How To: Mobile Gantry Crane Fabrication to Fill an Outdoors Lifting Gap

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I have not been an active contributor for a while so I thought I would post up some of my most recent activities. I found a gap in being able to lift things like engines out of vehicles while I am out in the paddock. I have a trailer with a crane mounted on it that does not have sufficient reach to lift engines out without extending the boom too much. The lifting capacity reduces the longer the boom. I can take things inside my shed where I have a mobile crane - a heavy duty engine hoist. However, this means towing vehicles from the paddock and then rolling them into the shed. I have strung a heavy duty chain in-between two shipping containers to lift loads of a trailer when I was out in the paddock. However, the chain left a lot to be desired. I realised that I still had a gap in my lifting capacity when I was was out in the paddock. Since then, I have been keeping watch for mobile gantry cranes and scoped out the new price for what seems like a pretty light weight set up.

I recently went on Facebook Marketplace and found a heavy duty mobile gantry crane on a farm. The only issue is that for it to be transported from the seller's farm to my place the braces between the A-frames that form the sides and the I-beam cross beam had to be cut. Even with the brace cut the A-frames still extended each side of the truck. Upon its arrival the I-beam hit the ground at an odd angle and one of the braces broke off. The most convenient place to drop the disassembled gantry crane was out in the paddock and the two A-frame legs were lent against a shipping container. The only issue with the 'convenient' location was that there is no electricity connected to the shipping container. With one brace leg broken off and the A-frame to I-beam cross member braces needing welding I needed to reposition everything closer to the shed where I have power connected.

I was going to use a chain block to lift the crossbeam to the top of the shipping container so I could reassemble the gantry crane. The pressing need to bring the parts so I had access to electricity meant that I needed to construct an alternative lifting frame so I could raise the I-beam high enough to attach the A-frame sides.

The I-beam was the first part moved to an already constructed heavy duty pallet racking frame. Some thick walled square hollow section steel allowed me to hook up a chain block. Only trouble was the sides of the pallet racking was not high enough to lift the I-beam up to the height of the A-frame. While I had gained 'proof of concept' and had raised the I-beam successfully, I had run out of lifting chain on the chain block. With this arrangement the I-beam could not be raised any higher.

Continued ...

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I wanted everything to be load rated for towing or for lifting. I needed to increase the reach on the pallet rack frame so I looked around for what I had on hand. One of those things was a A-frame for flat towing. I figured if it was made strong enough to tow a vehicle it would have a good safety margin for lifting an I-beam.

The house side of the pallet racking frame was connected to concrete house stumps by 2.5 tonne ratchet straps. I figured a house is a lot heavier than the I-beam. So, that removed the risk of the I-beam pulling the pallet racking frame over on top of me.

More thick walled square hollow section (SHS) crossed over the two pallet beams. I also used cyclone bolts and 8 mm thick steel suspension spring shackle plates to clamp the two SHS crossbeams to the pallet racking frames. I then used similar clamps to fix the towing A-frame to the pallet rack side. Up went the I-beam and I had more height than needed!

The red object attached to the pallet rack frame's highest cross brace is a snatch block. I used it to lift the chain block and later the A-frame up to the top set of pallet beams. From this secure point I could maneuver the A-frame and fix it to the pallet racking side frame. I did not want to be hanging off a ladder and shifting and fixing things like an A-frame above my head.

Continued ...


Continued

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

The next task was to transport the two A-frames from the shipping container to the I-beam hanging from the sky-hook.

I ratchet strapped each A-frame to my other trailer and took it for a drive.

This process was repeated for the second A-frame....

Continued ...

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

With all the parts in place all I had to do was assemble all the parts together again.

Lots more ratchet straps to make sure that I did not have run-away A-frames and the judicious use of a ratchet strap connected to my Land Rover Defender as an anchoring point and I could line up the bolt holes in the A-frame and the I-beam.

I thought about how at least the two previous owners of the mobile gantry crane had to cut the side braces so the crane could be disassembled and I figured I could make it a bit more user-friendly. I bought some wider square hollow section that would form an outside sleeve. Then four bolts - two either side of the brace's cut locked everything back into place. I drilled all the holes in the sleeve on a drill press. It was really 'interesting' to be hanging off the top end of a ladder holding onto an electric drill when it bites into the steel and the whole drill jags and starts to rotate your arms.

