Hoist: amzn.to/3uXQmpN - Trolley: amzn.to/3RFlEKR - Clamp Bracket: amzn.to/46SudX7 - Gusset Brackets: amzn.to/3REYMev -Lifting Net: amzn.to/46WetT9 Unistrut: amzn.to/48f4Bor

Just remember to buy a hoist and not a winch. A hoist is designed to lift, a winch is for pulling.

As someone that has a license to and has operated many overhead/bridge cranes, I'd suggest a few things to give you a better overall experience. 1. Spread some grease inside the Uni-Strut where the bearings are rolling on it. Your bearings are rolling freely now, but after a few months of use, those bearings will start to dig into the steel. Over time there will be grooves, humps/valleys etc., and as you roll over them, your trolly will stop abruptly and your load will swing. Heavy grease will lessen the amount of damage to the steel. 2. I would move the Uni-Strut at least 8 inches, if not a full foot more toward the outside wall/garage door. As you have seen already, when you lift a load that is not square, the longer piece of the load is going to catch on the edge of the ceiling or railing. 3. Always have some sort of tag line on the load, This will allow you to have more control of the load as it is lifted/lowered and should you need to rotate it, you will be able to use the tag line to do so. Use the tag line on the load as well as the tag line on the trolly as you move it laterally. This will allow more control and stop any swinging or sudden stops. 4. I realize that your winch is capable of lifting 1k lbs., but have you tested the tensile strength of the Uni-Strut to make sure that it will not open up or flex while it is under a heavy load? If it were to sag or flex, then it is quite possible that it will open and allow the bearings to fall. I agree that you would be better adding more 2 x 6's, almost doubling them, to prevent the sag/flex. 5. If it is possible, get another piece of Uni-Strut and attach it to the end of the one you have now. You should be able to move the trolly laterally so that your load will be at least 3 feet away from the edge. 6. Speaking of the edge, you need to have either a net or a sturdy gate that you can close/secure once you have lifted the load, BEFORE you try to disconnect the load from the hook. This will prevent anyone/thing from falling, should the load become unsteady/unsecure once it is lowered onto the upper floor space and unhooked.

I built an elevator for my house with one of these 15 years ago. It was nothing more than a hundred-dollar Harbor Freight special It worked flawlessly the whole time and was working when I sold the house.

You are one of the most valuable sources of information on KZfaq! As always, thank you for an honest and thorough review of products.

Might want to consider adding stop blocks to each end of the Unistrut to prevent the trolley from running out too far. They're commercially available or you could just fabricate something. Video was really well done and informative.

The hoist trolley is a game changer. I would also add more unistrut for a longer track to save time and labor especially with heavier items. 👍

Fantastic, thanks. I’ve been trying to design something like this for years and you’ve answered some longstanding questions. Besides lifting into the attic I’ll be lifting snow tires into a rack.

Viewers should be careful they understand their structure and its design before cutting joists or hanging anything from rafters. Our garage was spec’ed with attic trusses. After looking at KZfaq hoists/elevators I consulted a structural engineer-she required extensive mods to the structure in order to cut any bottom chords (equivalent to joists). I’m now going a different route with vertical steel I-beam supports from floor to top chord, sort of like the Galaxy lifts.

I honestly find your channel very underrated, you’ve learned me enough, make good videos, are very good at explaining stuff and you are a great recourse of knowledge for every homeowner out there.

Exactly what i plan to do with my shop! I left a 4' section of the ridge beam sticking out the front of my shop and placed a 3x5' door diectly under it. Opens to allow the trolly system to slide into the shop. Intention was to pick-up a pallet, so really a little over 2' would have worked. I can pick the load up even with the attic and slide items off the pallet, right onto the the upper floor. Or as you've shown, slide the cargo net load directly into the attic. Excellent video!

I have one of these in my garage, I have a near identical garage setup also. I just did the lift and manually pull it over to the floor once high enough. I've been meaning to get that trolly setup for awhile but just havent gotten to it yet. Ive been using my setup for about 2 years now without issue. I also got a couple bullies setup up down stairs and roller so that I can pay out a bunch of wire and use the hoist downstairs to lift things out of the back of my truck all from the same hoist. I can also pull things if I need to, I used it once to pull our jeep into the garage that dies just as we were getting ready to pull it into the garage before a hurricane hit, rather then try to fix it outside with rain and wind sporadically hitting us I just hooked the hoist to the bumper and pulled it in the garage.

