Linked 74 K5. Rental house driveway build.

[clstolten]

Building a gantry crane

I know at some point the body will have to go back on, and mostly that will happen a few times in this build. I also know that I will need to cycle the linked suspension during the build to get it set up optimal. Plus, it seems like I am always lifting heavy stuff into my truck or onto my trailer. The best way I could figure on doing all these things given that I am doing this in my driveway, was to buy or build some kind of a gantry crane. I thought about buying a four post lift and setting it up in the driveway, but I rent this house. Craigslist had some good deals on those.

Here is what I wanted from the gantry style crane
-Be able to lift a couple ton
-Roll around with a load
-Be able to roll under a 7' garage door
-Be able to clear at least 10' under the beam
-Be able pull my car hauler in between the legs of the crane.

One option I found was to buy the chinese harbor freight gantry. It only lifts a ton, it isnt wide enough to pull a decent trailer under, and I wouldnt want to roll it around with a load hanging from it. Also it will not roll under a standard 7' garage door. There are other gantry style cranes out there, but they get expensive quick.

I ended up designing a crane using some software I use at work. There are two full sticks of 4x4x3/16 wall square tube, one full stick of 3.5x3.5x14 wall square tube, and a 10'3" I beam that has an 8" web. I bought the tube new, and found the beam in the scrap yard. It is all usa steel. Got lucky and didnt even have to cut the beam, it was the perfect length. In total about 800 lbs of steel.

Here is how it all went together

These are the upright pieces that will get welded to the i-beam. Crane beam height is adjustable in 6" increments. It was a bieber getting the .75" hole drilled on my bridgeport. Bridgeport is in the corner of this small garage and length and weigt of these made it not so fun. .75" holes go thru both sides. The two smaller .5" holes that you can see are for the winch hook points. I use boat trailer winches to telescope the beam and then pin it with a hitch pin while lifting.

 

[clstolten]

The 3.5x3.5 upright pieces interface with this 4x4 piece. You can see the .75" hole for the hitch pin. the slot is for the winch point, and is required to make this thing collapse to fit into the garage, yet telescope up as high as I needed it to.

I used the I-beam to keep the sides strait while I welded them up

clamped the second side to the first and then welded it up

 

[clstolten]

Welding the uprights to the beam was difficult. Getting them square was tough.

 

[clstolten]

assembling the crane required the use of my cherry picker. The parts are very heavy at this point.

First side goes on

Second side

Picked it upright with the cherry picker, but didnt get any pics of that.
Here it is with the wheels bolted on, and the winches bolted on as well. Wheels a 6" semi steel chinese casters from enco. Rated at 1200 lbs each. Winches are 1k from northerntool. Chinese also. I was looking for USA made stuff, but it would have cost way too much. It is pinned at its lowest height right here. You can see the uprights pass thru the bases and almost touch the ground.

 

[clstolten]

Proof that it will roll under a standard 7' door.

Here it is extended all the way to its highest position. Clears just over 10' under the beam

The winches work really well to lift it, but it helps to have two people cranking away at the same time. It rolls very easily, and even rolls on the dirt pretty good. Havent really lifted anything heavy with it yet, but I just ordered a couple of beam clamps from northern tool. They clamp to the beam and provide a hook point for the chain hoist. They are easily moved and re clamped to put them in an ideal spot. With that and a couple of two ton chain hoists, I am close to getting the motor set in and body back on so that I can set up the front links and coilover hoops. If anybody is interested, I will post up the plans for this crane. I have about $800 into it, not counting the chain hoists. The harbor freight gantry can be had for less. One thing I forgot to mention is that the bases are the right width to allow this thing to roll onto a standard car hauler for easy transportation.

 

[Deuling]

That thing looks awesome!!!! Nice job man!

 

[scottishdave]

bad arse man

 

[livid4dirt]

Now that's the chit right there That is a fine little crane you fabbed up.
That will come in handy for many uses.

 

[y5mgisi]

I always wanted a crane setup just like that!

 

[max 02]

You sure do nice work!!

 

[clstolten]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I will post up more when I get a chance to set the motor in the frame. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks.

 

[clstolten]

weekend progress

I made some progress this weekend. Got the frame in front of the motor mounts mostly boxed in. First, I ran into some problems with the diy4x boxing kit. The pieces where not tall enough. Maybe diy4x intends for the plates to fit inside the c, or maybe frame heights vary from year to year. Cut some pieces out of some scrap I had. I trimmed the frame top and bottom to square it up, and welded the pieces in. My method is to clamp the oversized pieces to the frame with washers to leave room for good weld penetration. Tack it in place, then grind the plate flush with the frame top and bottom. Then I weld it fully followed by the grinder with a sanding disc to grind weld flat.

You can see the ord engine crossmember. I welded nut plates into the frame so that it can be removed. Also the steering box area of my frame was destroyed, so I removed that section and plated it in. You can see the 4 large holes. I am going to use stand offs made of heavy wall tube that run thru that side of the frame. And then use a tube to tie the two frame rails together at the location of the box. I will just use a hole saw to cut the four holes and weld the tube in to tie them together. Also moved my box about 3.5" forward to get my front axle as far forward as possible. At the current location the front of the box is right up against the core support mount.

 

[Avery4jc]

Nice, that's how these dang trucks should have been built originally IMO.

 

[max 02]

Are you kidding me... that looks like a show car frame!!

 

[y5mgisi]

Very very nice!

 

[howdiy]

Very nice

 

[tyler__820]

Dude that frame looks frekin sweet!

 

[clstolten]

Nice, that's how these dang trucks should have been built originally IMO.

I agree, but hey did get away with it for many years, but as soon as they went to the IFS they started using a boxed frame up front. Probably because of the the different suspension loads on the frame. My 68 and 95 cars are boxed up front, but they also use a similar suspension to the ifs trucks.

 

[clstolten]

Thanks everybody for the comments. I should have some more pictures for tomorrow. I am almost finished with the frame boxing, and next weekend will test fit the motor.

 

[BigRedCrewCab]

Updates? I need my fix!