trolley hoist wheels

[megbers]

I am looking for a set of wheels for a trolley hoist. The hoist will be supporting a 2000lb capaicty winch with a 700 lb load (not a huge load). I was looking for the most reliable type of wheel, ie. angled wheels on angle iron, dual (upper and lower) wheels on an i-beam etc. Advice from anyone with experience in this field would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[SteveWag]

You should by an assembled trolley, not just wheels. They are pretty cheap, let the manufacturer worry about wheels side plates and bearings.

There are two types of wheel configurations, one for "flat" running on W shapes and one is for "beveled" use on S shapes. Whenever possible I use S shapes for trolleys, the wheels seem to stay centered better. On W shapes the trolley will wander around a bit.

This is a very inexpensive trolley:

http://www.toolfetch.com/Category--Hoisting--252020.shtml

If this is for VERY frequent use you might look for hardened running surfaces, but I can't see a one ton unit requiring that.

Steve Wagner

 

[kenvlach]

Make absolutely sure that the trolley & beam are rated for more than the maxed-out hoist load + hoist weight. Otherwise, an accident is bound to happen.
OSHA also requires that even a 1-Ton hoist be so labelled and tested.
McMaster-Carr has some info & several manual trolleys, pages 1403-1404:

http://www.mcmaster.com/

 

[megbers]

great information, thank yall very much. i was also considering a v-groove wheel, how do these hold up to side loading(winds) compared to "over under" i-beam wheels?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Your questions suggest that you are trying to build your own monorail crane. Don't. Engage a crane manufacturer to do it for you. There are a lot of ways to do it wrong, and the consequences are all bad. They will ask questions that we haven't asked, and that you haven't anticipated.

E.g.:
- Your concern about trolley durability suggests that the hoist must not only lift and lower a load, but carry it some distance, and the operation will be repeated many times. You might therefore want a powered trolley in consideration of speed and operator fatigue.
- If you already bought a wire rope hoist, you need a powered trolley anyway, because tugging a w/r hoist to move the trolley does bad things to the wire.

;---


I have made drawings of a small number of cranes. I am too precise and therefore too slow to do it profitably, even at a modest wage, so I don't get to do it anymore. Which is my odd way of saying that the small crane business is pretty competitive, and homebrewing won't save you much in the long run, even if nothing goes wrong.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[kenvlach]

Running v-groove wheels on inverted angle welded atop an I-beam? Rather nonsensical for a monorail -- underslung is ~infinitely more stable. Maybe you are talking about end trucks for a bridge crane? This would requires way more engineering experience with crane particulars. Mike is right, get a professionally engineered system. These are pretty much off-the-shelf.
Monorail Manufacturers Association, Inc.:

http://www.mhia.org/psc/PSC_Products_Monorail_MemberList.cfm?secid=55

Crane Manufacturers Association of America, Inc.

http://www.mhia.org/psc/PSC_Products_Cranes_MemberList.cfm?secid=51

This company has some lightweight, easy-to-set-up 'work station bridge cranes' as well as gantry cranes which may be useful outdoors:

http://www.spanco.com/

I prefer the 'flat rolling' wheels on patent rail:

http://www.tcamerican.com/sitepages/monorail325.htm

(also available from Trambeam and crane vendors)

 

[megbers]

This application will not be a monorail, the trolley will span approx. 12 feet over two i beams with a winch in the middle, we want the i-beams (rails) to be as low as possible to minimize the wind loading effects. Also, the trolley will be above the beams and not underslung. From what is sounds like, i should just have a crane manufacturer design and build this thing for me instead of making it in-house?

 

[kenvlach]

megbers,
Crane manufacturers already have designs, you just give the size of layout, capacity, etc.
Your terminology confused everyone -- the 12 foot span is the bridge beam which will carry the hoist on an underslung trolley. The bridge beam rides on 2 end trucks which can be either underslung or toprunning on the runway beams.