Crane/Lift for Re-engining on the Hard

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Old Bumbulum

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My marina has no crane and the local hire company wants £300 to remove the old engine and same again to put in the new one - using a monstrous 20ton crane.
I'm struggling to find anything like a mini crane and spider cranes seem very scarce around here . (Lowestoft area)

It only needs to get 160Kg 4m up amd not as much as 3m across...anyone got any bright ideas?

Using the boom is not really an option due to the layout of the boat.
 
Our boat yard has a couple of large A frames on wheels that are perfect for that kind of job. Fitted with a block and tackle they are easily movable when required.

However, when I last took an engine in and out, I used a fork lift on both occasions. Is there one at your yard/marina?
 
A friend of mine does stage sound and lighting rigging; he offered to build an arch over the boat using lighting truss. On the day he turned up instead with a single length of truss and two wind-up speaker masts - think oversized and very sturdy camera tripods, with a crank handle on the side to raise and lower the top. He put one of these either side of the boat, with the truss running between the tops of them, and an electric hoist in the middle of the truss. The hoist was hanging from a short webbing strop over the truss, and by lightly greasing the truss we could slide the hoist along it to bring the engine out over the gunwale and then down into the back of my car parked alongside.

I'm sure you won't end up doing exactly this, but it might give ideas. There are many ways to do this job.

Pete
 
Can you put up a boom substitute? i.e. attached to the mast and long enough to go over the engine supported by the main halyard. Then a chain hoist or ratchet winch, allowing for extra propping to cope with the offcentre load . This worked for me on a 2GM20 recently, but only around 100kg
I picked a VP MD11 (220kg)out with two posts and a ratchet winch on a roller , so after lifting, it rolled sideways along under the horizontal beam over the gunnel, then down . Cost of metal tube(80x40mm, for uprights and cross beam) about €90, which got used for something else after.
 
I had this task, with boat and engine in my front yard. Lifting out the old Kubota marinised tractor engine plus flywheel was in stages.

I used a pair of steel builders' trestles over the hatchway and cockpit front well braced - with a strong boom-section square-lashed longitudinally/centred between the trestles. From this, I slung an Aldi electric hoist in 2:1 mode, to lift the engine unit first up and forward, onto short planks slipped under/across the quarter berths...

Then a re-arrangement of trestles so I could lift up/out of the companionway hatch and rearwards enough to rest on short planks across the cockpit seats.

Further re-arrangement, and using a 'sheerlegs' to one side, permitted the boom section to be supported horizontally out to that side. That quite literal 'lash up' permitted the engine to be lifted up over the coaming, slid further out to clear, then lowered to the ground.

The new engine - a Beta 14 - was much lighter and went in easier. I still have all my fingers....

That was far more complex than using a JCB, but far cheaper..... and I did have the advantage of a proper understanding of Boy Scout lashings and loadpaths.

Shoud any part of that be of interest, I'd be pleased to share.....
 
Some years ago my mate and I slid a Volvo 2020 up a aluminium ladder and onto a scaffold board across the cockpit and then we manhandled it partially using the boom forwards and down the companionway. We did it complete, but i'm sure that removing some of the ancillaries such as the gearbox and alternator would have made it easier.
 
To expand on my prev post:
Cut two of the tubes to the height you need (+ a bit..) use the rest of each length as an inverted T foot welded on. Set one up against the rail and lash it. Cut the remaining tube to the beam of the boat + space to drop the engine along side. Set up the second vertical tube and add some rope ties for and aft and fit the top cross tube that carries the weight. Assuming you have a friend with a welder (or one yourself) the whole caboodle woud take an hour to set up If you were a bit closer, you could borrow the kit.
DW
 
Hire a small scaffold tower for each side and a lattice beam to span, still going to be a few pound but should be less than the yard crane, you are not lifting much weight
 
DownWest said:
Can you put up a boom substitute? i.e. attached to the mast and long enough to go over the engine supported by the main halyard. Then a chain hoist or ratchet winch, allowing for extra propping to cope with the offcentre load . This worked for me on a 2GM20 recently, but only around 100kg
I picked a VP MD11 (220kg)out with two posts and a ratchet winch on a roller , so after lifting, it rolled sideways along under the horizontal beam over the gunnel, then down . Cost of metal tube(80x40mm, for uprights and cross beam) about €90, which got used for something else after.
Click to expand...
I've used a spinnaker pole as a derrick to lift a dinghy; that worked very well. A halliard to the end of the pole, a tackle hanging from the end of the pole and a couple of guys to control it from side to side. But it depends on there being a suitable strong point in the right location.
 
I made a simple timber frame ( cantilevered beyond the gunwale), used the mainsheet for removing the old engine , borrowed a chain hoist for lifting in the new engine.
 
As I write this, I'm in the same situation! I'm swapping engines, but have previously removed the engine a couple of times using this 'stuff'!
The main item is having a builder's plank, mine's maybe 8' long, which I set in the mast step. It's got a hole drilled at the top for the temporary shrouds, for which I use the boat's halyards, tied to suit. The 'lifting boom' is the boom, again tied to hang from the 'mast', with a topping lift to support it. The chain hoist is secured to the boom using a lifting strop, and that's about it. I make it that the halyard shrouds are run 3-4 times to absorb the natural stretch. The 1st time I did this, it was terrifying, but in truth the engine only weighs 80kgs, so I can do a load test on it before using it.
The initial rigging is a bit of a pain, but as long as the plank 'mast' is fairly vertical, and the 'shrouds' are run enough times to absorb any stretch, it's a very safe, and virtually free method, albeit somewhat Egyptian.
 
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