Really Love finding Inspirational Videos like this. Thank You for showing us!

I was literally looking for something exactly like this for my attic, thank you so much for the great idea!

Rigging in a shipyard requires a small length of rope tied to object being lifted. This allows a helper to control to load from swinging wildly

Another thing you could do to strengthen your trusses. I use to work for a company that built trusses for homes and other buildings. Many trusses have a web between the roof part of the truss and the bottom made out of 2x4’s angled usually close to a 45 angle. Find the center of the 2x4 on each end and cut a 45 from the center on both sides. You can cut one end, then put in place on the top roof part and then mark the bottom using the lower part of the truss. What you want to end up with resembles a W OR at least a V between your truss. Then use some 1/2 plywood or thicker if you prefer? The truss company uses metal square cleats that’s pressed on both sides of the truss on every joint where the web touches the top and bottom of the truss and then ran thru a press to sink the metal cleats into the wood. Obviously you’re not going to have that option! But a good piece of plywood on both sides of your truss where they meet the top and bottom of your existing truss will do the job fine if you glue it to the truss on both sides and just a nail here and there to hold it in place. Once the glue dries it’s stronger then the 2x4’s themselves and you won’t have to worry about those trusses plotting on you! I do something similar on the ends of the trusses where you put those grade 8 bolts. Believe it or not the glued plywood to the trusses are a lot stronger than those bolts in the trusses and no chance of the trusses splitting on you! Think of it as a laminated beam that’s made for longer distances without a support beam underneath to keep the beam from bowing or breaking! The trusses themselves aren’t glued at the joints unfortunately, they be a lot stronger if they were! But adding the plywood glued to the trusses will make a huge difference in strength! With lifting huge amounts of weight, I rather go over kill then be sorry when something goes wrong and costs you a fortune to replace it! Sometimes it may hold up fine in the beginning, but after numerous uses sometimes the wood will get fatigue over time and break when you least expect it to happen!

Love these one off videos u would think people would not watch, but in reality they are educational and entertaining

A longer track would allow you to move the bulkier items and save time versus manual movement. Also, Unistrut can be curved with different radius which might be helpful. At one of the places I have worked they had a monorail lift with a track switch. It made it super easy and efficient to move around heavy items. Your price and ingenuity are awesome!

Just wanted to chime in on the pool chems. Keep any sanitizers outside in a deck box or similar. Otherwise they will cause things in that area to rust over time, no matter how well you think you've sealed the container.

Attach a line to the item being lifted, to be held by the operator or someone else. Tension on this line can prevent the load from twisting and can be used to exert some control to the load as its being lifted (it could prevent it from hitting your handrails)

WOW, what a magnificent attic!

Very well done!!!

Man your attic is awesome! Great vid.

I think it will be plenty strong for the weight of items you are lifting. When I was 14 I lifted a chevy 396 with a chain hoist supported by a single 10 ft 2x6. Not a smart move, I know, but I was amazed how much weight a 2x6 on edge can support.

It’s so funny you just did this - I’m an avid watcher and I’ve been researching this for MONTHS.

This looks like a great install. Someone else may have mentioned it, but you might want to run a few strongbacks along the top of those collar ties to help distribute the load.

That attic is epic!

Those are collar ties not studs...still a great install

Ive got what must be a commercial grade hoist in my boathouse from the 50's. Its complicated because one motor spools two Cales running fore and aft. I like the sliding channel set up with yours.

Something we did when we got items delivered to a mezzanine gate at a previous employer was to have the receiving portion gated from where you're standing to ensure that it prevents you from accidentally leaning over the mezzanine floor during the process of getting it onto the target floor. In that situation you could be tempted to reach or lean too far, leading to a bad fall. I don't really know how best to describe it, but there are some things you can do there to maximize safety. Also - Instead of drilling into the rafter tie, perhaps there's a bracket that could slide overtop of it you could mount your Unistrut to which would probably distribute the load better.

Throw end stops at each end of strut. Great video

You should have used two pieces of uni-strut one above and one below the studs instead of your gusseted brackets and drilling the structure, weakening it. Then you could have used 1/2” threaded rod to sandwich the studs. If you needed more strength you could also attach to the upper roof structure. I love your idea and I am now thinking of a similar system in my own garage.

