Opinions needed on my crazy thoughts!

[Chronic Cat]

I just bought a new place with 12' ceilings in the garage. I was thinking in the garage this afternoon after daydreaming about how to maximize storage space. I'd like to hang my sled from the ceiling to get it out of the way for the off season. I was thinking about fabbing up a platform for it to sit with three anchor points. One beside each spindle and one out back. The way I figured I'd raise and lower it is having a few sets of duty rope blocks. I use them constantly for work and they are extremely effective for minimal effort exerted for a heavy mass lifted. If I follow through with this, I'll keep it tight to the corner or the garage close to the walls. I know that is twhere the maximum strength would be in the truss's. I also thought i'd crawl into the attic and run multiple 2x8's along several truss's to add some strength by tying them together.

what you fellas figure? Am I nuts? Cheers!

 

[freeflorider]

I'd think this is dooable, adding to the truss is a great idea. To much is never enough when it comes to supporting weight. If it's close to the corner even better. Using a spreader bar up front and chains/cables to the front spindles you could get away using one block up front too.
good luck!

 

[sirkdev]

I have thought the same thing many times would love to see pics if you do it. My roof is too low to make this worthwhile. One thing I know for sure is use high perimeter space with rubbermaids or shelving etc to keep stuff off the floor.

 

[TROLLCAT]

its dooable go for it

 

[imdoo'n]

better ask tex? there is a lot of unforeseen forces on our trusses, maybe check with a truss builder to see what your trusses are designed to carry? i see winter being the big problem with winter snow loads. that much weight hanging from a 12 ft ceiling will kill, if it were to fall.

 

[Dragonalain]

If u went into the attic and made the lifting points from a few rafters they will hold a sled up easily. I really like the pallet racking way it does take a forklift of bobcat to lift things up tho. That crap on the shelf used to take a 20x20 area. Now it's compressed into a 4x18 area. My ceiling is 13.5 ft tall




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[rzrgade]

Should not be an issue if you span it over several truss's...
I would weld up 2 L brackets and pin/bolt it to the wall at the desired height of your sled . Lift it up... Pin the brackets in place and lower most of the weight on to the two brackets ... In essence a shelf.
This would be much safer ,and not too difficult.
At the very least , brace the effected truss's very well...

Btw don't waste time talking to a truss company / he won't like the idea ...lol


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[arff]

Should like a good plan.
Electric winch added for lift would be good



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[Bnorth]

I would probably do a rack setup rather than suspend it. Then just park another sled underneath or a quad.

 

[vodoo103]

Possible.
Trusses are meant to be loaded from top and the bottom chord is designed as a tension member and for support minor loads only. Keep in mind that the panel points on your truss are the strongest support points. Loading the bottom chord of a truss between panel points makes it more prone to failure than loading at the panel points. If you can transfer load from your spreader bar to a panel point at top chord, even better.

A 2x4 on flat is not an effective spreader bar since it will sag and load the truss nearest the point load more than the others. Your spreader bar can be built from wood - same method as a window or door header.

I'll post a sketch showing what I'm trying to describe.

 

[imdoo'n]

Should not be an issue if you span it over several truss's...
I would weld up 2 L brackets and pin/bolt it to the wall at the desired height of your sled . Lift it up... Pin the brackets in place and lower most of the weight on to the two brackets ... In essence a shelf.
This would be much safer ,and not too difficult.
At the very least , brace the effected truss's very well...

Btw don't waste time talking to a truss company / he won't like the idea ...lol


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I wonder why?

 

[imdoo'n]

Possible.
Trusses are meant to be loaded from top and the bottom chord is designed as a tension member and for support minor loads only. Keep in mind that the panel points on your truss are the strongest support points. Loading the bottom chord of a truss between panel points makes it more prone to failure than loading at the panel points. If you can transfer load from your spreader bar to a panel point at top chord, even better.

A 2x4 on flat is not an effective spreader bar since it will sag and load the truss nearest the point load more than the others. Your spreader bar can be built from wood - same method as a window or door header.

I'll post a sketch showing what I'm trying to describe.

I agree, sounds like a voice of hands on construction experience.

I was wondering if boxing the truss in with plywood end to end would? not provide the necessary support with cross bracing to steady it

 

[vodoo103]

let me re-phrase that.... Possible, but not recommended.

I wanted to do the same thing and ended up using pallet racking too. If I didn't have a skid-steer with pallet forks at home, I may have gone with a more creative route.

To ensure it's done properly and to avoid a possible insurance problem if you ever have issues, you would have to hire a P.Eng. to review, and the problem is that they will want to cover their asses by a huge safety factor + will charge lots of $$.

As promised, here is the theory.

 

[vodoo103]

I agree, sounds like a voice of hands on construction experience.

I was wondering if boxing the truss in with plywood end to end would? not provide the necessary support with cross bracing to steady it

Yes it will help. Plywood would act as a diaphragm transferring the loads down to the truss ends instead of depending on the diagonals only.

 

[imdoo'n]

The biggest problem i see is one sled leads to two etc

 

[rzrgade]

Yes it will help. Plywood would act as a diaphragm transferring the loads down to the truss ends instead of depending on the diagonals only.

Remember though that the weight should be spread over multiple truss's or as many as possible. To box them all is overkill and not necessary.
Brace as shown above as well as diagonally between truss's....
I still like L brackets lag screwed into your wall , to hold the dead weight .
And the truss (braced ) just to lift and manoeuvre...
A bit of work,but space is nice .


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[Chronic Cat]

Thank you to everyone who tossed in their $.02! I think I'll definitely take all ideas greatly into consideration. I don't plan on getting it up and out of the way until sledding season is over with, but I will surely take the time to get into the attic and do some more framework and structural support. The reason I don't want to put it any shelving or racking is because I'm also installing a hoist for the drag car now that I have the height. I'm finally done with pulling tranny's while laying on my back.

 

[vodoo103]

"pulling tranny's while laying on my back" - Too much information.

 

[eclipse1966]

keep us posted what you decide to do as I was contemplating the same. Just built a nice shop and wished I made provisions for that.

I just bought a new place with 12' ceilings in the garage. I was thinking in the garage this afternoon after daydreaming about how to maximize storage space. I'd like to hang my sled from the ceiling to get it out of the way for the off season. I was thinking about fabbing up a platform for it to sit with three anchor points. One beside each spindle and one out back. The way I figured I'd raise and lower it is having a few sets of duty rope blocks. I use them constantly for work and they are extremely effective for minimal effort exerted for a heavy mass lifted. If I follow through with this, I'll keep it tight to the corner or the garage close to the walls. I know that is twhere the maximum strength would be in the truss's. I also thought i'd crawl into the attic and run multiple 2x8's along several truss's to add some strength by tying them together.

what you fellas figure? Am I nuts? Cheers!

 

[rzrgade]

We build a lot of 12' high shops and put Ina lot of 4 ' mezzanine 's at the 8' height level.
It's amazing what you can put up there.....
And remember you can start at the 8 ' level, so you don't lose wall space .
Label good & haves good safe ladder handy ..
It works great and is cheap and easy to build ...


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