Gin pole for a flag pole

[Frank S]

A while back I helped a friend of mine drop his flagpole so he could paint it and replace the halyard. We used a couple of 36" pipe wrenches 2 6 ft cheater pipes and a coma long to unscrew it then just let it fall. The pole is made out of what everyone calls Texas pipe more commonly known as oilfield tubing with the API upset threads. a 31ft length weighs about 120lbs
I knew he had it painted and had installed a solar light with an eagle on top along with the top pulley for the halyard, so yesterday I decided if we were going to stand it we needed something to help raising it, because 2 men are not going to stand something like that and be able to screw it back on the coupling, safe or otherwise.
I made a gin pole with a boat winch to mount on the trailer ball on my pickup.
Here is what I came up with
Parts for the top roller

the top roller assembled.

the winch mounted

On the truck the 2 arms sticking out forming a V is to hold the flag pole centered. they are made out of 2 pieces of the sq tubing from the steel hose reels with 2" poly pipe driven over them to prevent scratching the paint

I made this clamp on guide to fit the coupling and align the threads


Start to finish about 10 minutes Nice and safe and no straining our backs