Very well thought out. I have a similar set up in my garage and we lift adult size sport atvs into the attic of our garage

If you have trusses do not mount a hoist to them because trusses push the weight forces of the roof to the outside framing so the bottom chord is being stretched outwards horizontally and that is how they are able to use a mending plate in the middle. If you put any substantial weight in the center of a truss you will snap the truss or loosen the mending plates. If you want to lift a weight install a LVL beam or something similar that spans the distance

This is fantastic. I have an attic, and I've seen these very expensive lifts that you basically cut out a part of your ceiling and a hoist drops down a very small surface you can use to lift things up to the attic with. That'd be awesome for us since we use the attic for storing mostly holiday stuff in storage containers. I don't have a garage as large as yours, but I have a lot of height, and always thought about creating steps and effectively another level like you've done. Did you do that yourself? I'm not sure there's interest or if it's appropriate for your channel, but I'd love to hear more about how that came about, especially since you clearly put thought into things like safety, usability, and similar. Thanks as always for sharing this stuff. Man, I really like the rolling system too. Awesome!

Awesome video, thanks for sharing!

$300 parts list in description, not $100. Still a good value at $300+

That is great set up! Love that attic space 🍻

Great topic! Thank you. The trolley system is the big value add here! I'm glad you admitted that you're just going to fill the space with more junk. I hear acceptance is one of the early steps. :-)

I love the loft, wish I had that in my garage

I bought that exact same hoist for lifting up my home batteries onto a raised platform. I've tested it up to 600lbs so far without issue.

Great video! Genius set up. Appreciated the safety reminders. Can't fix stupid but you can try to help! Well done!

I actually just did something like this in my garage and it's amazing

I saw one of these setups where the unistrut with the hoist had a few trolleys on it and rode on another layer of unistruts so you could move the hoist around any direction

The best channel on the internet!!

I think The physical exercise involved in the whole process is the key! Some people like going to gyms, but I’d rather splitting logs and so so! Good exercises over weekends!

Nicely done. I was waiting for that last bold to prevent the rollers from coming out. Till then I kept cringing. 😂😂

Very Nice 👍 this is the System I initially thought of for my Attic above my Garage, but unfortunately I have Trusses and will have to add more supports when I get the Money and Time for it. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but your Videos or more Your Experience level has greatly Improved over the Years or you just saved the Slightly more involved tasks for later. I’m a Tradesman all my life, Son of a Tradesman and got Tools for Birthdays and Christmas from 9 years old and went to work with Him on Weekend’s and Holidays from 11 Years old. I’m guessing you have one of the best Houses in your Area by now.

Very cool, exactly what I was think about doing. Thank you !

nice work man

After this video a couple weeks ago, I purchased the cargo net. I’m in the middle of moving my shop and the net is a game changer for getting stuff from my loft.

Great job with adding bolts to rafters you could also beef up all the rafters with cross supports and sister in another rafters lots of ways to so this....

Really cool video!!!

The bonus feature of having it operated by remote. Is having it hidden away when your not around. No one can steal your junk😅

Lots of good tips Thank you

This is awesome!!!

Excellent video Chris. I wish I had a big attic space over my garage so I could do this!

Definitely add more 2x6s on your roof cross members. The weight you pulling can be evenly distributed across them

Nice job, great ideal.

This is really cool, when I build my saw mill I might put in a setup like that so I can lift logs on the mill.

Like the rolling system.

As ever, I have nothing helpful to add to the narrative, but everything to add to the accolades for yet another great one! You make me want to buy a new house, just to apply all of the fantastic ideas on your channel from the start. And truly, if there had been a KZfaq and a Silver Cymbal in 1992 when I moved into my house, I would have! 😊 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Friend.

Hope you added stops at the ends of the channels else the hoist could slide out! (At least didn't see/hear that before you started testing it). Great idea on upgrading all the hardware--better to have a huge safety factor with the structure over the hoist rating!

That's not an attic, that's a full blown apartment

I'll never understand people who find cheap things more important than quality & safety. Do it right or don't do it.

Excellent video ! Thank You !

Amazing video once again ! The only thing I would do different is blocking off the ends of the rail so the hoist can’t accidently fall off 👍🏼

Congratulations

what an excellent video!!!

Nice build!

I need to add the roller to mine nice idea

I have never seen those trolley rollers with the flanges. I’ll have to look into them.

