Bought a lathe, any ideas on unloading from pickup bed ?

[AndySomogyi]

Went out and bought a lathe, rented a truck.

The seller dropped it while moving with his hoist, and I don’t want to do the same. He ended up loading it with a tractor.

Now I need to figure out how to unload with only a HF engine hoist. And I’ve got a steep driveway.

 

[John O]

Back truck into garage, lift lathe engine hoist from rear of truck, drive truck out, slowly lower lathe to ground

 

[ttabbal]

And lift SLOWLY. Be ready to put it down and adjust the lift point, which will probably be very close to the headstock for balance. It might help to push the tailstock to the end of the bed and lock it to help balance it. I found lifting a couple of inches and pushing on both ends to test the balance helped make sure there are no surprises. I also found it helped to secure it so the straps and such can't move. Once it starts tipping, gravity tends to make the lift strap slide around.

Having the arm on the hoist at the lower positions helps with control, but probably won't give you enough height to get it off the truck, but it's worth mentioning.

I think your mill is missing a couple of parts there... might want to look into it.

 

[Packard V8]

Back truck into garage, lift lathe engine hoist from rear of truck, drive truck out, slowly lower lathe to ground

BTDT and trying to use that type hoist, when the boom was extended full length, it no longer had the lift capacity to pick my lathe. That hoist is also unstable when the boom is extended to the max. Your results may vary.

jack vines

 

[AndySomogyi]

BTDT and trying to use that type hoist, when the boom was extended full length, it no longer had the lift capacity to pick my lathe. That hoist is also unstable when the boom is extended to the max. Your results may vary.

jack vines

I agree, that hoist is OK for most of the stuff I work on (vintage Datsuns and VWs), but is unstable AF moving machine tools.

I'm not sure if I should try to pull the tailgate or not. This new Chevy is just plain stupid, because there does not seem to be any easy way to pull the tailgate, it's got a dumb electronic lock, and no quick-disconnect for the electrics. My old 1979 Chevy, all you had to do is lift the tailgate half-way, flip the latches, and pops off in 30 seconds.

 

[Lo-Fi]

Lift it with the hoist and drive the truck out from underneath it, then let the hoist down.
A neat trick with the hoist on gradients is to lift the machine just off the floor, push it uphill as far as the straps will permit (longer straps help here), let it down, reposition and chock the hoist, raise, rinse and repeat. It's slow, but far safer than trying to roll it on the hoist.

 

[FOMOGO]

Tie off to something in the garage with a chain or strap at the appropriate height, back truck in, attach strap to lathe and slowly pull the truck forward pulling the lathe to the edge of the tailgate to get good position for the crane. That's a fairly small lathe should be pretty straight forward. Mike

 

[mickri]

Take the lathe apart. That's what I did when I got my lathe. I took everything off of the lathe until I was down to the head stock and bed. All of the parts I took off went into the bed first. Then the bed and head stock. Last in was the stand. When I got home I backed into my garage. The stand came out first. Then came the bed and head stock which I slid onto the stand. The height of the stand was close enough to the height of the bed of my truck that I was able to move everything by hand. Moved the stand with the bed and head stock into position in the garage with a HF furniture dolly. Used a floor jack to lift the stand off of the dolly Then reassembled the all the stuff I took off.

 

[MikeInOr]

It looks like that lathe is going to be VERY top heavy so it is going to want to roll over when you have it in the air. I would use the cherry picker on one end then man handle the tail end by hand. Rig the straps around the head of the lathe to keep it from rolling over. You really need 2 points of lifting to keep everything under control with a top heavy load. Do you have any help? Even if it is just to operate the cherry picker or drive the truck out from under the lathe?

Remove the tail stock to reduce the weight. The carriage can be moved back and forth on the ways to help balance the load... but you really need to control the roll with the lifting straps. With the carriage moved to the head of the lathe the cherry picker lifting the head of the lathe will lift the majority of the weight of the carriage and the tail of the lathe should be pretty lite.

Was there any damage when the lathe was dropped while loading? Did the lathe roll when it was being lifted by the cherry picker while it was being loaded?

 

[AndySomogyi]

Lift it with the hoist and drive the truck out from underneath it, then let the hoist down.
A neat trick with the hoist on gradients is to lift the machine just off the floor, push it uphill as far as the straps will permit (longer straps help here), let it down, reposition and chock the hoist, raise, rinse and repeat. It's slow, but far safer than trying to roll it on the hoist.

That’s a great idea. Your idea just inspired a variation of it, where you can put the item on the ground, looses up the straps, push hoist uphill, wedge the hoist and lift, this should inch and drag the item uphill.