Відео

Thank you!

When I first built my lift I had the two pulleys connected directly to the vertical zinc plated metal strip just as you are suggesting. It lifted ok but the problem was that if I didn't get my canopy balanced exactly right, then the canopy would tilt either forward or backward. The scary part was that once the canopy started to tip it didn't want to stop! If the canopy rotates too far it will slide off of the support backets and fall. So that is why I added the triangular piece and the two bungee cords. The bolt at the bottom of the triangular piece is not tight so it allows the canopy to easily tilt one way or the other...I know this sounds counter intuative! However, once you add the bungee cords then you end up stabilizing the tendancy to tilt forward or backward. In an earlier theoretical design I thought about having four ropes and more pulleys so that I could lift all four corners of the canopy up simultaneously. This would eliminate the tilting problem.....but it also created more challenges for me in terms of the amount of rope/cable needed. You may not be aware that when you use pulleys like I have you actually gain a mechanical advantage for lifting. For example, My canopy weights just over 200lbs but with my pulleys they way they are I only have to pull about half of that to lift it. Did you also see my second video where I updated the rope to cable, replaced a double pulley with two single pulleys, and added a manual winch? If not you might want to look at it before you start building your own lift. Good Luck!

@@MrETinBC Thanks Ed!! Super helpful. Outta all the videos I’ve watched, I like yours the best. I’ve watched both videos and everything you meant makes sense. I forgot to buy the bungees. I am gonna attempt to use the tandem double pulley made by Petzl. I have a bunch of those, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I’ll let you know how it works out. Otherwise, I’m pretty much using your exact design. 14 gauge metal is what I found. What did you use?

@@NoahRonczkowski Actually I don't know what gauge it is! I got it at our local hardware store and it just felt strong enough in my hands so I went with it! I'm no engineer!! Lol

Hi Mark. The winch is just a basic "Hand Winch". If you do a Google search for "hand winch" you will see lots of them from different places like Canadian Tire, Lowes, Amazon, etc.. The one I used is called a Rhino Winch and I got it at a store called Princess Auto. I bought a winch that is way stronger than I needed as it was the only way to get one with a large enough spool to hold all of the cable. Ed

Hi Thomas. My cable has never gotten pinched between the pulley frame and the pulley wheel. My pulleys don't have much of a gap between the frame and wheel so there really isn't room for the cable to get pinched.

Hi Joni: I gave a fairly detailed parts list to Matt Osterman about 2 years ago. You can see my list if you view my first video, see link above, and then look down the comments list until you find Matt. Read all of the comments between Matt and I as this is where you will find the parts list. Have a great day Joni. ET

Thank you so much for getting back with that information.

Smart idea Kevin! It would be a good safety net to flip the handle around. I will try it when I get home after work today. Thanks for the comment.

OK. I tried to flip the handle around but it won't work for me. My crank handle has an "S" bend in it which prevents me from turning it over. Great idea though!

Great question. You need more cable than you think! I used one piece that was 100 feet long and then folded it in half where I connected it to the hand crank. This equates to 50 feet per side but even at that I can't lower my canopy right to the floor as my cables are not long enough!! Here is how to calculate the length you need: 1) Measure the distance from the hand crank to the ceiling where your double pulleys are mounted. For me this is about 8 feet. 2) Measure the distance from the double pulley to the mid point of where your canopy will hang from the ceiling. This is the lift point. For me this is about 15 feet. 3) Measure the distance from your ceiling to the floor assuming you want the option to lower your canopy to the floor. Or just from the ceiling to the height of your truck box if you just plan on lowering the canopy to your truck, not the floor. For me this is about 8 feet as I only lower to my truck height, not the floor. For this distance you have to multiply by four as you actually have 4 lengths of cable coming from the pulley setup. 4) Total length for one side is: 8 + 15 + (8 * 4) = 55 feet. Double this as you have two sides to do which brings you to 110 feet! I used 100 feet and as I said, it was too short! Have a great day Robert.

Ed Tandy Sounds good. Thanks for the reply and sharing your idea!

Good observation Dale. The two pulleys are lag bolted to a 2x6 behind the gyproc but it would be much stronger to spread the weight across multiple studs. When I take the canopy off my truck for the summer I will have a good look at those pulleys and if there are any signs of movement I will take your advice.

