Pickup truck crane for dinghy lift?

I know I know i'm a cheap SOB, I know it will probably rust over time but if it lasts one year it would be worth it(1/10th the price). Setup to lift 1,000lbs.

I'd paint it white so it wouldn't be so ugly/out of place(also might help with rust).. I'd also replace the cable with nylon straps.
It would only be lifting a 100lb 9.4 water tender dinghy...

Not a bad Idea for on the cheap butI think I would powdercoat it

My land home is just North of you in Thomasville our local powdercoat guy has done items for us in that size range for under $75 now I do my own we bought a cheap powedercoat system

POR15 works.

That winch will take a million more urns to lift your dinghy and you will have to be very cautious putting the dinghy in the water as the handle can get quite a velocity if you let it go. Change the cable to amsteel.

Greetings,
Mr. MrW. I'll second Mr. X's POR-15. MY first concern is a secure mount point. Looks like the boom is extendable (6' to 8' maybe?) and I can't remember, if I ever knew, what torque the weight of a dinghy would put on the mounting area. Add in potential rough sees and the forces could be quite high.

The spool is likely not big enough for the length of cable you need, but more likely it’s going to be a rusted up winch in two years. Cheap is one thing but value is more important.

could you mount an anchor windlass on the back end of your flybridge ??

Put your back into it man! I lift my inflatable dinghy up and over the bow rail on my 3870, it's good exercise

Dinghy davits on pleasure boats usually go thru the deck and the base mounts onto a stringer or to the hull. Where it penetrates the deck there is a collar that supports the side loading of the unit. The pictured crane mounts flat with a base plate and would more than likely rip itself out of the deck when loaded.

cool beans said:

Put you back into it man! I lift my inflatable dinghy up and over the bow rail on my 3870, it's good exercise

Dinghy davits on pleasure boats usually go thru the deck and the base mounts onto a stringer or to the hull. Where it penetrates the deck there is a collar that supports the side loading of the unit. The pictured crane mounts flat with a base plate and would more than likely rip itself out of the deck when loaded.

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+1

Get a fabricating shop to bend a 6 or 8’ piece of aluminum pipe, weld a nice thick plate to the bottom to screw to the deck then attach a 12v Rv winch (cheap) and use amsteel instead of steel cable. That miserable trailer winch is hard work and will rust up pretty good. I have one which I used to use to lift the outboard - no more.

Check out healhustler here on TF . He had a couple for sale that are pretty dang nice and the price is right

Xsbank said:

Get a fabricating shop to bend a 6 or 8’ piece of aluminum pipe, weld a nice thick plate to the bottom to screw to the deck then attach a 12v Rv winch (cheap) and use amsteel instead of steel cable.

Click to expand...

Anyone done this?

This is pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking of doing. For me, it would be two bent pipes, a plate mounted on the swim platform and a bracket at the top of the transom for each. I'd be able to swing them out and pull the dinghy up to around the height of the transom, or swing them flat against the stern rail when not in use.

I'd be interested in how this worked out, and the costs involved.

There will be large forces on your deck from that mounting plate shown in your picture. My davit crane does mount to the deck although the forces are horizontal rather than vertical. This is because the 4” aluminum support pipe passes through the deck to a mounting plate 3-4 feet below the deck.

wesson,

Could work. Winch strap won't corrode, but they don't always stack/roll up even, leading to jambs on the drum if the strap is narrower than flange spacing. I assume you like the collapsing feature of the boom, gets it out of the way. Make a cover for the winch too, that will reduce weathering.

You will need an intermediate support below the gunwale, assuming this will be mounted to one side or the other inside the aft cockpit, bolted to the side of the boat. That will reduce the moment load at the bottom of the mast to acceptable levels.

If on the swim platform use starboard plate to distribute the bending load to top and bottom of the platform. You'll have to evaluate the platform-to-boat mounts too. Still have to tie into the boat below the gunnel.

I designed a few jib cranes in my day. Min 6X safety factor. I think you got that covered if tied into the boat correctly. Fun to make stuff like that work!

GoneFarrell said:

wesson,

Could work. Winch strap won't corrode, but they don't always stack/roll up even, leading to jambs on the drum if the strap is narrower than flange spacing.
Y

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Yes, also as the drum diameter increases with cable build, the mechanical advantage decreases.

That thing will rust like crazy, however you coat it. And mounting pad completely inappropriate as posted above: Nowhere on deck is it going to be strong enough for a simple pad mounted crane, it must go through the deck to structure below.

I have one of these that I mount on the back of my 700# tractor and use it to raise and lower sections of my dock in years that the water is low and I want to move our boat out into deeper water. The dock sections are less than 100 pounds. If the crane is extended out further than half way, the front of the tractor will raise up off the dock. Point is the leverage is quite powerful and I don’t think that you will be able to mount it to the deck and not rip it out of the deck. All of the marine ones I have seen go through the deck and mount to the stringers or a reinforced section of the hull.

Abandoning this idea..