This weekend I installed one of those Harbor Freight Gantry Cranes out of need. You see I once made one after watching a YouTube video from EarthScraper69. He built one out of wood. I happened to be watching it when I needed to pull an engine. I built it, and it worked great. That was in 2016. Now it’s 2024, and while it’s still decent, but I have had to move it from one place to another. I do not feel it is not as strong as it once was., and it is also outside.
Now that I have a shop and with winter coming I need to be able to pull that motor out of the new project truck and swap it with another motor.
I have felt the pressure to get this done before the wintry rainy season gets here and I got to thinking… I don’t need to rush this! I have a shop, so let’s go ahead and get a crane and work INSIDE from now on!
So I went to Harbor Freight and purchased one. I went earlier that day to “think about it” and scope out how I may get my trailer around back to the loading dock. Later that day I went and they were very helpful with their forklift. I helped them get it loaded and I got it home and started unpacking it.
The next morning I started to put it together. To my surprise it ended up taking me the better part of a day to complete all by myself.
I am not sure of the weight the metal beams in my shop are rated to hold. They are not intended to be used for what I was about to do, but I connected my chain hoist to them and used it to help me with this process.
After carefully thinking about every move I made, I finally got it together.
It does not come with a trolley for the chain hoist, so keep that in mind when purchasing. I went to my dads shop and took the ones we had there down and I have one currently attached, but I am not really sure I like it and I may end up buying the trolly from Harbor Freight that goes along with this crane.
Over all I am happy with it, but I have not put it to the test yet. I chose this crane simply because I can move it around, it will outlast my wooden crane, and I can now work indoors with it. Also from what all of the reviews I have read, this crane should work out well to pull engines, cabs, and beds off trucks as well as other things.
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