Truck bed crane?

[eric_1984ttype]

Anybody have/use one of these? I have a one ton chevy and want to mount one on my receiver hitch. I was looking at buying the one from harbor freight and modifying it to fit my needs or build one from scratch. Any input? Want to use it as a engine hoist and to move barrels and other heavy items since I have a gravel driveway and no garage.

 

[charlief1]

One of my friends pur one on his hunting truck for hauling deer onto the bed as well as gutting it. I's mounted near the hitch on it but it's a flat bed. Works pretty good too.

 

[INEEDAGN]

I've thought about doing the same thing. Need to gusset the hell outta the bracket for the hitch, it'll have a ton of leverage. Maybe make it height adjustable at the hitch area in case you wanna swing an engine block over the bedside or something, it'd have to go pretty high to do that. Alternative would be to offset it to one side, make a second bracket under your bumper for additional support, then you can swing stuff through the tailgate area (tailgate has to be off of course). Would be cool to be able to yank a motor out of something in the middle of nowhere and set it right in your truck. If you make it hitch mounted and easy to swap around, you and your buddies will get plenty of use out of it in your lifetime! Dammit now I want one!

 

[eric_1984ttype]

I was thinking about putting an outrigger under it. I hadn't thought about moving it off to the side of the bed but had thought about making it long enough for the tailgate to drop but that would be way out there. I'll have to take a good look at the truck and what options I think would work best.

 

[INEEDAGN]

Most tailgates come off without using tools, I wouldn't engineer it that far out I'd just remove the tailgate.