I used the same specification of high tensile bolts on the brace sleeves as the bolts used to secure the I-beam to the A-frames. Something about having very heavy loads hanging above my head makes me cautious. I tend to increase safety margins accordingly.

Continued ...

[Lionelgee]

Some time later ...

There stood a fully reassembled mobile gantry crane!

Next task was to utilise the 'mobile' aspect of the gantry crane and I hooked my ride-on mower to the one of the A-frames and away I went.

The last couple of photographs show the good-old ride-on mower and the positioning of the gantry crane over its first victim ... oops its first job. It is a Series 2 ex-Australian Army 109 General Service Land Rover. See - there is a military link to this whole story after all!

Is it a case of irony that I had to make a lifting frame so I could fill in the gap of my lifting capacity - that required the assembly of a mobile gantry crane. A gantry crane that I bought so I could lift heavy stuff up in the paddock?

Well, I am having a rest tomorrow. The day after that I will be using the gantry crane to do the job it was purchased for. Lifting heavy things out in the paddock.

Oh, the space between the two shipping containers is where motor vehicles become very - very nervous. They are either towed or driven to the spot from one end. Then some time and effort later only parts emerge that get stored in the shipping containers.

If you go back to the first couple of photographs - the eagle-eyed will see why I built the pallet racking lifting frame - it has the Defender's tray clamped to the bottom set of pallet beams. Before having a mobile gantry crane the pallet racking frame was put into good use to lift off the flat tray so I could get the chassis repaired. I also have to replace some of the cross-members on the tray itself. Tin worm caused by decades of driving through a cattle property out in Western Queensland and years of accumulated cow-poo is very corrosive. The Defender's tray did not have any mudguards so the poo was thrown up and stuck to the bottom of the tray. The steel cross-members at the front and back of the rear wheels are the only ones that need replacing.

This was MK-II of pallet racking used as a lifting device. I previously used MK-I to lift off a Land Rover Series 2A ambulance module off my trailer after I was offered the module for free. I positioned the trailer inside a set of side frames and hooked pallet beams under the trailer. I then used a series of jacks to raise the ambulance module off the trailer until it was high enough to put a set of pallet beams across underneath the module. I removed the front pallet beam under the trailer so I could tow the trailer away. I then towed a Land Rover 109 chassis underneath the module and lowered the module down onto the chassis and towed it away.

I have very, very recently been informed that with the gantry crane out in the paddock there is no longer any need to have an "ugly" steel structure positioned so close to the house! Ugly - indeed. Looks like I have scored myself another job. Disassembling a very handy pallet racking frame.

Kind regards,
Lionel

[maple_leaf_eh]

Looks like you had fun with the tools making something that will be practical.

[Mike Kelly]

Quite a bit of thought went into that . You should have been a structural engineer. How on earth did you get the trailer A frame up so high .

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Quite a bit of thought went into that . You should have been a structural engineer. How on earth did you get the trailer A frame up so high .

Hello Mike,

In one of the photographs up high you will see a red oblong. This is a snatch block and I ran a rope through it to lift up the towing A-frame until it reached the top run of pallet rails. I then used the no-hook style of ratchet strap to secure the base of the A-frame to the side of the pallet rack's frame. With this pivot point fixed I just rotated the receiver end up until the towing A-frame was leaning against the pallet frame. I had positioned two lengths of 50 mm square hollow section (shs) that acted as horizontal rails that I used two cyclone bolts and two lengths of 40 mm x 8 mm steel plate. This combination formed a set of clamps. Two sets of clamps per shs rail and the pallet frame. Then two sets of the same type of clamp to fixing the towing A-frame to the shs. I did not want the A-frame to move! Especially, since it would all come tumbling down on my head.

Yesterday, I dismantled the whole pallet racking tower. There is nothing there now but empty space. I liked seeing the tower. However, I was under instruction to remove an 'eyesore' from so close to the house.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello Mike and All,

Here are some photographs of the clamps that I used to secure everything. The clamps are waiting for their next job.

The more eagle-eyed will work out that the square hollow section is 64 mm wide. I used this width for the 'sleeves' that fit over the brace between the I-beam and the mobile gantry crane's A-frame sides.

Kind regards
Lionel