Deuce Tailgate Crane

[sedohr]

Those cheap LED lights are some of the most useful lights you will find. I have several stuck on sheetmetal in every truck I own. They are beyond useful.

yeah, was like a little kid last night walking around, sticking them all over to see how they'd work out.

i'm gonna look for something similar to the arm on the left in the attached pic so i can mount the light at diff angles when working on the truck or winching, etc.

going back to HF to hopefully pick up a couple more led's - on sale for only two fifity ea... they are sweet

 

[196thprober]

Gimpy rated? I didn't know I was part of a measurement scale!

Your new 'signature line' on your post is awesome and very true Gimpy; Thank You!

 

[319]

curious...... what's the reason for the long large plate under the crane mounting plate? my bed angles up a bit towards the back end. if i move my crane mounting plate back more, there is a small gap at the middle point of the plate. don't know if you had the same issue or not.

It's to help distribute the weight and stress when lifting or pulling. It's fastened to the floor ribs. I'm not an engineer but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Also shown in post#17 I have additional reinforcement beneath the floor.
My floor was a little uneven also but I don't remember having issues with the plates lying flat.

 

[DUG]

Here are a couple pics of the light duty winch I put in the bed up forward. It's used to pull loads aboard, mainly the ATVs, but recently a heavy, 20 foot work bench. The mount is actually a L bracket bed mount from a deuce frame.

 

[gimpyrobb]

How many and what size bolts hold that 2000lbs winch on there? Is it a 12v run on 24v, or are you using your 12v system to run it? I'm getting ready to do sumptin similar.

 

[DUG]

Four 1/2 inch grade 8 bolts. The three seen in the pic and one more unseen. Two mount the bracket to the wall, one holds the winch to the bracket and more holds the winch to the back wall. The winch was designed to be mounted with two bolts. I didn't use the crap bolts it came with though.

It's connected to a dedicated 12 volt system. I keep the ground wire disconnected from the battery unless I'm actually going to be using the winch. That keeps it from getting turned on accidentally if the controller gets bumped while driving. I could wire up a dedicated master switch, but the marine style, wing nut battery clamp works just fine.

I think the winch was 70 bucks at some farm store in Iowa. Same place I bought several hundred dollars worth of grade 8 bolts in bulk. Actually I bought a ton of neat chit at the farm store. Wish I had once here.

The winch easily pulls up my ATVs. When I loaded the work bench in the back I put a 4 x 4 across the troop seats and used the winch to lift one end up and pull it forward.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Thank you sir!

 

[srodocker]

I bought a harbor freight 2k winch for 50$ with 2yr warr. and havent mounted it yet. still gota get the 12v setup put on...

 

[gimpyrobb]

I have seen them run on 24v.

 

[trukhead]

This was on eBay not long ago he was asking 1200 it never sold. Wish I had extra money Laying around

I have one, I'll list it in the classifieds

 

[DUG]

I bought a harbor freight 2k winch for 50$ with 2yr warr. and havent mounted it yet. still gota get the 12v setup put on...

This winch replaced a 3K HF winch. That POS wouldn't even pull the small ATVs in.

 

[sedohr]

finally got my hoist crane mounted/painted. overall, i'm pleased with the results but should've used some primer on the gloss red paint. the rustoleum OD isn't gonna stick too well.

just barely sits under the bows in the stowed configuration so i'll have to take a better looksee when i remount the cover prior to winter.

still have a 1 ton electric winch to mount. plan on finding a way to keep the manual winch mounted as well for a backup.

i'll post up some pics of the front bed wall winch i have mounted as well. between these two, i should be set for what i need to lift or ramp into the bed.

 

[plym49]

finally got my hoist crane mounted/painted. overall, i'm pleased with the results but should've used some primer on the gloss red paint. the rustoleum OD isn't gonna stick too well.

just barely sits under the bows in the stowed configuration so i'll have to take a better looksee when i remount the cover prior to winter.

still have a 1 ton electric winch to mount. plan on finding a way to keep the manual winch mounted as well for a backup.

i'll post up some pics of the front bed wall winch i have mounted as well. between these two, i should be set for what i need to lift or ramp into the bed.

Looks really good.

 

[sedohr]

Looks really good.

thanks man..... was fun to do..... EXCEPT for the 8x 1/2" holes to drill

 

[kastein]

I have one, I'll list it in the classifieds

wish I was closer! One of those would come in real handy.

 

[sedohr]

crane got her cherry popped today lifting my spare to the bed so i could fabricate mounting it to the front bed wall (mounting a generator where she used to reside)....

very easy to manage single handed...... (well, i used two hands)......

likin this thing already

 

[bones1]

Looks like it will work out well.

 

[plym49]

I ended up going a slightly different route. Having only a given amount of money to spend, and having received a couple of Harbor Freight coupons, I purchased their one-ton engine hoist cherry picker and 2,000 lb ATV winch. I need the flexibility of a cherry picker and could not afford buying an engine hoist plus a crane.

The engine hoist you all know what it looks like. I was able to load several engines, a wheel balancer, tire machine, two Ford banjos with torque rods, a Model A front axle, and all sorts of heavy stuff like that right into the back of my Deuce.

I also had to load some tall, heavy items where the cherry picker would not have enough lift. So I rigged this up to pull the cement mixer (it is on wheels) and other items up ramps. I had all the pieces: aluminum plate, hook, angle iron and so on. The angle iron is used to mount the fair lead. It has a big hole in the center to clear the cable. It worked fine.



The HF cherry picker is all right for the price (especially when it is on sale) but they take a lot of shortcuts and there are areas lacking that would make it a better tool. Some day I will get around to modifying it and when I do I will post pix.

 

[sedohr]

Creative setup and multi-use... Nice.

How's the winch working out? I have it but dont have it mounted. They seem to have decent reviews but like some duece feedback....

 

[plym49]

Creative setup and multi-use... Nice.

How's the winch working out? I have it but dont have it mounted. They seem to have decent reviews but like some duece feedback....

I was not expecting too much, but I found it to operate very well. It seemed quite powerful. It is packaged with all the little control bells and whistles to be a complete package. I also did not expect the fairlead.

Given the surprising performance and getting it on sale, I thik I made out well.

I was going to mount some lateral wooden skids under that plate to give it a nice, wide base to operate against. I held off on that to see how it was going to operate. Needless to say, I am pleased.