Pickup Bed Hoist

Does anyone here have actual experience with a pickup bed mounted hoist like this one? Was it more useful than it was a PITA? How much weight could you lift with it realistically? After using it for a while do you think it was a good purchase?

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I'm needing to get some lifting equipment because I'm getting too old to keep doing it like Fred Flintstone and this style looks useful without being too in the way. I do realize that in order to mount the base near the bed's wall where it's mostly out of the way that I'll have to mount it on a piece of plate which is bolted to the frame but that's doable for me. It looks to me like it could be useful hoisting things in the up to 500# range and I'm seriously thinking about buying one.

Crustry you already answered my 2 questions or suggestions that I was going to offer.
And yes they are quite useful being that it is a low mount type and not one up on a stalk high above the bed has both advantages and disadvantages
Start with the advantages requires less mounting hardware, as the moment of inertia is closer to the base and frame of the truck , if so desired a tonneau cover can still be fitted to the bed. has a hydraulic jack for lifting like an engine hoist
Disadvantages has limited height for lifting larger taller materials. does not have an electric winch for lifting materials which can be an advantage given a certain point of view.

I drive an old farm truck so "nice" isn't really a consideration for me.

I've already become concerned about the lift issue and I see that for about $50 more I can get one on a taller pivot with a boat winch on the boom for taking up slack and additional lift height and I'm thinking this might be a better choice though it would be there sticking up in sight all the time. I've probably already answered that concern since I care little about how it looks. I just happen to have some 3/8" plate that I can bolt to the frame inside the bed and then the crane to the plate since the bed is only a little better than Reynolds aluminum in some places and I'd think that that would be an adequate support. A number of folks have even installed an electric ATV winch on them with success but I'm not ready to go there yet - will have to wait until it becomes a PITA to do that.

Yes, they are very useful. BUT you've got to go to the trouble of cutting a hole in the truck bed and make a mount that fastens to the frame. I tried using mine mounted to the stock truck bed. NO GOOD. Then I used some 2.5" square tubing fastened to the truck frame. Then I used some 2" square tubing and a plate to make a mounting for the crane base. A couple of holes in the 2" gives me some adjustment for height. By using a block and tackle or else a winch you can make them a little easier to use to get over their limited range of lift.

I've got one that my Dad built it mounts in the 2 inch hitch receiver. I have the hitch receiver in the middle and I welded another 2 inch receiver out by the edge of the frame. The crane mounts on the outside edge about the same position as if it was in the bed. You can easily take it on and off. The tailgate has to be off to use it. I've only used it once to move a small millstone. If you want I can take some pictures. I think it would be much more convenient then having one mounted permanently in the bed of the truck.

Thanks but I prefer to have it mounted so that no assembly is required to use it. A major reason for getting it is to minimize the amount of steel toting that I do.

I understand that it needs to be mounted to the frame and that's my plan.

These things are only as good as their mounting in the truck. I has one that I mounted in an old ranger and I must have done a good job because I moved a 12(?) inch x 48" Southbend twice with the cast iron base. The jack was handy because the bed was too heave to lift with the winch. Mine was the tall one.
I kept the crane when I sold the Ranger and put it in an F150. That didn't work out so well , there is a lot of sheet metal back there and I didn't secure it as well as I should have.
So yes they are very good but need to be anchored well.

Since going down carrying a heavy plate last week and getting my ass whupped I've decided that it's time to stop doing things the hard way and a pickup bed crane is one of the first steps down that path. I took a look at my frame rails and cross supports and it will be relatively easy to bolt a rectangle of 3/8" plate to a frame rail and cross supports and then bolt one of these cranes to it. I also checked and it's only about $70 to add an ATV winch in place of the boat winch and I'll likely do that on down the road. I think having independent lifting for the boom and the load could be useful getting some things aboard.

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Crusty
I bought one from Harbor Freight(not a fan) like the picture you posted last. I mounted it to a flat bed trailer to pick rock with for a retaining wall. I probably over loaded it at times but over about 8 yrs of use I have put 3 boat winches on it, then paid $100 for a hand winch with cast gears, bent the shaft the upper piece spins on, replaced it with some 1/4 wall tube. Pulley at the end of boom are to small so increased pulley diameter to 1 1/2 in. Now it works great, so yes I use it a lot and its worth spending the money for a good one.

Thanks. I do understand and believe in buy once, cry once but social security doesn't leave piles of money lying around so I'll probably have to take the incremental improvement approach that you did. I do have a fair amount of scrap steel and a welder so it's doable. I'll look at that pivot base and reinforce it from the git go rather than waiting for it to bend. I think I can stitch some angle onto the outside and stiffen it quite a bit. I can make a bigger pulley too.

That you've used yours for that many years is about all the recommendation that I need. Most things that I own and have had that long have been repaired or modified by me so I don't see that limitation as a deal breaker.

Tried to load an image of my rig but it kept failing. It's just a jpg and not very big. Anybody have a suggestion? I followed the tutorial and I've uploaded pics to other things without a problem.

