“Made It Myself” Portable Crane

“Made It Myself” Portable Crane MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous Kurt Carlson Oak Hills Calif can easily load a trailer or pickup bed using his home-built portable crane The 2-wheeled crane hooks up to a pickup or golf cart equipped with a ball hitch He started with an old Venturo truck-mounted crane that he bought at an auction “The crane was decommissioned from service because it had been welded on and the insurance carrier wouldn’t certify it ” says Carlson  “The axle and hitch came from a trailer that had been destroyed and all the gusset material I used came from scrap metal I already had I welded a 42-in long piece onto a 10-ft length of 7-in square tubing and cut a mounting plate for the crane out of an old pickup bed-mounted fifth wheel plate   I also mounted a Group Size 4D battery on front of the crane’s tongue to offset the weight of the crane on back I used 5 000-lb bulldog trailer jacks to fabricate a couple of removable stabilizer legs ” Carlson says one limitation is the crane has only about a 120-degree swing but that hasn’t been a problem   “I plan to replace the 2-in ball coupler with a pintle hitch which I think will be much safer when lifting a heavy load ” His only expense was for the bulldog jacks which cost $350   “I could have bought less expensive jacks at Harbor Freight but I figured it would be best to use good quality jacks for safety ” he notes Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Kurt Carlson Oak Hills Calif ph 760 948-1126; kcfab1@aol com

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