Buying an old (1974) GMC motorhome seems to have been the start of a journey down the rabbit hole. Maybe there will be a more complete story about that later. Known issues at purchase: Black tank destroyed and needs replacement - and replace all the flexible fuel lines as they were probably OEM and not happy with ethanol-laced fuel. So an R&R of two fuel tanks was likely in my immediate future.
These motorhomes have low ground clearance to start with and at my age it's not as much fun scooting around under vehicles on a creeper as it used to be - plus a bit of a clearance issue with my 36DD's, so I now had a good excuse to get a car lift. 4-Post. 14,000 capacity. Badass indeed.
I figured it would be cheaper in the long run to have my own lift instead of renting one - and none suitable were available close by anyway. It's amazing how one can rationalize the acquisition of a new tool, isn't it?
So after watching craigslist for about 6 months and finding nothing over and over again - I ordered a Bendpak.
It was shipped to our local NAPA store (they saved me a bit of $$$ versus ordering direct from Bendpak) because the delivery truck couldn't get up my driveway and unload in the available space. 17 feet long, 23 inches wide and 3 feet high, weight about 2,300 pounds. Not gigantic but awkward to handle.
The original plan was to have a rollback tow truck just slide it onto their truck bed and then slide it off at the house.
Looking at the delivered package, consisting of angle iron brackets at the ends, it was apparent that this baby wouldn't 'slide' in any conventional sense of the term. Visions of 'stuck' were abundant.
So, I rummaged around in the 'stuff' and came up with some large-ish casters (6" Bassicks) and a couple of pieces of 3/8" x 5" steel bar stock.
The bar stock pieces were about 35 inches long (good news because it would give the package a wider stance and less likelihood of tipping over when we moved it) - so I marked spots for the casters to bolt on, other spots for through bolts to clamp to, a bit of punching and shearing on the ironworker - and voila! a pair of accessory bolt-on rollers.
And the transfer went very smoothly - the whole megillah pulled smoothly up onto the rollback, and rolled right off at the house.
I love it when a plan comes together! Next step: Assemble the lift. Oh my aching back!