Scissors Hoist

Fawteen

Well-known Member
Location
Downeast Maine
The dump trailer I built is something of a disappointment in terms of lifting capacity.

I know why that is (leverage, comma, lack therof) and I expect the solution is a scissors-type lift.

Kits are insanely expensive and I already have a suitable cylinder, so I'd like to fabricate my own. I have spent a couple of hours searching for plans or design criteria on the internet and come up with essentially zip.

Can anybody point me to some data or share their personal experience?

Ideally, I'd like to raise a rear-hinged 8 foot box to a 45º angle and lift a ton.
 
Look around, I got a elec. over hyd scissor lift frao a I ton dump off craigs list for $250, unfortunately some @#*&% stole it from my shop before I could use it but that is another story.
 
Most tractor salvages and tractor jockey type places have old wagon hoists in the $100.00= $250.00 range. they will do what you want and be much easier. You can watch for them on farm auctions too.
 
You might get lucky and find a good used wagon hoist somewhere that would be right for the job. The ones that we had are still on the wagons but my brother only uses them for flatbeds to haul fire wood; doesn't use the hoists at all. I think that there would be some wagon hoists available closer to you.

They weren't all that expensive when we put them on the wagons back in the 50's.
 
Take a look at the big boy dump set ups and go that way and you will never look back. The big dump trucks use a long 2 -4 stage cylinder and some are in the 15 plus yard load boxes. The scissor lift has it limits and you never see them on the big stuff. If you where close to me I have a pair of 2 stage cylinders that would work real well
 
I'd do what Dick2 said and watch for a wagon hoist. In some parts they are called bolster hoists but in any event you should be able to find one cheap enough that you wont build one. Last two I bought were $50 and $65.

I just typed "bolster hoist" into Google images and there was enough patent drawing and other images there to get you going in the right direction to build one.
 
The saleseman I bought my dump trailer from told me the advantage of the scissor hoist was faster lifting, not higher capacity. I'm not sure if that was just sales talk or not, but I ended up with a non-scissor hoist and have been happy with it for 10 years.

Ben
 
I bought a used platform dump to use on the farm called a rocker and roller setup. There were two segments of a circle attached to the bed hanging down. There was a shaft on the end of the horizontal piston with four rollers on it. The two middle ones pushed against the rockers and the two outside ones rode on a pair of tracks. Powerful and simple, if you can figure out how to make the rockers.
 
Scissors would more than likely need to be engineered for the application. Distance to fulcrum point, available mounting points, lift height, lateral stability, available room, etc. would all dictate the design of the scissors. You would be money ahead buying a new (or different) trailer.
 
14k corn-pro trailers come with a sicssor hoist. Every trailer I've seen smaller than that uses one or two cylinders.

I purchased a 10k, 6x10 ft dump. It used 2 cylinders, one on each side, and works great. Angle is either 45 degrees or close to it. Mine seems to work slowly, but it has never failed to lift anything I've put in it. I'm sure I've had it overload a time or two. Not sure that an angle less than 45 would always dump dirt.

How many cylinders are you using?
 
A 5" cylinder? I think that might be a bit of overkill, I'm only lifting a 4x8 home made trailer bed.

I'm in Eastern Coastal Maine, pretty far from most anywhere.
 
Like this one?
a112031.jpg
 
If your "suitable cylinder" is the same one you're using to lift the dump bed now, you're going to be sorely disappointed after going to all the trouble of fabricating a scissors lift for it.

A scissors lift gives you LESS leverage than a straight-on cylinder. That's why you see them with 5" cylinders.
 

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