Hi Dale: This weekend I took a look at the double pulley bracket you mentioned and while it seemed OK, I decided to make it better as you suggested. Unfortunately my studs are on 24 inch centers so I would have to use a 48 inch board in order to cross studs. I didn't want to do this so instead I used a 12" piece of angle iron and moved the pulley mount up to the top of the wall where the wall and ceiling meet. There is a 2X6 plate at the top of the wall so I used 4 lag bolts to secure the angle iron to the plate and then mounted the two pulleys on the angle iron in a similar way to how they were mounted before on the L-bracket. This made a very sturdy mount so I am no longer concerned that the double pulley mount is a weak point. Thanks for the suggestion...have a great day. ET

Hi Steve: The wall bracket that the two top pulleys are attached to is just a heavy duty 90 degree bracket from our local hardware store. The wall bracket that the hand winch is attached to is a piece of metal I had at home from another project. I bent it to 90 degrees using my bench vice and an big hammer and then cut it to fit the winch base using a cutting blade on my angle grinder. ET

Thanks Gene. Did you see the sequel I posted where I added a hand crank winch? If you haven't it is here: ua-cam.com/video/LtWghNBvhX0/v-deo.html

Hahaha..good idea!

Great idea. I saw another video of a guy doing just that to lift his canopy. It makes me a bit nervous though. My crank has a ratchet when you are lifting the canopy so at any time if I let go of the crank handle nothing happens as the ratchet prevents the spool from turning backwards...however, when I am lowering the canopy there is no ratchet setting, the spool just free-wheels. So, if I were to let go of the crank handle then the canopy would fall and the crank handle would spin out of control. This was mentioned by another viewer who commented on my video. I am pretty careful when I am lifting and lowering my canopy so I tend to crank slowly. If I used a drill just to lift the canopy that would be safe and then I would use the crank to lower it. Thanks for your feedback.

Oh yeah forgot the clicker is free when going down. But yeah you could do both.

Hi Vicki: I have pasted an image of a pulley system in this comment that I hope you can see. It is the exact system I used for my canopy lift. Two pulleys at the roof line and two pulleys at the canopy. This setup gives you lots of mechanical advantage so lifting the canopy is easy. If you can't see the image you can find it here: www.pinterest.com/pin/75927943697689137/ Also, if you watch my updated canopy lift video (ua-cam.com/video/LtWghNBvhX0/v-deo.html) at about the 15 second mark you can see pretty well how the pulleys are attached. If this still doesn't do the trick for you let me know and I will take a clear photo for you and post it. Have a great day. ET

I have broken it twice. The second time was in the middle of a field so nothing exciting. I don't know what I do that leads to breaking the post. The first time it broke I welded it. The second time it broke I replaced it.

A winch is a good idea and if I had one I might have tried it.

Hi Brian: Thanks for the comment! Since posting that video I have done two small upgrades. I replaced the double pulley that is between the two hanging bikes with two single, good quality, pulleys. This allows each pulley to align with the rope better and makes lifting easier. I also replaced the rope with 1/4" cable and installed a boat trailer style hand crank. Its actually called a Rhino Winch. This has made the lift so easy that my 6 year old grandson can lift the canopy. The crank handle has a lock on it so if you let go it doesn't take off on you. So, as I get older and weaker I can still lift the canopy on my own. The one draw back is that you have to do a lot of cranking to lift the canopy to the ceiling because the gear ratio on the hand crank is very low. Have a great New Year Brian! Ed

