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Motorcycle Lift

Janger

Janger

(John)
Vendor
Premium Member
I was working on my new two wheeler - and I really wanted a lift to save my knees and back and ... Lifts are expensive. I put together these plans to make one out of wood. I'm not sure I"m going to build it or not but it has been an interesting exercise. I think it will cost $150ish.

It consists of two layers. The base which is probably on total lock casters. And the lift part wihch is the second frame on top of the first. The red arms swivel at the bottom and lift the table up. There is a long threaded 1/2" rod running from the pink lower axle to the pink upper axle. This is the lift mechanism. The lower pink axle has a through hole and a thrust bearing holding the threaded rod. The top pink axle has a threaded hole for the threaded rod. Rotation of the threaded rod pulls the pink axle both back and up lifting the table. The pink axle is made of steel and can rotate. I'll have bearings in the red lift arms and the side bars supporting the axle. Same for the other axles.





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Playing around with this engineering calculator a load of 500 pounds on the table has a resulting load of 4072 pounds on the threaded lift rod at the 7 degree angle when the table is at the bottom. Divided by 13 (13 tpi threaded rod) I get 4072/13 = 313 pounds. At this point I don't know what to think or how to further calculate. I know with a scissor jack for a car it is possible to turn the handle and lift the car (say 2000 pounds on one end?) The two wheeled vehicle is 370 pounds wet so say 500 pounds with the table. So how hard will the lifting rod be to turn ? How big a handle do I need? It seems to me given the car jack example it should be possible. I thought I could use an impact drill perhaps. (Dabbler tried to explain this over the phone - I didn't really get it Thanks for trying JC)

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I think it needs some safety arms too to brace the top table against the bottom frame. I didn't draw those but I thought 4 legs from the top frame to the bottom frame would cover it. It will need a ramp. And a front wheel chock (also wood) to grip the front wheel.
 
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On the safety aspect, the 1000 lb lift that I sold had a 3/4” solid rod that went through the two front upright’s near the base to prevent accidentally releasing the lift and crushing body parts.
 
Very nice build! What do you think it cost?

If you used a screw instead of a hydraulic ram do you think you could turn it? What does the mower weigh?
 
And there is some structure under / behind the rear support. What does that do? Got another picture at a different angle?
 
Auto wrecker sourced surplus screw jacks would certainly work as a lift mechanism. I use 4 of them as leveling jacks on my RV trailer and it is many times over the weight your lifting.
Another cheap alternative that I can think of would be a $20 mechanical boat winch with a strap or cable to the sliding wheel axle. Quick to attach and use.
 
Janger said:
Very nice build! What do you think it cost?

If you used a screw instead of a hydraulic ram do you think you could turn it? What does the mower weigh?
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I believe the weight of the tractor is around 1200 lbs.. If you look at the bottom left of the picture I have a cross member which locks into a couple of notches. This allows me to release the hydraulics and the the whole table relazes
 
David_R8 said:
@Aliva I think it's about half that weight.

TractorData.com John Deere D140 tractor information

www.tractordata.com www.tractordata.com
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Ya ok I was way off on my weight guess.

I never thought of using a screw instead of a hydraulic cylinder. Hydraulics are much easier to use than turning a screw.
Concerning the structure, look on the bottom left of the picture and you'll see a cross bar, this bar fits into notches welded to the main frame. This serves as a mechanical lock incase the hydraulic cylinder fails and prevents an unexpected collapse. There is a cable attached to the cross bar which allows me to lift the bar out of the way in order to lower the table. The cable is attached to an air cylinder at the other end of the table.. There is one draw back when lowering the table and that is, I have to bend down to loosen the bleed valve on the cylinder. I haven't been able to figure a way to do this without bending down to floor level. If anyone has an idea to release the bleed screw I'd love to here it. I guess I could put some sort of solenoid on the screw but it has to be adjustable otherwise the table will come down too fast . The lift also acts as a work bench when I'm not working on the lawn tractor or my snow blower. As far as cost goes The steel tube was around $150.00 maybe $200.00 this was 7 years ago when steel was much cheaper. The air actuated hydraulic cylinder was $100.00 from PA it's now $149.00
I'll post a better pictures of the lock mechanism later today.
 
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There used to be plans floating around the internet of a simple to build lift that used a car floor jack for the lifting. I remember seeing a few guys build one on the various forums I was on at the time. If you were to shorten up the back of the bottom frame on yours so a jack could slip under it, you'd be 90% of the way there to that design from what I remember of it.
 
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