I thought a Gantry Crane would be helpful for this project, a mobile one even more so. I waited several weeks until Harbor Freight had them on sale, and I had a 20% off coupon. Tax, Title and license was about $500. Plus the trolley and hoist. This is a 1 ton capacity crane.
The problems started when I measured the beast. Out of the box it measures in at 8' 3". Careful measurement of my garage doors showed 8' even. I scratched my head and evaluated a couple of options, did some statics calculations etc and decided that I could cut a couple of notches in the uprights and allow the I beams to go lower.
In Image 2 you can see that I have 0 clearence. In fact it was so tight that I did not think it would make it. As you can see in Image 3 it is in the shop. Bad news is that the weatherstrip at the top will have to come out (or get torn up) in order to get the thing back out. Because the ship is taller than 8' with the rotor head on, it will need to come back out of the shop in order to set the rotor head.
WARNING This thing is a beast to assemble. Steve and I did it, but I recommend at least 3 people if not 4. The bolt in Image 1 is a 1/2" x 6" bolt. It got bent when the crane fell off the floor jack. No one was hurt but it scared the $%#&^ out of us. My back still hurts from the effort.
This will be used to install the engine, trans and rotor head.
