Truck mounted jib hoist

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for some direction with my latest project. Overall I want to hire someone to put a design into autoCAD for me and maybe get an engineer stamp but I don’t know how I’d go about finding/hiring someone for a small project like this.

I’ve decided to add a pick-up back truck into my fleet, for a number of reasons, and am trying to outfit it to fit somewhere in the middle of my business needs. I am a well service company. I have a pump hoist for heavy lifting but that truck requires a CDL it’s hard to get in tight spaces and it’s inconvenient to use it to courier pipe around. Having a second vehicle to feed pipe off of would be nice.

The vehicle in question is a 2015 Ford-F350 standard cab, 8ft bed 4x4.

It is going to be outfitted w/ a ladder rack and hi side truck box on the left side.

The ladder rack will be a custom build, most likely using 2" Square tubing. I want it to be able to support about 1500pounds. It will be used for moving 21ft sections of steel pipe.

The main supports on the left hand side will sit inside the bed with a support beam running at the rail height so the truck box can be further in, the outside edge on the rail and the backside on that support. I’ll include offsets off the left hand bedrail to the main supports for stability and to match the visual on the right hand supports that will be on the bedrail.

This puts the left main support inside the bed just off the frame of the truck at it’s base(it’ll have a plate wide enough to put a few bolts through the frame). It has a beam running front to back at bedrail height, a beam front to back at the rack height, a offset going to the left bedrail, and a beam going across to the right hand rear support. I figure that support should be pretty solid against any deflection.

I want to put a pivoting jib hoist near the top of that support. Ideally I’d like that jib to support 500pounds at 6 feet. The purpose would be so I can lift equipment into the truck such as a generator, lift concrete manhole covers and pivot them off, lift (lighter weight)well drop pipes to the top of the well from pitless adapters.

I’ve looked into various truck mounted jibs. None of them save the van hoists will really be compatible with an overhead rack and I’d like to avoid putting mechanical components down low as I occasionally need to do things like pick up loads of sand. The van hoists don’t have the reach I’d like.

The European market seems to have plenty of small jib hoist frames for sale, the US not so much. I can get something like this which only covers 2.5feet. Then things jump up to giant 10ft wall mounted frames.

I want a basic frame like this one. I’d like it to be a basic L so I can maximize height and pivot it to line up with the top rail of the rack when not in use. Ideally I make it with 2 inch square tube steel w/about a 4ft boom then have a sliding smaller piece of tubing inside of that to hit the 6 ft. I’d also consider something of this designif need be. If anyone knows the names of the various hinge mechanisms it would be helpful.

I’m still undecided about a hoist mechanism. While a powered hoist would be nice I wouldn’t want to leave it exposed or to have to mount and unmount it. A chain hoist and an eye bolt will probably do, then I can just throw it in the truck box when it’s not needed.

This whole set up does have some practical limitations like the pivot will rarely be in ideally level conditions and the suspension of the truck will limit it’s practicality. I want to go with it anyhow and could consider putting stabilizers on if it is a useful enough concept. Overall the goal isn’t a huge capacity, it’s to help make lifting things that are typically a two man job and make them a 1 man job. I’d never have anything over 500pounds 6 feet off but I’d like to apply 1000pounds of break out force without bending things.

I’m looking for feedback, and general observation. If someone says that might work or your going to tear the bed off your truck that’s helpful. I’m looking for what is realistically achievable. Google is only getting me so far and it may be a limit of terminology that keeps putting me into European sites rather than US sites, so even just providing me with words is helpful. I’ll also take any specialty forum that might be open to me posting this there.

Maybe Stranger On A Train can take a break from his awesome posts in the pit to comment here.

Thanks for the read.

2

You may consider a Tommy Gate lift, thereby eliminating the necessity of a jib.

