Power lift for my 1978 Dodge van

[email protected] wrote:
> I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
> bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
> rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
> enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
> would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
> boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
> ideas?
> cuhulin
>

Why not start the whole thing off with a trailer hitch? then use the
receiver as your starting point so you can "unhook" the whole mess when
you don't want to use it.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Nate Nagel wrote:
>
> [email protected] wrote:
> > I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
> > bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
> > rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
> > enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
> > would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
> > boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
> > ideas?
> > cuhulin
> >
>
> Why not start the whole thing off with a trailer hitch? then use the
> receiver as your starting point so you can "unhook" the whole mess when
> you don't want to use it.

And buy the whole thing complete at Harbor Freight for ~$225 ready to
go. Not worth the effort to build when it's that cheap.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=47591

[email protected] wrote:
> I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
> bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
> rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
> enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
> would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
> boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
> ideas?
> cuhulin
>

You will rip the bumper off the frame horn with a set up like that.

The neatest unit I have seen for use in a van was one that a Roberts
driver had. He had built a 6 legged frame inside with a retractable rail
on top he got the idea from the older manual cemetery vault trucks. His
was set up just like a miniature overhead crane. He even had a fork
set-up so he could lift palletized items in easily.
I just cheated and picked up a hydraulic tailgate lift.

--
Steve W.

My van does have a trailer hitch on it, I have bumped my knees on it
plenty enough times.Maybe I can fix up something and use that.
cuhulin