I usually stand right under mine and look up to make sure its working properly. But seriously we'll done. I have a situation that can accommodate something like this but not in the center of the room and I would need to cut ceiling sheetrock and make it hidden and it would be a lot of work. Thanks for the video. Great

You can also use barn door track and dollies.

YOU are a damn GENIUS!

Maybe extending the power and remote control cables and securing them both into a cable chain could make the experience even smoother?

My father was rather handy and in our last house he made folding wooden stairs attached to a cable and a counterweight. The weight slid between the studs so there was no major issue with it swinging into the garage, and the ladder folded up and out of the way and when unfolded was cut at the halfway point at an angle to lock the correct angle in place. It lasted at least 20 years and was working when the house was sold. Combine this hoist system with that ladder and away you go.

If you were concerned about joist/truss strength you could always just add some posts from the floor up to the joist right where your railing is. That wouldn't eat up any floor space and would be fast and cheap.

Wow that's handy.

Awesome job! If anything is a weak point there, it may be that Superstrut opening up allowing the rollers to pull through. Keep the kids and yourself out from under the load for sure.

I have a ranch without a floor. I bought the harbor freight electric winch but I have not put it up yet because there's cross bracing that keeps me from running a 5 to 10 ft piece of strut. I don't think I can remove the cross bracing without compromising some integrity. I have to come up with an alternate idea as it is a low roof line being a ranch. It won't be lifting anything more than let's say 20 to 50 lb. And I use the wording cross braces loosely. It's just a piece of 1x3 or 1x4 towards the peak running across every third or fourth roof rafter.

BAD ASS !!!!.......wish my garage "attic" was that big !!!

Great idea, but don’t put a lot of faith in the unistrut. I’d be afraid of the SWL(safe working load) of the strut. But for small stuff, yep you nailed it.

Brilliant!

One word of caution, as I have one of these setups is that I noticed the motor is only attached to its red frame by two bolts. When I received the first hoist, one of the bolts had sheared off. That’s the weak point in this. I welded a little cage to surround the hoist and keep it from flying out of the red shroud. Also I mounted mine upside down under the sub floor of my loft, then mounted a pulley to the ceiling that the cable runs through. Less weight to fall down on someone’s head potentially.

Nice! Suggestion! No end caps or some type of stops on the end of the unistrut.

I LIKE IT!. Don't have a tall ceiling garage .......... but if I did, I'd be on this like white on rice!

I enjoyed the video 👍 Just an idea but the gap in the railing is a bit of a safety hazard when you aren’t using the lift. A rope or temporary railing might just save you (or someone else) one day.

I'd love to add this onto my garage one day. My suggestion would be to build a platform that you can hook into.

2:35 instead of just bolting the crossbeam to the support beam, how about installing a parallel support beam directly under the the crossbeam? As well as seeing if there's any bracing you need to add to the floor for the extra support beam It'd also be awesome if the "trolley" was motorized!

I modified one of these cheap hoists I was using as a shingle lift many years ago to have an independent fan (rather than one that runs only when the motor does). Increased the duty cycle a lot. May not be relevant in this application unless you're lifting a lot of items in a short time.

I suggest a box/platform for your items, this way they are always flat and stable. Great job.

I have had plans to make a hoist for my convertible hard top for a long time now. Could never commit because I was worried about the forces and the safety aspect. The top is only about 150lbs so this system has quite the safety margin.

Appreciate your ideas and planning for the hoist. I am going to install the same unit, in fact pretty much the exact same system in my barn here on the farm but I'm adding more cross rafters as mine are 4 foot spaced. How long is the electric cord with the AC plug? I have an outlet in the rafters but may need a short extension cord. Good video, thanks.

I would install a mezzanine gate. This would allow you the ability to not have to go over the top rail with all of that weight regardless of what it is. Just my opinion. That is a great tool to have. Be safe!

I was aware of the HF hoist but not the line of trollies - Thanks! By the way, you kept saying studs; of course we all knew what you meant but those are collar ties.

I've been using those cheap hoists for years. The motors are good but the 1/8" cable is junk and hard to find replacement for without the clear jacket which also deteriorates.

Make sure you add vertical support to those collar ties into the ridge

lovely from South Africa

I like the bracket idea but if you have rooms above your garage direct lag bolt is the only option, I suggest buying some heavy duty slightly larger washers instead of the stuff they provide it will be the best 2 bucks you ever spent