Power lift for my 1978 Dodge van

I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
ideas?
cuhulin

cuhulin@webtv . net wrote:
> I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
> bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
> rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
> enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
> would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
> boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
> ideas?
> cuhulin
>

Why not start the whole thing off with a trailer hitch? then use the
receiver as your starting point so you can "unhook" the whole mess when
you don't want to use it.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
* members.cox . net /njnagel

Nate Nagel wrote:
>
> cuhulin@webtv . net wrote:
> > I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
> > bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
> > rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
> > enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
> > would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
> > boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
> > ideas?
> > cuhulin
> >
>
> Why not start the whole thing off with a trailer hitch? then use the
> receiver as your starting point so you can "unhook" the whole mess when
> you don't want to use it.

And buy the whole thing complete at Harbor Freight for ~$225 ready to
go. Not worth the effort to build when it's that cheap.

* w w w .harborfreight . com /cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=47591

cuhulin@webtv . net wrote:
> I was thinking about welding a steel plate to a piece of pipe and
> bolting the plate to one of the van's rear bumper brackets behind the
> rear bumper.A pipe with a hook welded to one end of the pipe, pipe tall
> enough to clear the rear doors, pipe would slip into the pipe which
> would be welded to the steel plate.And using a come along or one of my
> boat trailer winches for lifting heavy loads into and out of my van.Any
> ideas?
> cuhulin
>

You will rip the bumper off the frame horn with a set up like that.

The neatest unit I have seen for use in a van was one that a Roberts
driver had. He had built a 6 legged frame inside with a retractable rail
on top he got the idea from the older manual cemetery vault trucks. His
was set up just like a miniature overhead crane. He even had a fork
set-up so he could lift palletized items in easily.
I just cheated and picked up a hydraulic tailgate lift.

--
Steve W.