Tirfor, Grip Hoist, Wire Pulling hoist

[freejuice]

Well if falls under many names.

I broke down and bought a 3.2 ton rating at Northern Tool: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200419695_200419695

 For those who like to hand raise their towers

I had them deliver it to the store, so I wouldn't eat the 60 dollar shipping fee.
 Well the whole box must weigh in at LEAST 100 lbs.
Of course its made in China, but they did a pretty good job...its very robust...it kind of reminds me of how Russian tractors are made ( 3/4 inch bolts everywhere )

The cable is 5/8 with a good hook attached to it....for the money I dont think any of your folks will go wrong with the purchase of one of these things...especially at 229 dollars.

The handle is two piece with a spring detent for locking them in place and the businees end of it appears to be about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 in diameter the whole handle is about 4-1/2 feet long.
The wire cable guide bushing is robust and machined well and all the internals look well made and ....again, robust.
 The cross pin which you would attach your anchor point to is about 1-1/4 diameter. the side panels apper to be about 3/8 of an inch thick and the cable puller alone without the cable probably weighs in at 60-70 lbs.
 I found myself after unpaking it, I was moving the cable then I would move the cable puller...its just too much for me to carry both at the same time.
 I have never been a big fan of Chinese items because of shoddy workmanship and products wreaking of "cheap", but it look's like the pulled off a good one in this wire cable hoist!

 I also see Northern selling them on ebay too.

[SparWeb]

Thanks for the review.

I look forward to part II, when you have put it to use, too.

[TomW]

This unit is only rated at 1500# but it is easy enough to carry. Plus nice and smooth. Takes up 2" per cycle of the handle no wasted motion every motion of the handle pulls line. Never used one before so I assume they all work the same. One handle feeds the the other pulls. Nice, easy to operate. Idiot Proof, too you cannot freewheel the cable with a load. You can feed cable through to get set without pumping the handle by activating a lever that locks it "open" to pull the cable through freely.

Chinese made but seems well built and sure worked on my 10 footer 4 leg tower.

I really like the any length of cable you need way it works. It came with 60 feet on that spool.



Wish I had gone for a bigger one and wish I had discovered these earlier.

Tom

[97fishmt]

I'm glad it's catching on. I have the TU-28 4000# made in the US.
All we had to do was listen to Paul Gipe and Hugh Piggott
years ago.  I've had mine for a year and my tower goes up
and down about 4 times a month tweeking and changing
setups.  I bought a 200' spool of 7/16"cable and a couple pulley
blocks to do just about anything. I love it.  

[freejuice]

Yea I love those devices. I was using a vehicle and a chain fall to raise the tower, but the mechanical advantage of the griphoist makes it easier than a chain fall!
 Tom, that grip hoist you have there could lift about anything with a few snatch blocks. I dont know what I was thinking I could have gotten one a bit smaller and cheaper and added some snatch blocks if need be. Now I need an elephant to move this thing around

 On the 17 foot tower upgrade I added 20 more feet of gin pole...now to get the tower to tilt down takes a bit more effort than whe the gin pole was 20 feet....but up or down those grip hoists make things nice.
 Plus I like the idea of not being dependant on electricity to raise or lower it.
 Let's say, I knew a hurricane was rolling in like Hugo did in 1989 when it pushed into the upstate of South Carolina, I could go out there and have it on the ground in 20 mins easy.
 Since the gin pole is longer, I'm thinking of adding a cable or heavy rope to the tower just below the blade tips to help tilt the tower when starting it down....in a one man operation I could give about 2-3 strokes of slack in the griphoist cable and tighten up the lowering rope and 2-3 more strokes of slack...back and forth at this deal until it "toggles" over overcoming the weight of the gin pole.

[97fishmt]

That's how I do it.  I use a boat winch to get it past vertical. 
It takes a few back and forth movements to get the weight
coming down with the griphoist.

I'm also a one man show, but with no worries .

[TomW]

I use a boat winch loaded with rope. When I am lowering I just put a good stretch on the rope via a pulley so the boat winch is by the hoist winch.

Kind of acts like a shock absorber on the raising too. Set right the rope just stretches as it goes the last few feet over center. Works treat.

The gin pole tends to want to pull it over center anyway.

I am not very mobile these days so steps matter!

Tom

[freejuice]

Boat winch! I like that!
 You guys are the greatest!

[SparWeb]

I use a boat winch loaded with rope. When I am lowering I just put a good stretch on the rope via a pulley so the boat winch is by the hoist winch.
Kind of acts like a shock absorber on the raising too. Set right the rope just stretches as it goes the last few feet over center. Works treat.
Tom

Oh I need to do that.  Last time I brought the tower up, I cranked the winch up to the balance point, then grabbed the end of the gin pole and lowered it manually (bringing the tower the last couple of feet to vertical).  It's a brutish way to handle 1200 pounds of steel.