Bed Crane - Harbor Freight

[rubicon4wheeler]

Would be nice if you could take your own hardtop off with it.

I tried this on my JK with a receiver mounted deer hoist supposedly intended for 600lbs. It needed an extension to reach far enough to properly center over the 120(?) pound hardtop, and it bent and swayed and bounced so badly I returned it because I wasn't willing to trust my hardtop. I thought a 600lb rating would be enough, but it was scary.

With the distance between the receiver hitch on the JT and the hardtop, you'd need such a long extension to get centered over the top that you would need a seriously high weight rating to be able to handle the leverage.

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[ShadowsPapa]

Ha! I'm relatively fortunate in that department. But it's all sunshine and rainbows until you find yourself emptying the shitter at 11pm when it's 19*F.

Reminds me of Tougher in Alaska - season 1, episode 12 Wild Waste..........
Septic tanks above ground, pipe can't be buried, plumber keeps busy keeping things flowing so to speak.

 

[kevman65]

If you go with the bed mounted version, skip all the plates.

Locate it so it's over one of the frame rails, use U-bolts to go around the frame rail and up through the bed and bolt down the base to those.

Remember one thing, IF you swing the jib to the side of the truck it is bolted to, you CAN turn your truck over very quickly and very easily. You won't have outriggers to protect you.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

If you go with the bed mounted version, skip all the plates.

Locate it so it's over one of the frame rails, use U-bolts to go around the frame rail and up through the bed and bolt down the base to those.

Remember one thing, IF you swing the jib to the side of the truck it is bolted to, you CAN turn your truck over very quickly and very easily. You won't have outriggers to protect you.

So you are advocating clamping the bed to the frame - by clamping the crane to the frame through the bed? (potentially taking away some of the flex designed into a bed-on-frame design)

While the frame rails are more narrow than the platform of the crane, what's to prevent the crane from tilting and the lower edge of the crane basse from digging into the bottom of the bed?
Been this route in similar situations - it won't be stable due to the gauge of the bed floor. If you don't support the bed floor, there's going to be flexing. The width of the u-bolts going around the frame is a lot less than the foot on the crane needs to be. It's going to have some crazy leverage.

 

[kevman65]

So you are advocating clamping the bed to the frame - by clamping the crane to the frame through the bed? (potentially taking away some of the flex designed into a bed-on-frame design)

While the frame rails are more narrow than the platform of the crane, what's to prevent the crane from tilting and the lower edge of the crane basse from digging into the bottom of the bed?
Been this route in similar situations - it won't be stable due to the gauge of the bed floor. If you don't support the bed floor, there's going to be flexing. The width of the u-bolts going around the frame is a lot less than the foot on the crane needs to be. It's going to have some crazy leverage.

Yes, take a look at any big utility truck with a bed crane, they are u-bolted to the frame.

By applying plates to each side of the bed, you are still mounting it to the weakest structure available. The frame is the strongest part of the vehicle at this point. You can use a plate on the top side of the bed to protect the surface, but not use it as a mounting point.

It's going to have crazy leverage no matter how you mount it without putting a full sheet of steel in the bed and mounting the steel through the bed back to the frame.

Your choice of plating top and bottom puts all the force to a small section of the bed. A 10" x 10" or 12" x 12" plate is not big enough.

But, you do it your way, you've seen it done that way for years and it must be right.

The truly correct way is to mount a davit arm and base attached to the frame and use outriggers. Any other connection risks damage to the vehicle and/or operator.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yes, clamping to the frame is best but you can't just drill through the bed floor and use u-bolts down around the frame - not on these.

There's at least 1.5" between the bottom of the bed floor and the frame. How do you suggest spanning that gap?

If you bolt through the bed and around the frame, you are going to be pulling the truck bed down hard. You'd bend it. So you need a channel between the floor and the frame to prevent sucking the floor down. You'll suck the bed floor down if you don't span that gap.

If you mount it over the cross braces, you'll crush them - look at the gauge of metal used.

These frames are narrow boxes. So a u-bolt would have to be narrow - meaning the crane would have a lot of leverage over them. You need to spread the fasteners out in a larger pattern.
So ideally, you'd "pad" the width of the frame to prevent the u-bolts from pulling down at an angle.

You need to overcome the shape of the floor - or you'll crush it down as you tighten any bolts - even just using plates. These bed floors aren't made for clamping forces like that.

I actually have been through this sort of thing - I worked on the Iowa Power boom trucks and other utility trucks, and of course on the farm. Built my own engine stand and found out how much it takes to bend 1/4" steel plate, built my own engine hoist - and ended up having to truss the boom because of forces over the length. I'm not an engineer, but I've learned from mistakes...........
So cranes, stands, engine hoists, even some of the attachments I used on the tractors I made. And I have replaced some bent parts.
There's real engineers here, though - they'd be best at this.

If someone was serious, it's not going to be a "just bolt it in" thing.
Either large thick plates, or - if you go to the frame, you'd have to put steel between the top of the frame and bottom of the bed floor or you'll pull the floor down - bow it or worse - when you draw down on the u-bolts.
You'd need squared u-bolts, and you'd need wide ones. Using bolts that only were as "wide" as the frame wouldn't be good because of the narrow bolt pattern trying to hold that load. Wider bolt pattern would be better (with better than grade 5 bolts, IMO). Never use true rounded u-bolts around a squared tube. Bad mojo.
If you used narrow bolts - with the legs only as far apart as the frame is wide, the crane would have leverage over the u-bolts and possible bend the outer edge of the crane's base plate.

You'd want a light crane and limit your loads for sure - as well as how long you extended that boom/arm out.

 

[Kevin_D]

I had a bed crane in an old Chevy pickup. There was a 2-1/2” pipe through the floor of the box, clamped to the frame rail. The crane dropped into the pipe, thus averting any stress on the bed.

Kevin

 

[Summitsearcher]

Just a question. But if you only have to manage this ? sometimes and not daily, why wouldn’t you buy an old small trailer to put an affixed container/tank in so you don’t have to lift them into your JT? Then you could just fill it on the trailer and tow it away for disposal when needed.

 

[BearFootSam]

I ended up engineering a different solution with local materials.

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