Hey all, I was wondering if anyone in the Bakersfield/Kern County area would be willing to let me rent a cherry picker from them?
Yellow pages under tool rental. Usually they will deliver the hoist to your addy. I did it this way once, and I had the motor pulled and on the stand while the driver was still filling in the paperwork. We put the hoist right back into the truck.
You can probably buy one at Harbor Freight for what you'd pay to rent one for several days. Try looking up "tool rentals" or "Rentals, tools" in your local phone book.
Either in a flyer or an ad in one of the car mags I just saw a harbor freight engine crane on sale for $89. Sure, it's probably shit but in a pinch it's gotta be worth trying.
The last time I checked(coincidentally after I bought HF hoist for $250), Harbor freight has a fold up hoist for $199. Had a little action yesterday. Sure is a good thing to have around if you can afford it.
X2 on horrible freight Worked fine for me, but I'd get a better quality leveler. Resell it when your done, or buy one from craigslist even better.
ive got 2 of them and they hold up fine to fully loaded big blocks. 1 is a fold up kind thats really convenient for storage and transport, the other is a full traditional picker. i have a 3rd thats huge enough to pull truck motors and it has a mini trailer attachment to be towed behind a truck. wish i had pics on hand to show them
I had one of these. It was awesome with a 454 and 4 speed muncie clutched to it............then I put the 389 with Hyrdo in my Poncho and that bastard went limp quick. And I'm not talking the hydraulic cyl gave out........I mean the whole picker groaned and started wilting. Got it in the car tho.
It seems every time I have the picker loaded with an engine and trans, it wants to fall forward, the picker just slides right out from under itself, motor crashes to the floor, picker hits whatever is in the way..grill, front aprons, etc, or the engine crushes the core support.. so I have to get the wife and kids to stand on the back of it while I lower it in...if they are around. I should probably add a ballast shelf to it.. Working on stuff by yourself sucks sometimes.
I hate to push HF in anyone's direction, believe me. Comparable name brand units were every bit double the $$ and more, and I have a tool truck acct. so obtaining one wasn't a problem, but for 200 bones....hard to pass up. It has held up with sbc and tremec 5 spd. with no problems, and it held the rear of the wagon body pretty securely. Some have holes drilled wrong, shit casters, etc.. that are tipsy and wobbly, this one turned out ok, and it wouldnt'be anything I could fix if there was an issue.
I got one on sale from Harbor Freight for 99 bucks, works great283 and muncie been hangin off it for a month now. Jack bleeds down but no big deal. How can ya beat 99 bucks?
Dammit I told you, I would lend you mine. And the harbor freight pickers are just fine, pulled many engines with mine no worries. Make sure you buy the higher end picker though for more lift capacity.-Weeks
I think the reason some of the guys have trouble with the cheaper cherry pickers (and some of the expensive ones) is that they try to lift too much with the boom extended out all the way. I've got a hundred dollar fly by night tool truck special that works fine but it does get a bit wobbly if I try to lift too much with it extended all the way out.
Man I made an "A" frame out of a whole bunch of 2x4's. Leaned that sucker against the garage wall, threw a chain over it, attached a 40$ come-along and yanked a 400" Pontiac with it. No problem at all. I just took my time and was careful.
Wellll my .02. Got a HF foldable and have picked up a 2000 Lb Bridgeport mill with it extended ALL the way out. Did it with no prob but that is a concentrated compact load. But that was pushing it a bit though ,bottom legs were showing some deflection. I've done several BPs with it though and it still keeps ticking LOL!
glad to hear it worked out for you Nerdbynight, what an awesome story of the motor and your dad flying in to help!!
one time i was outta work, couldnt afford to buy a hoist and couldnt get a loan of one and i really wanted to get back into my 26 chrysler with the slant 6 so i weld tacked square steel tube/RHS to the chassis rails like make shift train track, dragged the engine around the side of the car, put a floor jack under it and me and the father in law balanced it between 4 chassis stands as we jacked it up and then slid it along the RHS. lol. took a while to pull it off but beer makes short work of everything. things we do when desperation sinks in.
i went to the local rental place- they had one hour and 24 hour rates. folded it, put it in truck, unfolded at house, pulled 3.8 v6 out of 81 Buick Regal, put into bed of truck, pulled 472 out of 70 caddy, put 472 into Regal, folded up shop and back to rental place within the hour.
Believe it or not, I got mine at Sam's Club several years ago and it is pretty heavy duty. I paid less the 200 for it. I have used it many times and have loaned it out to friends who used it quite a bit with no problems at all. Probably not that cheap anymore if they even sell them. But If they do still sell them, even if it is 250 it is worth the peace of mind knowing it is a good solid hoist.