My friend and I tried again to lift the attic stairs into place, this time using ratcheting tie-downs, 2x10 boards for a support platform, and eye bolts to connect the straps. Spent all morning trying to make that work, to no avail. While it was a good idea to try to take advantage of mechanical leverage, the short levers on the ratcheting mechanism proved to be too cumbersome to lift the weight of the assembly. So we abandoned the tie-down idea and bought a come-along from Lowes. That worked successfully, using one of the straps looped over a 2x10 support beam above the hole and tied to one of the double headers with an eye bolt. Once the box was finally in position and all four corners were hung by joist hangers (threaded rods and nuts), I was able to adjust, shim, and install sufficient lag bolts on all sides.
