I've never lifted more than 100 lbs but it would lift much more with a block & tackle. Cover the top of the exterior with flashing to protect from weather. Miked74T

How about that. I was right. I'm going to take the next month off from posting on the internet... You know, just to quit while I'm ahead.

 

[MikeD74T]

Bungee II, I wasn't actually replying to your post. Mine is like the picture posted by the originator. Hay trolleys are completely suspended and pass thru the door, not above it. MikeD74T

 

[Laminarman]

Thanks folks. See, I knew I'd get some smarties on here. I'm getting the idea of how I'll do this now. Wish I had the time and money now to do this but can't wait to spring to start this project. I had a choice: a hay pulley thingy or big pair of antlers to adorn the gable end...my wife liked the former and not the latter. I have to admit the pulley will be more functional than the antlers.

 

[mrcaptainbob]

Combine them. It would make one heck of a buck pole!

 

[MarkV]

A couple of thoughts. Most old barns with upper floor hay storage were build very different from most modern pole barns. If your barn is designed with trusses they are often spaced up to 8' apart and calculated for light roofing material, metal, and snow load. Not sure I would want to hang a beam that was to lift any substantial weight off of them. If the building supply places software doesn't offer the option you need contact the truss manufacture they use and see what they say. The truss manufacture will have a better ability to engineer options than the computer software at the store. Also if you have to permit it in your area the inspector could make you have an engineer sign off on the lift.

MarkV

 

[BHD]

Have you seen a barn where they have that pole out the gable end and a pulley? Like this one here:

http://www.barnsbarnsbarns.com/ashville.html

In any event I'm building my 36x40 pole barn in the spring, have the plans, material list...etc but the lumber co. that designed it won't/can't design this contraption saying their software won't do it, and they're not sure how to do it. Any thoughts, photos, ideas?? I'd really like it, and google gave nothing up. Thank you!

First of all your going to have to figure out if you want convental framing or a pole barn and truss rafters,

not that if truss rafters are used are you screwed, because you can get a truss that has been designed for a room in the truss section,

but you appear to more so want a convental barn, in design and construction,

Untitled Document click on the box and a list of plans will open up you can down load,

for example here is a 26' x36' barn http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/5552.pdf

there are a lot of plans on that site, free, to down load.

under the construction area there are more details of the systems, such as this for rafters,
http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/5218.pdf

here is details of the carrier track on draw up in I think the 40's
http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/5634.pdf

now our old barn has a mow hay door at the top, which opened clear to the top of the rafters, the small point on the mow has a 4x4 that extends in about as far in as it does out, and is the Ridge board on the first set of rafters, and the rail that the hay trolley rides on is attached to that via what looks like eye bolts, in side the rail is supported off the rafters by a Vee shaped flat that attach駸 to ever rafter and vees down with a eye in it to attached to the rail, (I have never seen the doors on the hay mow of our barn open, (i have nailed them shut so they would not blow off), but in the 60 years I have been here it has never been used so I can not give first hand info on it use, my dad said they had like a cargo net that when over the wagon and loose hay would be hand pitched on to the net when the wagon was full they would bring it in to the barn yard and park the wagon under the peak of the barn and lower the tripping device on the trolley, and hook up the 4 corners of the net, (we do not have the net any more), and another team of horses would be hitched to another rope that was extended up into the barn and over a pulley in the back of the barn and then back to the trolley, when the load was raised it was rolled back into the mow and when it was where it was wanted it was tripped and one side of the net would be released dropping the load in the mow, then reversed and the net relayed on the wagon and then wait for the next load,

but I think your will need Basicly an open framed mow or upper story, and I would attach a small I beam and use a trolley similar to what was posted at amazon, and then attach a pulley at the ends of the beam so one can pull the trolley along the beam, with a second pulley or hoist to raise or low items,

if it is to be stationary I would probably use the I beam again and just support it under the rafters with some type of tab similar to what the Vees are in my barn, (may have to weld attachment point on to the beam) and then cantilever it out a few feet in front of the building, then up a hook on the end of the beam or tube to hook onto,

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I saw a more modernized way of adding the overhead trolley, and now I can't find it again on the internet.

It was in a gambrel barn, and the guy simply built a frame out of tube steel tube at the front and the back of the barn. The frame bolted to the wall headers and followed the contour of the gambrel (inside the roof). An I-beam was attached between the two frames such that it extended out the front of the barn. Then he used a regular old trolley like others have mentioned.

No matter what you end up with, be sure to put some kind of a stop on the front and back of whatever beam you use. No matter how careful you are, the trolley will come down on something if you don't have some kind of stop.

 

[smiley]

I use the hay trolley and track that was in our old barn to pull motors then just push them down the track to a bench to work on them. I remember putting in loose hay with it in the 40's/early 50's and some Amish still do this. You pulled the loaded hay wagon under that little peak on the end of the barn and a 2 pronged hay fork about 3 ft long was pushed into the hay as far as possible. Then a lever was pulled that popped out 3-4" barbs on the bottom of the fork to hold the hay from falling off. Then the team, tractor or car was signaled to pull a 1 1/4 inch rope that ran through a series of pulleys, up to the track and down to the fork. That lifted a large gob of hay to the top and then the trolley down the track to the point you wanted to drop the hay. At that point, you pulled on a 1/4 inch rope attached to the lever that popped out the barbs and that retracted the barbs and dropped the hay. Then you manually pulled the fork back down the track and to the wagon with the 1/4 " rope. Sound like fun doesn't it?? If you were real brave or stupid, you could grab onto the forks and ride the load into the barn and drop on top of the hay. A friend of mine did this and his hand went into the trolley and cut off all but his index finger and thumb.
Smiley

 

[hr3]

Take a look at this stuff.. We use unistrut alot in our work.. It's fairly cheep and available at any big electrical outlet.. Unistrut Product Group

 

[sawdust_maker]

I think that's his struggle.

In our old dairy barn we had the rail fastened as described by a previous poster. The trolley rail was literally fastened at the absolute highest point in the barn from end to end. These perches at the end of the barn do look rather ornamental. I can't think of any way of installing it except to provide sufficient support beneath the perch on the gable end, and then some bracing on the opposing end to prevent teetering.

Its a cantilever, braced against a series of the members that make up the roof structure.

If you want it to be able to take a bit more of a load, then add a taut cable, running from the tip of the beam up to the peak of the barn. This triangular shape will take far more load than he is talking about subjecting it to.

Of course if it was me, I'd proceed to over-engineer the whole thing, so that I could lift a car into the air on this. I'm the fellow who set up a pulley system in my garage to store my boat. Hook a pair of cables to cradles that were then counterbalanced for the weight of the boat. Then my boat could be lifted into the top of my garage with the touch of one hand.

John