Mine cost me $125 brand new & is the best investment I have made. I built one years ago which worked but had not great geometry. I ended up with a bigblock chev engine and TH400 about 6 ft in the air trying to clear the rad support on my crewcab I got it into the engine bay & it started to get wobbly. I couldn't reach the release valve and I couldn't let go of the engine, so there I was stuck. the only one around was my 4 yr old son . I had to coax him to operate the valve carefully & the engine crashed into place. Amazingly nothing was damaged. But I got rid of the hoist after that and bought one. The bigblock with tranny would be somewhat heavier than the 602 & the shop crane held it beautifully. I also tried one of the lightweight engine stands with a 602 & found it was wobbly as well You really need the 1000 or 1200 lb stands for our diesels, they are long and top heavy. Cheers Dan

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It's always something simple
91 300D 603.960 (from japan) 194K
92 Toyota Diesel Landcruiser HDJ81-t 116K
02 Golf TDI new head courtesy of PO
87 300D
97 BMW 525 TDS Wagon 5spd
bunch of Onan and other diesel generators

I recently used the joists in my garage along with an added 4x4 to span 6' between 2x4 studs. The winch was a manual chain 2-ton ratchet type.

I determined the required lumber and span with some somewhat simple moment of inertia calculations... no problems.


If anyone needs help designing a garage hoist to save some money, you can contact me.

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local discount tool place had new 2.5 ton hoists with 5 ton rams on them for 125 bucks... plus the legs fold up for easy storage... hard to beat that.