[AT] Shop lifts - OT

[drupert at seanet.com]

I don't know if I already asked this or just thought about it...

I was wondering how many had a lift in their shop and if so do you ever
find it useful when working on tractors?

aka "farmer"

I don't think I will ever be good enough for Santa to bring me a Shop
Floor Lift ... or maybe it's just that I haven't hung a big enough
stocking yet for him to stick it in.

Not to change the subject but I did get a one Ton Jib Hoist set up in the
shop a couple of years ago.  The Jib is Dayton and the Hoist and chain
Trolley are Coffing.  The reach on the Jib is 11 feet and with a 180
degree plus swing it covers the "busy part" of the shop.  There are
definitely times when a power lift underneath would be great but if I
could only have one - a power lift underneath or one overhead - I would
take the Overhead.  Of course, if I had the underneath power lift and had
used it extensively I would probably see this differently.

With the Overhead I can remove a Davis Loader from a MF-35 in ten minutes
and be driving out the door.  I don't want to try and lift the back of a
tractor with fluid in the tires but once I've jacked it up the Overhead
makes removing/reinstalling the tires a breeze ... and moving them out of
the way.  Yeah, a loader makes removing rear tires easy also but when
you're trying to remove the loader's tires ....  I have a 35 in the shop
now that I split off both the front and the back of the transmission using
the Overhead.  The Overhead made a breeze out of picking up the
transmission, holding it over the Washtub and then setting it on the
Workbench where it could be worked on w/o contorting the back (my back
that is).

The Overhead makes some of the "easy" jobs easier also.  For example, I
have a decent paint job on the Hood of my MTA and wanted to remove it, w/o
scratching it up, to check the Power Steering fluid level (the Char Lynn
reservoir mounts on the side of the Head on this tractor).  A little rope
fed underneath the Hood and through the Overhead did the trick (actually,
I'd rather have the Overhead for this job than a living breathing helper).
 I put a Belt Pulley Drive on a Farmall W9 with the Overhead by snaking it
in from above and the side (and didn't destroy the Gasket either).

Just one guy's opinion.  I am sure those who have used two/four post floor
lifts to work on tractors can probably counter with as many or more
examples of where they work better in a given situation ... I'd like to
hear them.

Dudley
Snohomish, Washington