pickup mounted crane

[isaaccarlson]

I am planning a crane build and am looking for ideas or warnings.

I have a 1991 f250 that I have beefed up and it hauls everything for me. It is not uncommon to have 6-8000 lbs on it.
My body is tired of lifting stuff and is telling me I need a crane on the truck. It is a standard cab and 8 foot bed.
I know what I want, but nobody makes it or at least I can't find it. Anything even close costs more than a new car, so I have decided to make my own.
I have scaled down a big log grapple knuckle boom and am in the process of tweaking it to make it fit my purposes. I am still working on it, but here is the rough idea.
Each small square is 3" and the big ones are 1 foot.



It has a reach of over 10 feet with a manual ~2 foot extension. It will pick up 1,000 lbs at 10 feet and 2000 at 6.5 feet. It folds up to fit behind the cab on the truck without sticking out past the sides or top, at least not by much. I may add a grapple in the future.

I am still trying to figure out the base rotator. I will be making a sub frame for it to spread the stress to the truck frame evenly. Outriggers will be used as well.

The idea is to have it run on my power steering pump, if I can keep the pressures low enough. If not, a clutched pump will do nicely.

If anyone sees any design flaws or possible improvements, PLEASE speak up. Don't sugar coat it or worry about hurting my feelings. That is why I am asking.

 

[newbury]

Warning - 3 tons in an F250 is overloaded.
I've used a HF "truck crane" w/ far 1/2 ton capacity.
On sale now for about $150.
I affixed it on 3/4 PT plywood and hook it on to the bed rails for my in bed 5th wheel rails.

 

[bcp]

How are you going to swing it and stop it from swinging? That much load will insist in moving to the downhill side if you aren't near perfectly level.

Bruce

 

[isaaccarlson]

Like I said above, I am still trying to figure out the base rotator. It will be hydraulic in one form or another.

 

[isaaccarlson]

That little harbor freight crane is not going to cut it.

 

[TerryMcQ]

I built a crane for my little B2320 and attached it to the little landpride carryall. It worked for me and maybe you can get some ideas from the picture. It has a lifting capacity of a ton but if that's not enough for you, you can use heavier-duty chain winch and cable winch. The reasons I used 2 manual winches are: 1) I didn't want to get into a electric and or hydraulic project (manual worked great putting up my large dimension timberframe pavilion); 2) I needed the crane to tilt so I could build it in my metal pole bard with 10 foot high overhead doors and get it out with a lift height of about 16 feet with the elevation of my 3-point (had to lift the whole thing with tractor to be mobile, the crane itself stands 17 feet tall vertical; chain hoist reduces that a little);and 3) I wanted to tilt the crane to lowest possible to start the lift, raise it as necessary for whatever I was lifting, and that made it so I didn't have to constantly rely only on one or the other hoist which was beneficial because I didn't know how to calculate the additional load created by the crane being at different angles (I'm no engineer). I just overcompensated with 3/16" rectangular steel tube and 1/2", 3/4" grade 8 bolts, nuts, washers (I'm no welder either!). If the overall height at horizontal position while driving the truck has too much out the rear end, you can make it 2 pieces—upper and lower, just drill 4 extra holes for 3/4" hardened bolts. If you would like more photos, I can share them, just don't know if tractorrbynet lets us put multiple photos in on reply or is there a way to email through the site without you giving up your private email?

I attached several photos. Let me know if they are of any help. To give you an idea of the weight, the timbers were wet (freshly cut from the forest) and the largest (8" X 12" X 16 feet long weighed 600 lbs. and the 8" X 8" posts attached to them were about 150-200 lbs, so lifting the 3 pieces was 900-1,000 lbs. and I did have to lift them completely to move them exectly into place. The 34 foot wide trusses weighed about 500 lbs and had to be lifted 17 feet to get over the top and compensating for the different grade the tractor and crane were on.

 

[4570Man]

Warning - 3 tons in an F250 is overloaded. .

Yeah, but our 1 ton doesn't complain with that kind of load. I'm close to double the GVW with a 5 ton load but it doesn't complain.

 

[TerryMcQ]

Why make it rotate? If you turn the crane to one side or the other enough, you might tip the truk or twist something important. Cant you plan the lift to keep the crane pointed straight aft of the bed, pick the load a little, carefully drive to better flatter ground to raise it as high as necessary? I'm no expert, just trying to think it through. The crane I designed for my tractor, I was able to get to flat ground, lift the load however necessary, and for your use you could go higher with the crane as you lowered your load into the bed. I know the crane is tall but i was't going to put a butt-load of monet into telescoping boom, hydraulics, etc. My crane cost $700. The way I WANTED to bulld it if I were rich enough to own politicians would have cost me several thousand dollars.

 

[Oldpath05]

That's a good drawing, just cant figure out how it works and cant wait to see it work. As far as a beef up F250 frame, I'd put 8000 lbs on that all day long, and for crane ideas, might have to resort to the video college YouTube.

 

[bcp]

Like I said above, I am still trying to figure out the base rotator. It will be hydraulic in one form or another.

Thought you meant the pivot itself, not the power mechanism.

What degree of swing?

Bruce