Cheap loco Hydrolic lift i just bought new

I did my back in after humping my friends Loco the weekend so decided i needed an hydraulic lift.

Looked in Machine mart £300 thought ouch.

Had a look on EBay found a new motorcycle Hydraulic lift 130 kg for £59

more my price.

So ordered came next day well impressed decided to weld two pieces of angle iron on the feet four caster wheels and now i can move loco's around makes loading easy so thought i would share in case it helps any one else the same.

Ron

The scissors on those devices is worryingly narrow when extended so stability when extended may not be of the best. I'd not risk moving the unit around on those castors unless it were fully retracted. I assume the rails are bolted to the top. Probably a good idea to have brakes on the castors along with anti roll off devices on the rails.

Personally I'd have jack up type castors and adjustable supports going right down to the ground under the rails so it could be settled firmly before moving the loco. Probably overkill but the damage if the loco does fall off at full extension is likely to be considerable. As is the time taken to repair it. When it comes to heavy objects and gravity I'm a seriously untrusting soul!

Clive

Well said Clive, I had the same degree of unease about it, the overhang on the rails was something else that struck me.

Brian

Sure you don't mean 1.30kg ?

It's the old adage, you only get what you pay for and interesting to note that you value the safety of your model which must have cost a fair bit in time and materials at less that £250

You might think it's not stable but it his built to Hold Motorbikes and is ce marked for 130 kg.

I would not dream of risking my Loco on it if i was at all unsure about how safe it was.

I was only going to use the Lift to work on the Loco till i saw how heavy it was made and how sturdy it was.

If you think how heavy a motorbike is and being a lot taller than a loco then you might understand how well it's made.

And yes the wheels do have brakes fitted and if anyone would like to see just how well it's made please your welcome to come and see if you near west Midlands.

The Model engineers who i know who also thought it would never be any good came and had a look one has already ordered one for himself.

Why do so many always think anything new is no good not that some one has a good idea obviously if these as i say lift a Motorcycle this high safely then a Loco that is lighter lower shorter get my drift.

All strictly legal, even muffin the mule was legal and that back in the 50's 

I'm curious as to how you'd lift a full size motorcycle on it, irrespective of it's lifting capacity the top surface doesn't appear large enough ?

Hi Ron

Nice idea. And if it works for you then it is correct, and bugger what anyone else says. That said I welcome negative comments as it makes me aware of things I may not have considered.

I'll throw in something about castors. I recently made a dolly with four castors to temporarily move a 163kg machine about. Like a fool I installed 4 castors rated at 50kg each, thinking that would give me 200kg for the dolly (and it did when all was static). The dolly worked well and I could push the machine around without problem. Disaster struck when I went over a small step in the floor. Two or three of the wheels lifted, putting up to 163kg on one castor. Needless to say the castor wheel broke and caused me all sorts of problems. I installed new castors rated at 200kg each and all's right in the world.

Steve

Nice find. Why do people immediately think a contributor is to thick not to understand about top heavy loads, overhang, wheel brakes etc?

I store my loco on a low level Dexion trolley with wooden top inside and transter to a lift beside the car to avoid having to find a neighbour to help me lift it. (sad so many of them now have bad backs). However the flat plate of the lift is very awkward access for dropping the grate and covering with dirt from a clean down.
So I recently got a folding workbench and have initially built it with the movable 'jaw' attached further out so it can be set to 5 in or 3 1/2 or 2 1/2 gap. After proof of concept this will now be replaced by bent metal angle iron rails (gentle corner compared to proper angle iron). This will be impervious to oil dirt ash from cleaning, easy access to undersides, folds away after use.

The Toolstation one is only £17 compared to some others at £29 (last one I got was only £10 - was it that long ago?) Side by side you can see the difference. 20mm sq legs instead of 25, 2 inches narrower, 1cm shorter, compressed paper top etc. However it is adequate for the temporarty job it does. I would not bother with the cheap one as a workbench. The expensive one is fine as a permanent loco store if you have a lift to get it up there.

edit: obviously talking about Simplex sized loco here, not a pacific.

Edited By Bazyle on 16/07/2015 09:50:47

It's designed to to lift on the flat lower frame rail area of trials/motocross types that are very light and don't have stuff like centre stands in the way, but you should strap it as well to make it secure. The vast majority of road type bikes easily exceed it's 130kg capacity.

Edited By Mick Berrisford on 16/07/2015 09:53:17

Thanks, I was just curious as to how you'd fix a bike down to it and get the stability.

Forgot to add yes it is Bolted to the top so very safe

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I think even a Honda CG 125 is getting close to that limit.!

I would not be over confident on putting anything more than a kids mini 50cc pit bike or quad on it. Even then I would be careful of the balance point.

I see though you are aware of this and increased the foot print by extending the out riggers.

Regards, Nick

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... But a decent modern Trials bike is about 70kg

MichaelG.