Chain Hoist

Yesterday, wife and I drove up to our youngest son's place, he invited us up for a grilled steak meal, something about Mother's Day.

Somehow, later in the afternoon, the discussion got around to tools and how expensive they were.

He is a mechanical engineer, 42 years old, making more money in one year than I ever did in 5, but, that is ok with me, he is the one with the degrees in math and physics.

Anyway, we got around to talking about tools that I owned that I have not used for several years, one being my chain hoist.

I bought it in 1970 to lift the engine out of my 1965 Impala Super Sport, the car I still had until I gave it to him last fall and he is now putting disk brakes on and lots of other small upgrades.

For some reason that I do not remember, we were talking about what style of chain hoist I had, he did not remember ever seeing it.

I told him that I had one that had two pulleys at the top, one at the bottom and one long continuous chain.

He had no idea what I was talking about.

We went to his computer, I was going to show him a picture of that style chain hoist.

We could not find one.

The current day chain hoists all seem to have a single 10 foot length of chain with a hook on one end, then some kind of gear mechanism that is powered with either a lever, a lightweight chain, or maybe an electric motor.

Well, we finally found some pictures of hoists like mine, but, it disturbs me greatly that they use the words "Vintage" and "Barn Find" in the descriptions.

What happened to being able to go down to the local hardware store and buying a chain hoist that was like my dad had and my grandpa?

The pictures were on an ebay site, if you scroll part way down there are 4 pictures of chain hoists like mine.

They are on the ebay site at:

https://www.ebay.com/p/?iid=252917533506&lpid=82&&&ul_noapp=true&chn=ps

I suppose it is another one of those things I do not like, a sign of the times, things change and I looked for a while and could not find a new "Old Style" chain hoist anywhere on the internet this morning.

I bet that the majority of all the members here own one of these and never considered that things evolve and now tools like my chain hoist that I bought in 1970 are now considered "Vintage".

I think a lot of us now qualify as "vintage"!

I have 2 of the gear type, one at each house. Gave one of the block and tackle type to a neighbor. Came with the vaction house. Like the gear type better, more reduction so easier to lift heavier things.

The one you linked to does have a gear box.

I thought you were talking about one like this.

A truly ingenious device, whoever thought of this had a good mind for things mechanical!
Diferential Hoist

I think they are frowned upon by the safety types these days. Biggest problem with those old hoists was you either had a pile of chain on the floor, or needed a step ladder to reach the tiny loop that was left. But they did work.

steve, i have one like that in the barn, also have a spur gear block and tackle. makes ya feel old when they call em vintage!!!.

Growing up we had plenty of the differential type. They worked but I sure like my newer lever and geared type ones better. For one thing they are much shorter headroom, also the loop of chain is constant length rather than too small to grab at the top too piled up on the floor and dragging on the item your lifting. Also they don't tangle as easily and are much easier to use portable

I still have one myself, hanging on the A-frame in my old shop. I have pulled and installed a many engine with that thing. I last worked out of that shop in 1985. Yea, speaking of vintage , I am getting their for sure, me and my tools.. LOL...

Steve, I referenced that page because it had pictures on it of the type of hoist I have, but, not the one being offered on that page.

If you re-read my original message, I said if you scroll down on that page you will see the type I have.

The pictures are listed under, "Similar Items".

You are right, "A truly ingenious device...", they worked wonderfully well for what they were, I did fight with the, "pile of chain on the floor" and not being able to reach the chain when the hook was close to the floor without using a stepladder, just like has been said here already, but, that was the way it was, and we liked it.

It is still amazing to me that they are, "Old School" now, and my son was going to take pictures of it to work to show his engineering friends, he didn't think there would be a one of them who has ever seen one, nor would know immediately how it would work.

Cassette tapes are old school now also! :shock:

I have one of the old style. A Craftsman my Dad bought in early 60's. It has been kept out of the weather all these years.neighbors use to keep it borrowed all the time and he had to run it down when he needed it. I found a note wrote on the dairy barn wall telling who borrowed what and when. I reckon that was one way to keep up with it.

I have a 1/4 ton and use it a lot. I can put it wherever I need it in the shed with just a 4x4 across the truss chords. I usually keep in in the center of the big door to get stuff on or off the truck. Just have to be careful with the hands when the hook is low and the loop short.

Harbor Freight still sells manual chain hoists, but with a large pulley at the top and no pulley at the bottom. The one that we had in the shop at the farm has a pulley on each end.

A differential hoist, or also known as a chinese windlass.

Growing up in the 50s the only thing we had to lift things was the "wire stretcher"...rope block and tackle. Fixed fence, lifted engines from the WCs for overhaul. Never had a chain hoist, or what was recently called a fall hoist. Now, I have at least 4, including a 2 ton on a pivoting hoist I made for the shop. Has a second hoist on a jib crane on the main hoist.

We always called them "chainfalls".

John,
I have two chainfalls. One is rated at 1000#, the other is 4000#, it so heavy I can hardly lift it, not to mention it's takes forever to lift something. Haven't used it in 30 years. geo

The prim and proper name for them is a differential chain hoist.

Last year I bought a John Deere 412 plow from a local guy and brought it home on my trailer. I dug around in the bottom of my tool shed and pulled out the old 1000 lb chainfall that I inherited from my dad. Had not been out of there in 30 years. That thing must weigh 100 pounds and I just about busted something getting it up onto a tree limb to lift off the plow!. It worked, but Momma didn't like the new lawn ornament so I had to move it into the shed. This time I used a heavy duty come-a-long. It was a breeze to get it hooked onto the tree limb and it lifted the plow like nothing. I think the chainfall should go overboard somewhere--it would make a great boat anchor. It works, but modern technology has just about made it obsolete.

The thing about a chain hoist is you can lift something .010 inch, you can't do that with a come-a-long, there are uses for both. I have a 1 ton on a dolly and beam in my shop, wouldn't be without it.

(quoted from post at 04:03:08 05/16/17) We always called them "chainfalls".

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Same here. The ones with the Chinese Windlass design were called "chainfall" or "chain fall."

"Chain fall" and "chain hoist" were always two separate tools. Chain hosts were the ones with the two separate chains.