3

Check in your phone book’s yellow pages under “Engineers” … call a few and although that particular engineer may not be able to help, they may well know who can and refer you to someone …

Sounds like you want one piece of equipment to do two different jobs … as I’m sure you know this doesn’t always work out … the piece of equipment will do both jobs, but neither very well … it’s about trade-offs … if you want the rig to haul lots of pipe, your hoist will be restricted … if you want a full range hoist, you won’t be able to haul as much pipe …

I have a Toyota Tacoma and serves as both street-legal transportation and as a motorized wheelbarrow … it’s rated at a half ton so about the only thing I can haul a full load of is insulation … and the street performance totally sucks, 0-60 in 45 and 60-90 in, well, I don’t even know if it will go 90 … I’d be far better off owning that F-350 and an XJ12 … but the Toyota does well enough, and for the sacrifice I have more money in my pocket … that trade-off works for me.

Apparently, they show the TV commercials to the Tacomas when they’re being built … so when I bought Gracie she was all excited about running sand dunes and climbing mountains … she sure was surprised that, with less than ten miles on the odometer, I backed her up to a cottage and started filling her with the vilest and nastiest of human waste … she screamed when I told her she was a garbage scow now, nothing more … haw haw haw haw

4

I wonder if you could build a gantry into the ladder rack.

5

You should look online for plans, or other who have done something like this. An engineer will help you spec the size of the beams you need, but they’re not going to be able to provide specific details on how the device will be mounted and other modifications that need to be made to the vehicle.

There’s a local guy that constructed a device on an old jeep, a long A-Frame arm is mounted on a reinforced roll bar, extends over the the windshield where a heavy post seems to be mounted to the firewall with a hydraulic cylinder to raise and lower it, and it then extends out over the front of the vehicle by several feet. A sliding gantry type moves along the last few feet. He uses it mainly for removing and installing engines in cars and trucks, he claims he can change the jeep’s own engine with it. It certainly can’t pick up an engine and deposit in the back of the jeep though. It sounds like you need something that can manage much heavier loads that can be loaded and unloaded to for transport, but someone may have done what you need already.

6

Did you see this hoist from the google search? It’s not clear from the photos, but it looks like a ladder rack could be incorporated under that as a place to place the pipe.

And since you are going to be fabricating something anyway, have you considered a flatbed trailer with a jib hoist mounted on it? It might require outriggers for stability, but it might work. Or alternatively a truck mounted hoist that was configured to load and offload of a flatbed trailer (rather than on and off the truck itself)? Seems that a trailer would be easier to use for hauling 21’ pipe sections, and would require a lower overall lifting height.

edit: How do you move material at the job site? Seems to me that you might need more reach to place the material where you need it.

7

I can easily do a gantry style hoist under the ladder rack. If you’re within the frame supports I have little doubt that could handle plenty of weight. A gantry system is good for moving things within the bed or to the ground directly behind the truck. But a gantry is more complex than I need and doesn’t meet my goals.

The main thing I want is swing. I want limited reach and limited weight. I have a concept of what I want. I don’t know how to do the load calculations or how to put it to paper for fabrication. I need professional review.

The pump hoist truck is a flatbed with a 25ft derrick. It’s got plenty of lift and reach(with lighter loads). What it doesn’t have is swing. It has a pipe rack for moving pipe, but the practicality of feeding pipe off the pump hoist truck is limited as feeding off the pump hoist leaves a guy standing on the flatbed which is too high for him to be jumping up and down to spin wrenches. Normally we’ll offload the pipe by hand onto a couple 6x6s next to the well so we can feed off the ground. Which will likely be the same case with the pick up, I just want a separate vehicle to move it.

There are plenty of cases where we’ll be pulling a well and have no idea what’s in it in terms of condition and depth. On those jobs I have the option of preloading the rig, and if it turns out differently than my prediction we’ll have to unload it again. Alternatively I can set up the rig, pull the well, unset the rig, go back to the yard, load the rig, go back to the job site and set up the rig again. It will be much easier to pull a well, call someone at my yard and have them run supplies to us in a separate vehicle.

It’s rare to have a job site with enough room to drive on all sides of the well. We’re doing well if I can even get the pump hoist truck to the well. In a number of cases I end up bringing in full sized cranes so I can hit the well from over a house or keep the vehicles on a driveway to avoid landscape damage. So on sites where I’m not using my hoist I’d prefer not to bring it just to move pipe. Trying to maneuver a trailer isnt worth considering.