Hi Matt: I don’t have a parts list…I just find/buy pieces as I go. If you look at the video carefully you can make a list of the components which is what I would have to do to make a list for you. I can offer you some suggestions for parts and how I would do it differently if I were to make this again. 1) For the 2X4 cross pieces I would position them as close to the front and rear of the canopy as possible as this will make the lift more stable. I could have moved my cross pieces another 12” forward and back to widen the lift points Once you know how far apart your lift points are (will depend on the length of your truck box) then you know how long the 2x4 pieces need to be that connect to the two cross members along each side of your canopy. 2) For the double pulley that is on the ceiling directly above where I tie/pull the rope, I would not use a double pulley here. Instead I would use two separate pulleys. The reason is that the ropes exit the double pulley at an angle as they connect to the to left and right lift points on ceiling above the canopy. This angle creates a miss-alignment of the rope on the pulley wheel and makes lifting the canopy harder. If you use two separate pulleys then they could line up with the rope angle and they would track much better. 3) The way I have the lift pulleys setup on each side with two connected to the canopy lift point and two connected to the ceiling, gives me a two to one lift ratio. This means I only have to pull down on the rope with half of the weight of the canopy to lift it. I find the pull is still a bit hard and as I get older I may not be able to do it. I could make the lift easier by adding a third pulley top and bottom on each side as this would further reduce the pull weight needed to lift the canopy. Alternatively, you could come up with some kind of crank to lift the canopy. I have thought about replacing the rope with ¼ inch cable and then mounting a hand crank (like a boat trailer crank or a come-along crank) on the wall to lift and lower the canopy. 4) The black, inverted triangular, pieces of metal where my pulleys connect at the top the left and right hand lift points was originally bolted solidly to the metal lift straps. This didn’t work like I thought it would and seemed to cause the canopy to tilt forward or backward when I was lifting. If you look carefully you can see that I remounted the triangle so that it is connected with only one bolt and it now allows the canopy to sit level even if the two pulleys attached to it lift at slightly different rates. This design also allowed me to add the two bungee cords which work well to keep the canopy level and stop if from rocking back and forth when I am lifting or lowering. 5) The pre-drilled metal angle iron and flat iron that I used came from a local hardware store. I think you can get it at most hardware stores and it came in 4 foot lengths. This is not the flimsy plated stuff, it is 1/8” thick and very ridged. I used the angle iron on the ceiling and on the lift point 2x4s that connect the front and rear cross members. The rest of the metal is all flat as the stress on it is linear, not perpendicular. 6) Be sure that your anchor points for the angle iron on the ceiling go into studs as gyproc will not support your canopy. My ceiling studs run left to right in my garage so each angle iron on the roof actually bolts into 3 studs. Also, the double pulley that I talked about in point 2 is bolted to a bracket that is bolted to a stud. You don’t want to take any chances that one of these mounting points fail as this would result in your canopy falling. 7) I used nylock nuts on all bolts (except the wing nuts) so that the nuts will not loosen over time.) Now that I have the lift working I find that in the winter when my canopy is on my truck for 6 months, I use the lift to store other seasonal summer stuff. I am considering making another lift just for long term storage..maybe for winter and summer tires. I hope your project goes well. Good luck.

+MrETinBC Awesome! This is what I really wanted to see. I appreciate you writing it up. Now to replicate it - Thank you!

+MrETinBC Thank you very much for posting this description. I am spending the Thanksgiving weekend designing and building a similar system using yours as a guide.

+MrETinBC The problem I find with the boat/trailer crank is that it is intended for horizontal pulling, not vertical. Vertical could be dangerous. When you lift the load, the winch will lock and is relatively safe. The problem is when you are lowering the canopy/camper-shell. If you release the winch, you better be holding tight or the whole thing will free-fall. I think the come-along or some sort of vertical winch will be better and I have to find one.

+Anthony Wright Good Point. I have had the experience of letting go of a crank handle when putting a boat in the water and the handle spun out of control and I banged up my hand and fingers trying to stop it. I think there is another UA-cam video about canopy hoists where the guy has some kind of crank that he connected his cordless drill too. He then used the drill to lift his canopy. Not sure how well it worked to lower the canopy. Let me know what you decide to do.

Hi Keith: You are right about the stress on the double pulley. You might not be able to tell in the video but this pulley is lag bolted to a stud in the wall so it is pretty solid. I could mount a plate on the wall that would span two studs and then bolt the pulleys to the plate. This would distribute the weight across two studs which would be more secure. Thanks for your feedback. Ed

+MrETinBC That's a good idea. Thanks for video. Looking for a solid and safe way to lift/install my topper. Good ideas here. I am still a bit confused on the "extra pulleys " and how routed above the garage door though. Thanks again.

+reapur I had the same problem with my first design where I had a pulley connected to each of the four corners of the lift frame and that was a disaster. The canopy would not lift level, it always tipped forward or backward. I resolved the problem by changing the way the pulleys attached to the frame that the canopy sits on. Note in the video that the lift point is centered (front to back) one each side of the canopy and I use two bungee cords to help dampen any tendency for the canopy to rock. The key to a level lift is to use a single lift point. However, this is still a bit tricky as you have to ensure that the canopy is balanced front to back. You can't have the canopy heavier on the front or back as it will tend to tip backward or forward. I have marked the inside of my canopy so I know exactly where the two cross beams go so that the canopy is perfectly balanced on the lift point. Hope this helps. ET