Anyone using Racor garage hoist to store RTT?

[outdoornate65]

I store my Autohome Maggi in the garage during the winter. I usually hang the RTT from a set of ratchet straps.

I saw the Racor Hoist platform and wondered if anyone has used this set-up to store a RTT overhead?

Capacity is 250# so should be plenty to handle a 150# Tent. I like the idea of being able to hoist my tent without additional help.

 

[Hoghead]

I do and it does a great job. I have a CVT Rainer and it's a little wide for the lift,but I make due. It has no trouble lifting it. I use the lift for the RTT in the winter and my hardtop in the summer.

 

[Romer]

I have held an ARB Simpson and now a CVT Summit Extended Bachelor which is pretty damn heavy. It's been in use for 6 years

 

[outdoornate65]

Thanks guys....that's the feedback I'm looking for.

Couple questions:

Did you keep the metal platform or just use the two crossbars to lift the tent?

How did you modify crank to be used by cordless drill?

Appreciate the help....will be ordering today.

Nate

 

[Tkhawk]

I haven't put my rtt on mine yet but I use it for my hard top.
The platform gives it a lot more rigidity, I wouldn't use it with out it.
No modification needed, it comes with am attachment to put in your drill chuck!

 

[dpsmedic]

Thanks guys....that's the feedback I'm looking for.

Couple questions:

Did you keep the metal platform or just use the two crossbars to lift the tent?

How did you modify crank to be used by cordless drill?

Appreciate the help....will be ordering today.

Nate

Wondering also is there a larger version? My RTT is 90x65 and the platform described on this lift is 48x48

 

[Tkhawk]

You could run ratchet straps around it and hang it from the bottom of the platform.

 

[wild_turkey]

Straps Instead of Bars

I've been using the Racor hoist to store, load, and unload our RTT for a couple years now. I've used it on both the CVT Mt. Shasta and now on our new James Baroud Grand Raid (160 lbs). The bars that come with the lift are too flimsy to use. I've gone through a progression and found that straps work best for me.

I first used some unistrut from Home Depot. Worked fine until I got the Baja Rack since it was hard to get the bars out from under the tent when the tent landed on the flat rack.




Then I moved to straps and this seems to work best for me to load and unload the tent by myself. I had a set of axle straps laying around and tied them together using a couple nylon runners used for rock climbing. This has worked great for me. I leave the Yakima rack attached to the tent so now I just have to lower the setup onto my roof rails and tighten the rack up. Way easier than trying to get my hands under the Baja Rack to tighten up the bolts.



I also use a cordless drill with one of those rubber coated storage hooks to operate the crank. I found the drill chuck attachment to be too long to accommodate the overhang of the tent. As the tent lifts, the attachment became perpendicular and would not turn the crank effectively.

 

[wild_turkey]

Wondering also is there a larger version? My RTT is 90x65 and the platform described on this lift is 48x48

I'm using it on my James Baroud Grand Raid, which is 64.5"x89.5". Go with straps to accommodate the wider body of the tent. See my other post in this thread for photos.

 

[outdoornate65]

Thanks again for the pictures guys.

Since I have a small Autohome Maggi, I plan to modify the hoist to use some 1.25" steel stock that I have to replace the "platform" included with this unit. The 4-foot width should work very well with the slightly narrower footprint of my RTT.

Thanks again,

Nate

 

[dpsmedic]

I'm using it on my James Baroud Grand Raid, which is 64.5"x89.5". Go with straps to accommodate the wider body of the tent. See my other post in this thread for photos.

Thanks!

 

[BWickett]

This is how we did ours. Remove the bottom portion and replaced it with carpeted 2x4's. Used eyebolts and covered them with some cut up pool floats.

We used to take the tent off and on after every trip and hoist it back up so that we could fit the Jeep back in the garage. After a season of that, it got to be pretty old. We actually moved into a new house and I left the hoist in the old. We are moving again soon and I will be building a carport and will be able to take the tent on an off a bit easier (hoisting up into the carport).

The only issue i recall with my original setup was that with the cable at a wider angle (due to the width of the tent) using the 2x4's... sometimes the cable would come off the pulley on the hoist. Ended up skinning the coating off the cable and then your pretty much done trying to ever get an even hoist again. I think I was using the drill to crank back then and got carried away a few times. So I had to put new cables on and was just more careful about it.

 

[texasjosh]

I've been searching for this Racor hoist online but it seems to be discontinued. Found a couple places that say they have it in stock but its $400-$500 (versus the $150-200 price I've seen it used to be sold at). Anyone know the story here or where to find it? Its probably worth it to me for $150-200, but otherwise I'll try my luck with building my own set up with a $100 electric hoist.

 

[JDaPP]

Amazon has them occasionally for $250. I bookmarked the Amazon page and check it regularly for the deal.

 

[MNmtb]

Just track it with CamelCamelCamel

it will alert you when the price drops