Shopsmith Forums

I need some of the clever folks on the Forum to help me design a system for storing my 16 foot canoe, aka A Slow Boat To Nowhere. The canoe weighs somewhere around 65 lbs (I've not weighed it with a scale, but that's the design spec and I have lifted it solo so I know it can't be much more than that).

To keep the canoe out of the way, I had planned on rigging up a 2 line pulley/hoist system to raise the canoe close to the 8'6" high ceiling of my garage. Just when I thought I had figured out what I needed to build that system, I realized that I've got another potentially larger problem than designing the hoist system itself.

Suffice it to say that due to the layout of the garage (i.e. the locations of the windows, doors, the garage door tracks and overhead lights), the only place I can see to permanently hang the canoe is parallel to and against the rear wall of the garage.

That's a problem because about 13 feet of the 24 foot length of that rear wall is taken up by a stair well that is 4 feet wide and that descends 8+ feet to the basement!

That means that about half the canoe will be hanging over the stair well, making loading and unloading any normal hoist system impossible. The only thing I can think of is to attach the entire hoist system to some kind of rails/beams that are perpendicular to the rear wall of the garage and which will allow the hoist to slide out across the stair well so that the canoe can be loaded/unloaded onto the hoist system while I/m standing on solid ground(or garage floor).

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,

Al

Crude sketch but hopefully you will get the intent.
The C' double location is more secure than the single center C location and eliminates the need for a boom(at the balance point!!!!).

Yes, JPG, that's what I was more or less describing in my first post, although I was thinking two beams rather than one (which I see you accommodate both designs in your sketch).

Another idea I'm now toying with is in the following sketch, which has the advantage of being made with construction lumber rather than buying/installing a beam.

The sketch has a few additional details/corrections. The width of the stairwell as 39" and there is a 41" high railing that runs along it.

This is a front view showing one of two long 2x6s (connected by cross braces that can't be seen) attached at the top end to the rear wall (shown at left) with heavy duty hinges. A pair of dowels secures the canoe as the 2x6s are hoisted to vertical. Unclear whether I could mount the canoe high enough on the length of the 2x6s to avoid blocking the ceiling light (not shown but 60" from the rear wall). If not, perhaps a sliding cart could be devised and moved with another rope and pulley. liding along on the 2x6s.....

Assuming reasonable scale accuracy, the canoe moved out to the ends would clear the light although require more force from the pulley.

However cannot the dowels be located further up on the 'beams'. You can step much closer to the railing than shown. The cross ties only need to be at the end(floor) and 'under' the 'sbtn'.

P.S I would attach the hinge to the 'bottom' of the rails rather than into the end grain.

JPG wrote:Assuming reasonable scale accuracy I wouldn't assume scale accuracy! I tried a little trig and I believe if I wanted to just kiss the top of the 41" rail, the actual length of the 2X6 would be 125" and it would hit the floor 92.56 inches from the wall, forming an angle of 42.25 degrees at the top/wall , the canoe moved out to the ends would clear the light although require more force from the pulley yes, but I want the canoe to miss/clear the light closer to the rear wall, i.e. to the left of it in my sketch; to the right and it will be the proverbial sword of damacles hanging over the hood of our cars!.

However cannot the dowels be located further up on the 'beams'. Yes, I think so, that's what I was hinting at You can step much closer to the railing than shown. The cross ties only need to be at the end(floor)excellent point and 'under' the 'sbtn' what's a sbtn?.

P.S I would attach the hinge to the 'bottom' of the rails rather than into the end grain.

Thanks, JPG. My comments are in red.

algale wrote:

JPG wrote:Assuming reasonable scale accuracy I wouldn't assume scale accuracy! I tried a little trig and I believe if I wanted to just kiss the top of the 41" rail, the actual length of the 2X6 would be 125" and it would hit the floor 92.56 inches from the wall, forming an angle of 42.25 degrees at the top/wall , the canoe moved out to the ends would clear the light although require more force from the pulley yes, but I want the canoe to miss/clear the light closer to the rear wall, i.e. to the left of it in my sketch; to the right and it will be the proverbial sword of damacles hanging over the hood of our cars!.

However cannot the dowels be located further up on the 'beams'. Yes, I think so, that's what I was hinting at You can step much closer to the railing than shown. The cross ties only need to be at the end(floor)excellent point and 'under' the 'sbtn' what's a sbtn?.

P.S I would attach the hinge to the 'bottom' of the rails rather than into the end grain.

Thanks, JPG. My comments are in red.

Really? I need explain sbtn? After you coined the phrase!

JPG wrote:

algale wrote:

JPG wrote:Assuming reasonable scale accuracy I wouldn't assume scale accuracy! I tried a little trig and I believe if I wanted to just kiss the top of the 41" rail, the actual length of the 2X6 would be 125" and it would hit the floor 92.56 inches from the wall, forming an angle of 42.25 degrees at the top/wall , the canoe moved out to the ends would clear the light although require more force from the pulley yes, but I want the canoe to miss/clear the light closer to the rear wall, i.e. to the left of it in my sketch; to the right and it will be the proverbial sword of damacles hanging over the hood of our cars!.

However cannot the dowels be located further up on the 'beams'. Yes, I think so, that's what I was hinting at You can step much closer to the railing than shown. The cross ties only need to be at the end(floor)excellent point and 'under' the 'sbtn' what's a sbtn?.

P.S I would attach the hinge to the 'bottom' of the rails rather than into the end grain.

Thanks, JPG. My comments are in red.

Really? I need explain sbtn? After you coined the phrase!

Ooops. How could I miss that?! Maybe it was the missing "A" as in ASBTN = A Slow Boat To Nowhere.

Have I not seen a triangle sort of trapeze arrangement with ropes and tie-offs that was meant for this sort of arrangement? The same sort of thing they do for bicycles and the like.

This would be an example:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005AT ... ion&sr=1-2

Ed

Is 2x6 not overkill?
I would think 2x4 would be more than adequate to hold the weight.

reible wrote:Have I not seen a triangle sort of trapeze arrangement with ropes and tie-offs that was meant for this sort of arrangement? The same sort of thing they do for bicycles and the like.

This would be an example:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005AT ... ion&sr=1-2

Ed

Yes; but the issue here is getting the canoe in place over a stairwell, as show in JPG's overhead sketch.