I have that problem from time to time and I usually find that if I shut down my browser and restart it then I'm able to upload images for a while.

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Originally Posted by JoeH

Tried to load an image of my rig but it kept failing. It's just a jpg and not very big. Anybody have a suggestion? I followed the tutorial and I've uploaded pics to other things without a problem.

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In your photo viewer or editing program look in the tools area ad see if you can locate either a resize feature or a crop feature sometimes just by cropping extra area outside of the subject area will be enough to allow posting then save it as a new name by adding any number or letter after it when you close the program it will ask you if you want to save the changes select no to retain the original. When I resize from my camera or phone I usually reduce the size to somewhere around 940 for the larger number. I've never had a problem posing when doing one or the other and sometimes both of these suggestions

Okay, resizing to a max of 900 seems to work. I agree that taking your time to decide how to accessorize is good. In the photo I'm using a block and tackle from Tractor Supply that has a jam mechanism for the rope so you don't have to tie the rope off. But I'd like to add a 12V winch, one of those $49 jobs from Harbor Freight. I just need to spend some time figuring out how to attach it so it doesn't get in the way of rotating the crane arm. Normally the crane sits lower because I keep a top on the bed. Down low is where the problem of rotation freedom shows up.

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Okay, resizing to a max of 900 seems to work. I agree that taking your time to decide how to accessorize is good. In the photo I'm using a block and tackle from Tractor Supply that has a jam mechanism for the rope so you don't have to tie the rope off. But I'd like to add a 12V winch, one of those $49 jobs from Harbor Freight. I just need to spend some time figuring out how to attach it so it doesn't get in the way of rotating the crane arm.
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Sorry for the double post. I thought it didn't work at first so posted it again. I'll learn eventually.

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Originally Posted by Sprig1

I've got one that my Dad built it mounts in the 2 inch hitch receiver. I have the hitch receiver in the middle and I welded another 2 inch receiver out by the edge of the frame. The crane mounts on the outside edge about the same position as if it was in the bed. You can easily take it on and off. The tailgate has to be off to use it. I've only used it once to move a small millstone. If you want I can take some pictures. I think it would be much more convenient then having one mounted permanently in the bed of the truck.

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I would like to see pics. I have been wanting to mount one outside the box connected to the hitch and probably frame, with a drop leg for when in use. I don't mind taking it off and only installing it when going to collect something. I think a mounting plate that I could use as a step to get into the box would be a great bonus. I presume it is not illegal as hitches stick out the back, would have to watch interference when turning sharply with a trailer.
Rob

Woo Hoo!

Finally, I get to add to a discussion.

I bought one of the taller HF hoists, made a hitch receiver mount for it and my '95 Land Rover Discovery instantly became "The Yard Mule"!

I use the ever-loving snot out of it.

Replaced the cable with a poly rope from CustomSplice.com (Todd's a Helluva good guy).

The only issue I've had is that I left the ram extended and the pump both exposed one winter. A quick second with some emery cloth renewed the ram, but the pump required new o-rings. Of course, the o-rings came from a Harbor Freight o-ring kit.

Mine has been in use for maybe eight to ten years, had lifted countless engines, etc and while I was a Snap-On dealer, lifted things like tire machines and made life much easier for me.

That looks similar to the approach that I'm leaning towards JoeH, though the particular crane that I'm looking at doesn't have the two joining flanges but rather round tube stuck onto round tube for the pivot. I'm also considering an ATV hoist later on and I'll mount it in place of the boat trailer winch, which is just bolted to a flat base plate welded on top of the boom.

I'm sold on this general idea by all the comments posted about the usefulness of their cranes in whichever form. Thanks y'all.

And Bob's yer uncle. I finished the bed mount yesterday and tested it today with a 500# rock and it was easy peasy. I didn't hear any metal straining during the lift and I don't see any new bending of the bed afterwards so I think my mount is probably OK up to the hoist's rated capacity of 1000#. The base plate is an 18" square of 3/8" plate bolted to a frame rail and the rear cross support, and the hoist is bolted to the plate (all grade 8 bolts).

Progress marches on and my back thanks me for it. Thanks to all for your input which guided my decision to buy and install this bad boy. It'll be a game changer for me.

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Now you can go and get the rest of the scrap steel you found a few weeks back.
Good on you for the back saver

I don't remember there being much steel left that I can put to use. There's a big truck wheel and plow disc that would make a pretty good forge but I don't have any intention to start blacksmithing and the rest is odd pieces that're more work than they're worth.

Still, I'm glad to have a better way of lifting and transporting heavy things now. When my lathe was delivered I had to resort to a tree limb, a come along, rope and pry bars to get it into place but it would have taken just minutes to do easily with my hoist. It would also have been dandy moving that slab of 1/2" plate that pounded my ribs hard when I went down and still has me gimping around a month later. I also got a free barrel dolly that I've converted into a manual fork lift and it's been a godsend too.