I made a kayak ceiling hoist over the weekend and documented the process. Maybe this will help others. This post is somewhat graphic intensive. I'll convert over to thumbnails when the forums photo section is working again.
My garage has 12 ft tall ceilings so I have a good amount of dead space above the cars to store items so I decided to build a system to use the mechanical advantage of many pulleys reducing the weight of my tarpon 120. Here is a list of supplies I purchased for this project that ended up being about $50. The quality is a couple of steps above your big box sports stores for about the same price.
The angle steel is really optional if your ceiling joists run in the same direction you will be lining up your kayak when raising but there are advantages to using the angle steel. One of course is you can run your hoist perpendicular to your ceiling joists. The other is you can dynamically move your pulleys near the ceiling between 12, 14, and 16-foot-long kayaks by using the punched holes in the angled steel. The straps need to be positioned about 1/3 the way end from each side of the kayak to prevent contortion to your kayak. Do NOT hang your kayak by the handles. Over time this will distort your kayak due to the pressure.
Ok, first thing is to locate your ceiling joists using a stud finder. Then cut about an 18-inch piece of angle steel and span them between the two joists (typically they are 16 inch center on center). I spanned the two pieces of angled steel by about 5 feet which give me flexibility in supporting 12-16ft length kayaks following the 1/3 support point rule from each kayak end. This is where the angled steel has its advantage since you can dynamically position your pulleys using the angled steel holes.
[personal image link no longer valid]
On the tie-off end add a static pulley using hex bolts and bolt to the angle iron. Also, add your rope tie-off link to the end
[personal image link no longer valid]
Now work on the cleat side. Add two static pulleys with a gap between them that compensates for one of the load pulleys that will be below attached to the kayak.
[personal image link no longer valid]
For the kayak load, add your straps at the 1/3 marks along the yak to help prevent contortion of your hull. Again, Do not tie off the kayak handles.
[personal image link no longer valid]
Raise the kayak and tie it off using a rope cleat. Notice the blue extra strap attached to each kayak strap end. this prevents the end straps from slipping off each kayak end. Important step
[personal image link no longer valid]
[personal image link no longer valid]
The 5 pulleys working together create a mechanical advantage of 5:1 which reduces the weight of the kayak from 65 lbs to about 12 lbs (assuming no friction). I plan on adding one more pulley so the cleat rope end will clear the front of the kayak and that will push the effort down to under 10 lbs. the more pulleys you have the more rope you need which means less effort to raise the kayak.
My garage has 12 ft tall ceilings so I have a good amount of dead space above the cars to store items so I decided to build a system to use the mechanical advantage of many pulleys reducing the weight of my tarpon 120. Here is a list of supplies I purchased for this project that ended up being about $50. The quality is a couple of steps above your big box sports stores for about the same price.
- 3ft of angle steel, 14ga (same type of steel used for holding up garage doors), $10
- 3 pulleys that can be attached to angle steel, nonswivel type, $3 each
- 2 pulleys that attach to the kayak clips, the swivel is ok but I used static,
- kayak hanger straps (I used one made by Harmony), $20
- ~50-75ft of 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch braided nylon polypropylene rope. make sure the load rating is good. my rope will support 110 lbs. $3
- extra tie-down strap. 6ft is a good size. used to keep the strap ends from slipping $3
- misc 1/4 inch hex bolts, 5/16 lag bolts, lock washers, etc
The angle steel is really optional if your ceiling joists run in the same direction you will be lining up your kayak when raising but there are advantages to using the angle steel. One of course is you can run your hoist perpendicular to your ceiling joists. The other is you can dynamically move your pulleys near the ceiling between 12, 14, and 16-foot-long kayaks by using the punched holes in the angled steel. The straps need to be positioned about 1/3 the way end from each side of the kayak to prevent contortion to your kayak. Do NOT hang your kayak by the handles. Over time this will distort your kayak due to the pressure.
Ok, first thing is to locate your ceiling joists using a stud finder. Then cut about an 18-inch piece of angle steel and span them between the two joists (typically they are 16 inch center on center). I spanned the two pieces of angled steel by about 5 feet which give me flexibility in supporting 12-16ft length kayaks following the 1/3 support point rule from each kayak end. This is where the angled steel has its advantage since you can dynamically position your pulleys using the angled steel holes.
[personal image link no longer valid]
On the tie-off end add a static pulley using hex bolts and bolt to the angle iron. Also, add your rope tie-off link to the end
[personal image link no longer valid]
Now work on the cleat side. Add two static pulleys with a gap between them that compensates for one of the load pulleys that will be below attached to the kayak.
[personal image link no longer valid]
For the kayak load, add your straps at the 1/3 marks along the yak to help prevent contortion of your hull. Again, Do not tie off the kayak handles.
[personal image link no longer valid]
Raise the kayak and tie it off using a rope cleat. Notice the blue extra strap attached to each kayak strap end. this prevents the end straps from slipping off each kayak end. Important step
[personal image link no longer valid]
[personal image link no longer valid]
The 5 pulleys working together create a mechanical advantage of 5:1 which reduces the weight of the kayak from 65 lbs to about 12 lbs (assuming no friction). I plan on adding one more pulley so the cleat rope end will clear the front of the kayak and that will push the effort down to under 10 lbs. the more pulleys you have the more rope you need which means less effort to raise the kayak.
