Hitch mounted crane info

[Wife'nHubby]

Shari, my inner redneck fabricator has some ideas here. Lemme get out the electronic etch a sketch and draw them up. Be back in a bit.

Let me run out and take a pic of my splitter - maybe I could hook a crane to the splitter too.

Shari

 

[Steve NW WI]

Etch a sketch is on strike due to a dead battery in the wireless mouse. I just scribbled it out and took a pic instead. Basically a 2" tube to the truck, attached to a 2 1/2"x1/4'wall tube that will accept your current hitch for the trailer, with a mount plate for the crane welded on top, and an outrigger tube, a little narrower than the truck to avoid hanging up on stuff when maneuvering, with tubes to mount a pair of THIS (Link Here) type of jack, that can be unpinned and stored quickly when not in use.

I didn't draw any gussets on here, but a good fabricator will put some on to increase rigidness. Basically just triangular shaped plates of steel welded into the joint between different parts.

I like this idea because it doesn't have to come off to tow the trailer, and you can load right onto the trailer while it's hooked up, no loading too much on the back and having the tongue whack ya on it's way up!

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Steve,

Here's pics of my Didier splitter (front/back). I don't see how this crane could be attached to the splitter. A cleaner install would be to the hitch on my SUV. I could do a winch on the trailer to load the rounds and then the crane could be used as a log lift by backing the truck up to the splitter and lift away.

Didier - front (don't laugh at my temporary 'log rack':

Didier - rear:

So, like I said, I don't think the crane could be attached to the splitter. Better bet is to have the crane attached to the SUV - or sink a cement support in the ground somewhere and mount the crane permanently in place for a dedicated splitting area in the yard somewhere.

Shari

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Steve,

Slick! Looks like that would solve all problems. Thanks for the 'low tec' etch a sketch!

Shari

 

[coyotencuttin]

this isn't how i did mine but this is what i'd like to have if i did it over again.

it offsets to a side, would allow a dumpbed in the truck and i could take it off so the wife might want to ride in the truck. the extension does extend out about 30 inches so that may help with big rounds. the first thing that went bad on mine was the winch gears peened over to the point that it didn't want to turn.

 

[arborjockey]

Funny i leave mine on the truck so that i can load my wife

 

[RVALUE]

My first thought is you're putting forces on that hitch it was never designed for.

First thing is torque. Say you have a Class III hitch that's rated for 500# tongue weight / 5,000# trailer.

A crane with a 3' long jib, because of torque it's only going to pickup 133# before you're putting more then 500# of force on the hitch. Of course the hitch is built to go down the road, which means the trailer bounces up and down so I'd assume a 500# tongue weight puts more load on it from time to time, so maybe that's OK.

In addition to the force in the up-and-down direction from the lifting the load, because you're lifting from the top of the pole that supports the jib, there's going to be rotational forces in the front-and-back direction (just like we use a peavy to turn logs).

Like some of the guys on those links suggested, if you had an extender that transferred the force to the ground it would help take a lot of stress off the hitch.

Once in a while use you'll probably be OK. But I have to think if you lifted anything heavy regularly you're really risking damaging the hitch. And I'd have to think if you tow with the truck, having metal fatigue cause a hitch failure would be a very.bad.day.

I built one for my bronco that went at about a 45 degree angle out of the reciever. I planned to use it to skin elk. About a 300 pound hog would pull the front wheels off the ground. Had to modify it abit.

 

[arborjockey]

I built one for my bronco that went at about a 45 degree angle out of the reciever. I planned to use it to skin elk. About a 300 pound hog would pull the front wheels off the ground. Had to modify it abit.

yeah but how did you attach the box tubbing to the saddle of the bronco

 

[arborjockey]

I built one for my bronco that went at about a 45 degree angle out of the reciever. I planned to use it to skin elk. About a 300 pound hog would pull the front wheels off the ground. Had to modify it abit.

yeah but how did you attach the box tubbing to the saddle to the bronco

 

[Wife'nHubby]

I built one for my bronco that went at about a 45 degree angle out of the reciever. I planned to use it to skin elk. About a 300 pound hog would pull the front wheels off the ground. Had to modify it abit.

Did you add a jack stand or two?

Shari

 

[RVALUE]

Did you add a jack stand or two?

Shari

No, we started butchering our hogs earlier!

 

[Wife'nHubby]

No, we started butchering our hogs earlier!

Shari

 

[avalancher]

this isn't how i did mine but this is what i'd like to have if i did it over again.

it offsets to a side, would allow a dumpbed in the truck and i could take it off so the wife might want to ride in the truck. the extension does extend out about 30 inches so that may help with big rounds. the first thing that went bad on mine was the winch gears peened over to the point that it didn't want to turn.

Now that makes sense. Having the winch to the side would definetly make the thing serviceable for pullling wood into the truck, a mount right in the center of the bed would only work in my opinion for small but heavy things,and we all know that doesnt apply to wood hauling.

 

[Nosmo]

This hitch installation is very practicable with it mounted to one side and a jack to help support the load.

I have this same jack and when not in use I remove the upper half. That upper half is no light thing to slip off the mast. I believe the whole crane mast and boom weighs just over 100 lbs.

Good installation.
Nosmo

 

[Dalmatian90]

That side offset is REAL intriguing!

 

[arborjockey]

Is it me or how are you going to load wood with that? does it raise higher ? whats the load limit? Big rounds? I need to see it in actionopcorn:opcorn:

 

[arborjockey]

I cant run this blasted machine. maybe things are different here but i dont think my round will load maybe if you split in 1/2

 

[triptester]

For trailer loading a lift gate at the back of the trailer operated by a electric winch would work. A forum member built a log lift for his splitter, this idea could be adapted to a trailer tail gate or also be a free standing lift next to a splitter.

 

[Nosmo]

Is it me or how are you going to load wood with that? does it raise higher ? whats the load limit? Big rounds? I need to see it in actionopcorn:opcorn:

I have that same crane and boom. Yes he can raise it higher by using the hydraulic jack which is mounted between the boom and stand. The winch is hooked to the object and can be used to pull it directly under the end of the boom.

Sometimes I use the winch to crank the object up in the air and use the jack to lift the boom even higher. Then I rotate the boom and lower the object where I want to set it down.

There are 4-positions (boom lengths) to choose from. The weights which can be lifted are 500 lbs. or less and up to 1,000 lbs.

Nosmo

 

[SkyP]

One thing to watch out for with the HF crane and maybe others...I noticed the pump rod and the lift rod rusting pretty quick when left outdoors so keep them well oiled. Of course if they rust then they get rough and there go the seals...