Advice from the experts about threaded rod please

[Flapdisk]

@ Dan, yes it would be quite a fountain

@ Wall, No I have no other use for one, I ordered it just for that. I have to stick the escort in the roller and a lot of work on the underside coming up so the lift will be well used. I saved over £200 building the lift, so I spent £100 on a battery, I'm still up

 

[Flapdisk]

New Battery came today, strewth it's big and heavy, so I made another video, this time I didn't hold the camera. It motors beautifully now, I have been working on it all day and it's been going up and down like the proverbial hoowers drawers

 

[normspanners]

One hell of a way to get two cars in a single garage!!

 

[Flapdisk]

That's true Norm, In fact the makers of the roller do a set of wheels for it, so when the car is 90 degrees to the ground you can wheel it into a corner.

 

[Jan]

Interesting project. If I find I have enough room in the new workshop to use one I might make something along those lines as I already have an unused electric winch off my car transporter trailer. If I can sell the trailer without the winch I'm sure it would come in useful for jobs like these. With a couple of quick detach mountings (one included in the box) it could be even more useful.

 

[Flapdisk]

Absolutely Jan, go for it. The roof is far too low in my workshop to use a proper lift, so my only option is the roller when there is a lot to do under the car, and I was just getting fed up with all the jacking and blocking to raise the jacks, Some jobs just require the car being up and down a few times to complete them, like re fitting the rear suspension and then having to get inside to do up the bolts at the top of the spring assembly, it's impossible to get in the car when it's rolled, well for me anyway

 

[Wallace]

I'm surprised at the sound from the winch, it seems to be straining on the way up, was the battery fully charged or as supplied? I keep wondering what it would be like with one of the cheap 240v hoists and what the actual weight being lifted is. You have made a top job of it though.

 

[Flapdisk]

Hi Wall. The battery was fully charged when it arrived and I used a fair bit of juice playing, I had it charging overnight and the auto charger was flashing green saying it was full.
It does sound like it's straining, I have never had a winch so I am not familiar with them, but it should be only lifting half the weight of the car as two wheels effectively are on the ground surely? and it's supposed to be a two ton winch I would be very interested if someone else made one to see what results they get.
Thank you Wall, very kind.

 

[DanielW]

I told you it would put strain on the lift,it being a dry leverage.

 

[the snooper]

you need to add a pulley or 2 to give more power to the lift, the lift will be slower but wont be straining, google using pulley's to reduce load there will be examples on there

 

[Flapdisk]

I told you it would put strain on the lift,it being a dry leverage.

When I posted that I bet my wife a cup of tea that you would appear and say that, No mate, there is not that much friction from a foot long box section in the vertical. Tell him Wall

 

[Flapdisk]

you need to add a pulley or 2 to give more power to the lift, the lift will be slower but wont be straining, google using pulley's to reduce load there will be examples on there

Hi Snoop, I already built it with one secondary pulley hoping it would make it really easy and smooth, certainly an idea to consider

 

[Flapdisk]

A thought just occurred to me, as the car gets higher the weight gets less, and in fact the last third of the roll I can push it myself, I travelled the lift to full up a couple of times today and it made that noise all the way up, so if it's making it when there is little or no weight on it, it's either knackered or meant to make that noise ? It was a private buy of the bay but nothing in the box had any indication that it had been used before.

 

[Wallace]

Have you tried moving the short length of box about to see if there is any binding or stiction when under load? Are there any tell-tale witness marks on the upright since you have been using it? Oh and more importantly, have you played the Thunderbirds theme tune during a lift yet?

 

[Flapdisk]

Negative on the Thunderbirds, but I'll get right on it You won't be able to move the short length of box about as it's connected to a two ton car at the wheel hub , but in fairness to Dan, when he said anout it the first time and I was still at the assembly stage, I had a look at the spacing and noticed two things, first of all the short box fits over the post with about 2mm clearance on three sides, so any friction could only ever be on two sides.

Second, the post is not square, if you put a square on it, the inside edge of the square touches the outside corners of the box on every side, the walls are slightly bowed in, so the short box is only running on the corners,

I just rialised, I did forget to grease it though I will try a bit tomorrow and see if it makes any difference.

Another thing I can do is to try the lift, off the car, lifting something like my toolbox, which I have difficulty lifting and see if it makes that noise with that.

 

[Wallace]

With a couple of mm clearance you should be able to move it about and get an idea of where the load is going. Just noticed the motor size on the winch, what is it rated as pulling?

 

[Flapdisk]

Ok I will check it out tomorrow Wall. I wondered about that, I have a feeling the 2 ton rating is more fantasy than fact. It's a Titanium J7 Quad and the manual is in Polish, I will see if I can figure out the rating tomorrow as the manual is out in the workshop.
I was looking at an electric winch on the bay this evening and this one was rated at 3 ton, but when you read the small print it was actually 1 to 2 ton, something about rolling rating, presumably when pulling a vehicle horizontally rather than a direct lift. Sounds a bit like Interest rate and APR to me

 

[Bill Edwards]

A 2T winch is often just a winch that will pull a 2T car on wheels on a level surface, or something along those lines. Nothing like actually lifting that weight as a straight pull/lift.

Furthermore, I haven't listened to the video but I tend to find electric winches always have a strained sound leaving you to think the motor is probably being overloaded, but it tends to be how they are, even on good quality 4x4 winches that aren't working hard. They slow down a lot under load and sound awful, and can get hot (duty cycle, like many things).

 

[Wallace]

I agree with Bill, thay always sound strained. If you Google that Titanium J7 Quad (here) it says 2000lbs, 907kgs and is aimed at quad bikes so would explain the slightly strained sound. If I'm reading that chart right the current draw is 8A no load to 90A at 2000lb on a straight pull and the wire speed drops from 4.8m/min to 1.5m/min at full load. As a test I would lower the car to the floor and measure from the top of the short box section to 750mm on the upright then time it to height with a fresh charge in the battery and if it gets to 750mm inside 30 seconds then you are not exceeding the capacity which is 25mm/second.

 

[Flapdisk]

Ok, good info thanks Bill much appreciated mate, I will check that out tomorrow Wall, thanks for the input guys