Pickup truck mounted crane and gear advice?

[WI-beek]

I plan increasing to around 50 colonies this year and more the next. I will be keeping my bees at four or five yards, doing a little flow hopping, and nuc making. Anyway, point is I need to be able to move complete hives without it being a nightmare. I figure Ill start putting colonies two wide on skids. I have an old one ton crew cab Chevy that Ill put a flat bed on. I figure a crane on back corner of bed and something like a 12 foot hand crank expendable crane or something in that neighborhood. I can figure out the details for that myself but what I really would like to know is what is the best attachment or setup to use to hook up to the hives with. Im not familiar with the names of the gadgets used for this. I know when I worked construction, i liked the forks that swung, and rotated freely by hand with a center of gravity in middle of pallet. Is that the attachment most beeks use? How much are they$? Where do you buy them? What else works? Any other suggestions.

[tommyt]

This maybe way off but do you have a Richie Brothers construction
Auction any where near you they have all kinds of equipment you may find
your forks there sorry the name your looking for has slipped me for now

Tommyt

[rwlaw]

When I started out w/ bee's sat down and figured out the best hive stand for the buck. I came up w/ using treated 2x6's, w/ the width a approx 3" longer on ea side. To move them I use 4 3/8" eye bolts and 2 pcs of black pipe, strap 'em to the frame and away we go.
What I'm thinking, make a spreader bar and make the pick like that, you'll have 4 point contact and won't have to fuss w/ the forks etc.
Hint, suck up to some contractors that do decks etc. and get the cutoffs. Also if you leave the eye bolts in, make sure you use galvanized, zinc plated'll rot in no time flat w/ the new treatment formula they use.

[jrbbees]

Wi-Beek - Put a 12v ele wench on your lift. you don't want to be cranking up and down all day. Just get one with power up and down. They make them with remote control units to.

RWlaw - like your idea, can you post a pic or drawing?

Thanks.

[ken rice]

http://www.harborfreight.com/500-lb-...ift-47591.html

[mythomane]

Yeah, that been on backorder now for 6 months....when I called Harbor Freight they said they have no idea when they are getting any more.

[ken rice]

Didn't have any problem here getting one.

[tommyt]

http://www.harborfreight.com/500-lb-...ift-47591.html

I'd email that to Cheaper than Dirt and see if they have it

Those who have one How are they at the price seems like they would be ever were

[wildbranch2007]

here is a discussion going on the commercial link

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247787

[Walt McBride]

Ken rice and mythomane: I bought one of Harbor Fs'. hitch lifts #47591.

Then I relized that it is designed to be used on a PICKUP with the TAIL GATE open in down position to complete the gap between truck bed and the platform of the lift when the lift is in the up position.

My truck is a S-10 with a 7' FLAT BED. So the part of the hoist that fits in to the receiver on the truck had to be modified (cut and weld) to fit to the flat bed configuration.

That was several years ago and I have not yet used it yet because I got side tracked on modifing
Harbor Fs' Pick up truck crane #1647 with one of their 12V. winches and extending the base upward of the crane mount so the boom would clear a double deep when swung on to the truck bed.

I also built a forked cradle to slip under cleats nailed front and back of all my boxes to lift them with, with bottom boards nailed on.

I am a small bkpr., a 100 or so hives, and the boom is a great help when I have to lift a heavy double on or off the truck when no help is available.

Walt

[mythomane]

Didn't have any problem here getting one.

These are available at the tractor supply, says ken, but I cannot find anything on their website. Link anybody?

[tommyt]

I just checked Tampa store they have 6
I wonder if the will ship from store to store

here is the link if it helps any of you

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalog...&q=power+lift+

[mythomane]

Only one store in all of Texas has one, and it is a display model 6 hours away. No store to store ship. There are only another 4 in all the surrounding states; this search includes hundreds of stores. Guess I will try tractor supply tomorrow. You in Tampa are lucky. They do not send these to stores anymore, and they only have back-stock left over.

[WCMN]

Here's another one at Northern Tool. Little more spendy.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too..._650281_650281

....Randy

[mythomane]

Yeah, 3 times as much with shipping.

[WI-beek]

Here is the pallet fork style I was talking about. Does anyone use this type of setup?

http://www.masoncrane.com/Pallet%20Forks.htm

If anyone has pics of their pick up crane setup please post them.

[wabeeman]

WI-beek, you can make your own. I did.
http://picasaweb.google.com/wabeeman/HiveLoader#
It's hard to see in these pics but the chair (at least that's what I call it) is made from 3/4" sch40 pipe, some rectangle tubing for the arm and 1/2" x 2" flat bar for the forks. Nope, forks aren't heat treated and they won't lift 5,000#, but they're plenty strong enough for a couple of hives. Your center of lift is just over 10" out from the frame so there's not a lot of stress on the forks. That's 10" if you're loading the hive from the front or rear, I lift from the side so centerline is down to about 8 1/2". This set up will lift 4 deeps or 6 westerns packed full of honey with capacity to spare. In the pic I'm lifting 2 double deep colonies. Stack one on the other on the ground, then lift the pair onto the truck. Truck bed is 12', I can haul 60 double deep colonies this way (assuming I'm within weight limits )