Garage is officially down. Poor man's elevator questions.
 

Finished taking the termite damaged 50ish year old beast down today (or at least apart as it came down with a bang on Thursday). Since it is a non-conforming existing structure I'm rebuilding it on the same 10 3/4 x 19 1/2 footers but I'm putting a second story on it. so I can store spare engines, my tools, compressor and welder up there. Problem is as you can imagine I don't have much room for stairs (will be putting in a ladder). Trying to come up with a lift set up that I can easily and safely raise things up to the size of a motorcycle to the second floor. I'm looking at putting a nice strong steel rafter tie in and have a sliding electric harbor freight hoist put on it with a 4x8 hole in the floor. Any other ideas out there in cheap land?

Ben,
So, no stairs, but you want to put stuff on a second floor....why not go with the "old school" barn approach? Run a doubled up 2x12 or 2x16 as your ridge beam (having it extend out from the garage ~4 feet) and put an extremly heavy duty pulley on it. Then you'll just need an access door in the side of the second floor that you can open when you hoist stuff up.
-Bill

Can't as its too close to the property line as it is. I said it'll have a ladder.:D

Bah, just carry engines and trannies up on your back, or toss them up to someone. Good exercise.:D

Alright, have the "extension" on rollers under the main ridge beam so you can extend it when you need to hoist things up:rolleyes: ;)
-Bill

Sorry I carried an SVX engine last weekend by myself, it wasn't a lot of fun.:D

Well I don't really have a ridge beam as it isn't part of the design, I'm also not so sure a rolling one would yank a 500lbs motorcycle up and down real well and let it slide into the structure.:D

Okay, so how about a steel I-beam that you could bolt an extension to when you wanted to hoist things up. As far as the "rolling" part is concerned, I was thinking of a trolley like overhead cranes use. I still think a door opening into the second floor is the only way to go, given the lack of room you have.
-Bill

I have considered building a platform, attatching a 12 v low buck winch to it and using that to do what my 50+ year old back cannot!
I would use (2) 2" pipes attatched to floor and ceiling to keep the platform from twisting in the wind.
Works in MY twisted mind.....

Ah but that makes heating tougher as how many cycle size doors that look acceptable on a 2nd floor vinyl building are there. I also can't or won't "finish" all of the second floor since that would put me over the 400 sq ft threshold for inspections which would then in turn cost me an additional $1500 in permitting and engineered drawings so it is a space that won't be used anyways plus I can "use it" with some nice 1/4 inch steel doors if it is a pass through!;)

Okay, so frame out a "cycle-size" section of the side of the 2nd floor so you can just unbolt/remove the section when you hoist stuff up. You could insulate the section and just move the insulation around when you have to get to the bolts (just double up 2x4s and run the bolts through them).
-Bill