RacorPro HeavyLift Part II

As promised in my earlier post about the RacorPro HeavyLift, I finally installed one in my garage, and will now report on how it went. The picture* above shows the unit attached to my garage’s ceiling (that’s not a mini-bike hanging from the lift: that’s my mountain bike near the far wall of the garage hanging from its own lift, a Harken Hoister).

The installation went reasonably well. It’s a one-man job, as long as you take your time, study a few things, and basically work around the somewhat confusing instructions.

First, I assembled the wire grid platform (don’t overtighten the “J” bolts, or the beam supports will twist). I did not assemble the arms to the T-brackets, but I did remove the pulleys from each arm so I could more easily reach all the arm’s mounting holes. After locating two ceiling joists 48″ apart, I mounted the T-brackets in the center of each joist (and in the center of the garage’s ceiling) using only one lag screw in each so I could rotate the brackets for squaring later. Following suggestions on Amazon’s reviews for the HeavyLift, I substituted heavier duty lag screws in place of the ones that came with the unit (I used some 3″ #12 lag screws that I got at the American Bolt Co. in Austin). I then attached the arms to the T-brackets, squared them up to each other and to the joists, and lag screwed them into the joists (to make this a little easier, l lubed each lag screw with a bit of stick wax; see TM 8/28/09). Next, I reattached the pulleys, mounted the winding axle (removing the bearing assembly on one of the T-brackets made this easier), and connected the gear drive. Finally, I threaded the cables and grid attachment bolts through the pulleys, and secured them to the grid platform’s beam supports. Cranked that puppy up and down a few times (it does take a lot of turns), leveled the platform, and loaded it up.

All in all, it’s a worthwhile addition for storage in my garage. I now have more floor space, and am inspired to attack further garage cleanup.