Looking for input on a home made lift to store bike

My garage has a second floor workshop / storage area that is built strong enough to easily support my bike. Unfortunately the task of rolling it up the stairs is too dangerous to even contemplate so my thoughts have turned to possibly building a lift that would drop from the ceiling, I could roll the bike on to the platform and then it would simply return. Kind of like this but much beefier, Versalift Ultimate Attic Lift Installation - YouTube


So with that idea in my mind I'm looking for some input from the VFR group to see if anyone has done it and perhaps a few words of wisdom.

 

:hss: You have a second floor in the garage? :shocked::jaw:

 

Yes I do. It's not huge (20 x 20 with sloped ceilings) but it is a useful space to keep all our crap.

 

I bet it will cost few grands......You are one :crazy: Canuk ound:

 

So what I would do is build a steel frame with expanded metal and some tie down points. Put a 110v winch up top with a block and tackle and just treat it like a mini freight elevator. I can draw something up tonight if you want, along with a materials list.

 

Sound like a plan.....Looking forward to see Jethro takle on this project

 

I'll try to reach out to my buddy. He's an electrician, and was just telling me about a hand crank lift that he bought off of craigslist for dirt cheap - couple hundred bucks. He can use it for hoisting those fancy chandeliers, ceiling fans, or just hoist himself up to change a light bulb. Says it has stabilizing foot bars, can crank to an elevation of 24 feet, and holds something like 400#. Granted 400# wouldn't be enough, but I bet the height ability affects the load capacity.

 

This is what I was thinking too. I'd have to reinforce the rafters where I tie in the hoist but the rest should be pretty straight forward. If I get a one ton hoist I could use it for engine changes too. Hmmmmm I need to start searching Craigslist for a 110v winch!

 

The thought of this just scares me especially if you have to make structural changes to the ceiling joists. If you have room to roll the bike forward from the top of the stairs I think you would be much better off with a platform style stair lift. What is your budget?


Rollin

 

Wow this sounds a fun project which could just work in that cool looking building.

Over in Europe before the days of mobile cranes - many old buildings (barns, mills and breweries) had a lifting beam attached to (or part of the ridge beam) which extended beyond the end of the roof. When heavy items like sacks, equipment etc, needed to be stored in the upper floor of the barn they pulled it up on a sliding block and tackle attached to the beam. This did entail a lot of manual effort and risk transitioning from the safe vertical lift mode to swing the load into the building. Even so they are still quite popular and used for moving bulky furniture in and out of upper floor apartments in places like the Netherlands like this -

IMG_4214_1[2].jpg (image)

Nowadays there is a rather safer variant on this old technology which basically entails a rail based electric hoisting systems which can easily handle 0.5 tonnes so a motorbike would be no hassle. If your upper window open and is big enough for the bike, hoist & beam to pass through, then its very possible to fit a lifting beam system to move your bike without having to modify the building.

When you want to load stuff in/out - open window. Extend out the steel I beam rail out fully (with luck you may have enough headroom for the rail to stay bolted to the ridge beam). Then run out the hoist raise/lower bike, sliding the hoist and load along the rail to move it from inside the building to outside. Something like this would work.

I Beam Crane - Utility - Model 800AB

It will be great to see whatever solution you come up with.:thumbsup:




SkiMad

 

No budget as this is all just ideas at this point but if it is more than a grand I may as well just build a shed to keep her in. I just like the security of having the bike indoors and somewhere I can see it on a daily basis rather than in the back yard with the lawnmower for company. Sheds are hard to keep rodents out of as well.
It has its risks for sure as this isn't light by any means. In fact the stairs couldn't handle the weight as they are hinged and retract into the ceiling. The roof isn't a truss, it's built with 2x8 rafters which are pretty strong especially if I tie into three or four with a beam and mount the winch to that.

I'm still on the fence but part of me wants to see this happen just because it would be very different but also handy for lifting a number of things to the second level that are a pain to carry by hand.

 

You see many storage facilities with an I Beam type hoist that protrudes from the end of the building. It's a simple soloution for lifting heavy loads to a second or third level. When I had the front of the garage torn off last summer I suggested this to my spouse but she didn't like the aesthetics of the thing and the window we installed isn't big enough unfortunately.

 

Have you considered what your going to have to do to your floor joist? You should have at least 2x10 joist if not 2x12. The hole you cut out for the lift will weaken your floor unless you do some reinforcement. Which you'll have to do. You'll have to at least double up on the joist that are the long sides of the hole and make a double header at each end. I'm assuming there is 2 if not 3 rows of blocking between the joist now. If not you should add blocking for the whole floor. This spreads the load out across the whole floor better which stiffens the floor from bounce and such.

When you take out joist towards the middle of a floor it weakens it quite a bit. If you can not add blocking and doubling of the joist at the hole, then you shouldn't really do the hoist until you can make the required mods to the floor joist. I'm also assuming your floor joist run solid from one side to the other without a supporting beam in the middle beneath. So depending how you built your garage will depend on what's needed to accommodate for the hole and still keep the structural integrity of the floor.

So how is the floor built?

 

I just thought of a brilliant idea.....You can just store the VFR in your living room instead LOL!!!

All kidding aside I don't think this project will be cheap considering you will need to build a heavy duty lift platform and use a heavy duty winch in addition to making the necessary structural changes. You would also need to design some type of redundant braking / safety system that you are willing to bet your life against.

Another option would be to try to find a used forklift mast from a salvage yard and mount it against to a wall and then hook up the external hydraulic controls. Either way this will require major changes to the garage structure in order to create an opening large enough for the bike to fit through. The idea of doing this is very cool but I just don't see this happening without spending lots of time and money.


Rollin

 

The floor is 20x20 with a beam down the center and the 2x10 joists (on 16 inch centers) running at 90 deg so the span is only ten feet. I'm confident that the structure can handle the weight but the flooring (sheeting) is the biggest concern because it is oriented strand board (OSB). It is T&G flooring grade but that isn't sufficient to hold the bike especially the side stand pressure point so it will need some attention.

It could be done but the big question for me is should it be done when a the shed option will increase my storage and the hoist will not.

 

Man Ive done a lot of rigging in my life... Setting up to do the lift would not be a problem.... I think the problem would be weight distribution evenly throughout the joists. A suggestion is that I see you have a two car/ split garage. I would need to see pictures of the inside. I think if you had some sort of support beams (4 each 4x6 or bigger) from your garage floor to the 1st floor ceiling (two beams in between your cars and two near a wall), that might be a good start. Then tie in the beams to the joists via 2x10" running perpendicular to the joists.

Or solution # 2. same set up with the 4x6 as above. continue them through the ceiling/floor till almost the ceiling of the upper level. Tie in the 4 posts with 2x8" or bigger. Set up your lifting gear on the 2x8". This way the structure itself doesn't take the load when lifting.

Man I could go on I just thought of 2 more ways to do this just with this 4x6 set up. But I think you get the gist.