[andrew12334]

I'd like to develop a pulley system to hoist these boxes up onto this shelf. I can easily imagine a system to get them to that height, but not the lateral movement to get them over onto the shelf. This is a bike shop (small business with a few employees) and currently we're just climbing up an A-frame ladder with these cumbersome boxes in our hands and muscling them up there.... not ideal



More info:

8'7" or 103" to shelf surface.

Boxes are 5' (long) x 2'6" (tall) by 7" (thick)

1'7" clearance from top of larger boxes to ceiling.


You can see on the horizontal box in the top right corner that each box comes with three yellow straps on it. These straps are something like plastic webbing. They are pretty sturdy and can carry the weight of each box easily (heavier ones aren't quite 40lbs).


Ideally someone could stand on the ground, attach a box to the rope, use pulley system to get it up, over, and (somehow) detached... then pull the rope down and attach the next box. But whatever gets detached needs to be able to reattach too, so as to get the box back down. I'd love to build something to help with this storage and retrieval, but am clearly out of my depth with how this would work...


Any ideas, friends?

 

[SPS-1]

Hoists that run on a track are pretty common. But I can't think of a nice way to attach and remotely dis-attach to the box.

But if you could store the boxes on the flat, you could put them on a skid, and raise it up there on a Genie Lift type machine.

https://www.genielift.com/en/material-handling-products/material-lifts

.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Research beam / trolley systems where you have 2 stationary beams with a traveler beam the hoist is suspended from but the 1'-7" clearance will likely be a problem. For time being, another option may be a drywall lift loaded with several boxes on edge and just push the boxes over onto the shelf .

 

[Chris616]

The detaching and attaching the hoist while the bike boxes are on the shelf is a challenge. One way to get around that is to hoist a lightweight cradle instead of the boxes themselves. Take a look at this video.

If you installed two of these side-by-side you’d cover most of the width of that shelf. To move the boxes onto the shelf after the hoist was raised a person on a ladder would push the box the first few feet, then use a four foot long pole to push it the rest of the way off the four foot depth hoist platform. To take a box down would require the other end of the four foot pole to have a hook on it, and you’d need to attach something to the end of the box to form a loop (a duct tape handle?). Or there might be a cut-out handle in the ends of those boxes.

The link in that video doesn’t work. Here’s one that does:
http://www.racorstoragesolutions.com/p/detail/phl-1r

I’m sure that some tweaking would be required to get this working smoothly, but I think that the overall concept is sound. Anyone see a problem that I’ve not thought about? Maybe there is a light fixture at the top of that photo that might be in the way?

Chris

 

[andrew12334]

Thanks for responding SPS-1. Sadly, we definitely can't fit/afford a Genie in here. Looking for something affordable and clever with rails and pulleys... I'm sure it's possible with enough ingenuity, which is where I need the help :laughing:

 

[Nealtw]

Garage door tacks, use a door opener or just a hand crank boat winch.

Cheap fabric sling, one for each box left on the box.

 

[mathmonger]

Ooh. That's an interesting one. I see a bunch of problems. It's going to take some trial and error. The first thing you try isn't going to work that well and all your employees will just mock your harebrained contraption.

How do you attach and detach the boxes? Yeah. Chris is right. By the time you get a sling hooked on, some macho kid probably would have the box halfway up.

Realistically, I think the best thing you can do is to keep doing what you're doing, but take steps to make it easier and safer. Look at the ergonomics. Maybe a bigger ladder. Maybe a lighter ladder. Maybe some strategic grab bars. Maybe a rolling platform to stand on. Or maybe put the box up onto a rolling platform and then get up on the ladder and it is an easy lift from there.