Is it worth me buying an engine hoist?

[Dieselman 63]

I'm going to move my lathe on Friday.

It will cost me $45/day to rent it. If I rent, my mate will pick me up with the hoist at the hire depot in Wellington at 3pm, then I'll go to the uni with it, get the lathe and go back to the hire place. Then we'll drive 56 miles north to my house, where my dad will have picked up another hoist from the hire place in town earlier in the day. Basically, it comes that I'll be using and paying for a hoist for three days work. Of course, I intend to strip, clean and repaint my lathe, so I will need another day to rent the engine hoist, which will mean my dad picking it up again with me as I don't have my full licence yet.

Coupled with the cost, it's a bit of a faff to-ing and fro-ing from the depots and the hoist isn't exactly light anyway, so I'm thinking of buying one for $295. What are your thoughts?

 

[RonA]

My money is on buying a hoist, personally I've looked to hiring gear but always come down to buying it. A word of warning if you do buy one, you'll suddenly find your number of friends will skyrocket.
RonA

 

[Dieselman 63]

My money is on buying a hoist, personally I've looked to hiring gear but always come down to buying it. A word of warning if you do buy one, you'll suddenly find your number of friends will skyrocket.
RonA

Yeah I phoned around to find some 'friends'

 

[Tobymonster]

Yep buy one. I can count the number of times I've used mine on one hand but it's been invaluable each time. My one is only 1 ton, but I've got it in the back of a Ford Fiesta when my clutch bearing disintegrated driving into the works car park, and it's changed engines on a Subaru Outback, (did it without even taking the front wheels off!), and a Saab 96. It has also helped me pull up a large tree stump.

I rented the first time I needed one and bought my one second hand on eBay. It's paid for itself twice now. And it's been borrowed a few times too.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I bought one over 20 years ago. It's on it's second ram as original pump aspect started leaking new seals didn't help. If it packed up I'd have to buy another straight away as so useful. It gets used for all sorts of (DIY) things - not just lifting engines in & out

 

[WorkshopChris]

Personal i would buy one, very useful thing to own.

 

[dobbslc]

I'm also after one as I'll need to move my lathe if we move house soon (I hope) the last thing it'll be used for is lifting an engine out of a car!!!
Unless my mate needs to change the water pump in his Lotus Esprit........

 

[tflnemesis]

Buy one! I have found mine to be useful in all sorts of situations...

The lifting end is easily adaptable if you have some heavy bar kicking around for lifting and holding something rigidly. Mine is invaluable for lifting stuff in and out of a trailer, hoisting motorbikes up so i don't have to spend hours killing my knees and back, moving my 150l compressor around etc etc.... I actually used it on an engine once!!! Me and my next door neighbour were changing the head gasket on my 2.8 td 4x4 and we couldn't get to the manifolds to remove them and the seal on the HG wouldn't let the head go. 10 mins with the hoist and the head with both manifolds attached were up and out.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

If you have the space and won't be tripping over it, buy one. Make it a good quality job [not sure what the market for '2nd user' ones would be in NZ].

My Dad always used to say "Buy cheap, buy dear".

 

[RonA]

I only ever lift out car engines, so I made one out 80 x 40 box section. No hydraulics just used a 25mm threaded rod as lifting mechanism, not as slow as it might sound & you can drop an engine in with micrometer precision. Only cost me £30.
RonA

 

[Dieselman 63]

If you have the space and won't be tripping over it, buy one. Make it a good quality job [not sure what the market for '2nd user' ones would be in NZ].

My Dad always used to say "Buy cheap, buy dear".

Good saying that. I have a Moore & Wright advert that says 'Accurate tools cost less than errors', another one I like. To be honest I might just buy it and sell it in a few months. Even if I get $200 for it it's cheaper than hiring one.

 

[octo0072000]

If you have the space and won't be tripping over it, buy one. Make it a good quality job [not sure what the market for '2nd user' ones would be in NZ].

My Dad always used to say "Buy cheap, buy dear".

the other saying was buy cheap buy twice

 

[CornishPete]

"Buy, buy, buy!" Is another saying I've heard! No one ever said "hire, hire, hire" did they?!

 

[Sid]

I only ever lift out car engines, so I made one out 80 x 40 box section. No hydraulics just used a 25mm threaded rod as lifting mechanism, not as slow as it might sound & you can drop an engine in with micrometer precision. Only cost me £30.
RonA

Would like to see that. Got any pics?

As mentioned, it's not like the cost of the crane is money down the pan. A crane used once will sell for a fair price.

 

[Cobbler]

I only ever lift out car engines, so I made one out 80 x 40 box section. No hydraulics just used a 25mm threaded rod as lifting mechanism, not as slow as it might sound & you can drop an engine in with micrometer precision. Only cost me £30.
RonA

I borrowed one like that, not a homemade one either, it was far nicer to use than a hydraulic one, as you say lovely to be able to inch it up & down. This one lived outside all the time, all the owner did was to keep the thread well greased, you couldn't do that with a hydraulic one, the ram would go rusty.

 

[Swift&Bold]

At £15 a time, hiring is an option without the storage issues and the initial cost.

 

[steveo3002]

around here its like £45 to rent one plus the fuel and panic running it back n forth , or a budget ebay one for £99 thats fine for one off use , so yeah buy it and either rent it out a couple of times to recoup some money or keep it clean and resell to make it cheaper than renting

 

[Swift&Bold]

£11.50 for 4 hours, £14.50 for 8 hours down here.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Buy one.
When you have one the other uses it has will astound you.
I have one, safely hidden in a friends garage, he is rebuilding another car.
So get one and see a whole new list of jobs you can do.

 

[steveo3002]

ace for pulling up fence posts /small shrubs etc