My elevator bracket experience

[bueller]

Thought I'd share my experience this weekend trying to raise a platform built with elevator brackets. Hopefully it will save someone time, money, and maybe even prevent an injury. Our platform was 8' x 8' and framed with 2' x 6' lumber. The floor was 3/4" plywood. The legs were 4' x 4' x 12'. We built the platform and attached the elevator brackets. Flipped it over and installed the legs and cross bracing. Time to pull it up with the ATV. We got it up a couple of feet before it crashed to the ground with a terrible sound of cracking/snapping lumber. WTH just happened. How could ours break apart like it was made out of toothpicks when I've watched video after video of people raising not just platforms but entire shooting houses using the same method as us? I was being told that it was the weight, but I wasn't buying it. We must have done something wrong. After searching the web for a while I found instructions for the elevator brackets. Yes we definitely should have studied these before installing the brackets. The brackets MUST be installed on the opposite sides of the frame that you are lifting or it WILL split the 2' x 6' headers. That's exactly what caused the failure for us.

 

[bueller]

Attempt #2. We salvaged must of the lumber and hardware for the first attempt. Drove 1 1/2 hours round trip on a Sunday to purchase replacement boards and hardware. Put everything back together including the plywood floor. Installed legs and cross bracing. Time for lift off. We got it up to about the same height as the first attempt when once again we heard that that terrible sound of cracking/snapping lumber. This time only one side crashed to the ground. Good news, our platform and all but one cross brace was fine. Bad news one of the 4' x 4' legs snapped near the elevator bracket. Half of us say it was a bad 4' x 4'. The other half says too much weight. We quit for the day to consider our options. The next morning we try to convince my dad to let us cut down all of the 4' x 4' legs to 9 or 10 feet but he insists he wants the height. So we take a "good" 4' x 4' from the top and replace the broken leg with it. We then sister the broken 4' x 4' with sections of 2' x 6'. Cross brace everything and it's time for lift off. This time we leave the plywood floor off. Attempt #3 is a success!

 

[bueller]

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[bueller]

Lessons learned.

#1- do not install brackets on same sides that you are lifting from
#2- check 4' x 4' legs and make sure the best/strongest looking ones are installed on the bottom for lifting
#3- weight issues, I still don't think the weight of the plywood caused either of our failures. with that being said it did go up safely without the floor installed.

I wish we had taken video of our attempts and eventual success but we didn't. And I couldn't bring myself to take photos of the destruction afterwards.

 

[mglenn005]

I never read the instructions on the proper way to lift, but I guess I used my engineering judgment correctly. We successfully lifted ours, (as described by the OP), without any cracking or splitting. The first one that we installed, we only placed one horizontal brace on the legs. After lifting about 2 ft, we realized that was a terrible idea and added X braces on the legs that would handle the install load. We left single horizontal braces in the "side to side" direction of the lift. We then used those horizontal braces to do "final positioning."

Pictures of my platforms found in "shooting platforms for blinds."

 

[j-bird]

Thanks for the head's-up. I have a set of brackets that I need to put to good use but just seem to have other things getting in the way so far. I can see where the bracket placement and lifting direction can make a significant difference. I was planning on using 12' 4x4 as well. You may have just saved me a whole lot of cursing and throwing things!!!!

 

[bueller]

I never read the instructions on the proper way to lift, but I guess I used my engineering judgment correctly. We successfully lifted ours, (as described by the OP), without any cracking or splitting. The first one that we installed, we only placed one horizontal brace on the legs. After lifting about 2 ft, we realized that was a terrible idea and added X braces on the legs that would handle the install load. We left single horizontal braces in the "side to side" direction of the lift. We then used those horizontal braces to do "final positioning."

Pictures of my platforms found in "shooting platforms for blinds."

Yes cross bracing with X's is a must. Especially for tying the bottom legs that make contact with the ground when lifting to the top legs that just hang there as you noticed in time before breaking something. After reviewing the instructions and looking at our damage it was real easy to understand what happened. Not hard to split a 2' x 6' when the bracket grabs on the bottom of the board and twists upward with a 12' "breaker bar". I could've split the 2' x 6' by just pulling on the long 4' x 4' myself. When positioned the other direction the force is pushed up through the 2' x 6' and framing structure.

 

[bueller]

Thanks for the head's-up. I have a set of brackets that I need to put to good use but just seem to have other things getting in the way so far. I can see where the bracket placement and lifting direction can make a significant difference. I was planning on using 12' 4x4 as well. You may have just saved me a whole lot of cursing and throwing things!!!!

Glad to help. Not easy to admit screwups but there is always something to be learned and shared from them.

 

[bueller]

8'x8' 12' high is huge.

I'll have to double check my bracket placement on my base. Only 4'x4'. Going with 8' 4x4's.

It is huge! We will be putting a pentagon blind from Menards on top. 72" wide and 75" deep. Should have enough space for a safe landing pad outside of the blind.

 

[MojoRisin]

Mine is 8'x8' and 10' high. I had the brackets on the "wrong" side but built 2 of these and had no issues elevating them.

What we did was run a rope from the eyebolts connected to the elevator brackets from the side we were pulling up . We then ran that over the top of 12' support beam (deck board 1.5"x6" I believe) and stood that on edge to cantilever the unit on the way up. I put 2 screws on the end of that 12' board with the rope going in the middle. We then connected the ATV winch to that rope and pulled it up. That board stayed on end until the unit was pulled all the way up.

I had a friend use an extension ladder to do the same thing the 12' support board did for us. Another friend went over a tree limb to get that height.

 

[UP Powers]

I would sister the broken leg by twice of the area you currently have it. Plus, I would sister it on all sides seeing the load is being carried by the whole leg.

 

[bueller]

I would sister the broken leg by twice of the area you currently have it. Plus, I would sister it on all sides seeing the load is being carried by the whole leg.

We wanted to replace the whole leg but nothing was open Labor Day and we wanted to get it up in the air. We talked about replacing the whole leg but if we decide not to I will definitely suggest we do something more to it as you recommended. Thanks for reminding me to not just leave it as is.

 

[wiscwhip]

Drill and through bolt that sister bracing, use large flat washers, do not leave it up to the threads of a lag screw to hold that thing when the safety of your family is at stake.

 

[mglenn005]

We wanted to replace the whole leg but nothing was open Labor Day and we wanted to get it up in the air. We talked about replacing the whole leg but if we decide not to I will definitely suggest we do something more to it as you recommended. Thanks for reminding me to not just leave it as is.

don't go cheap on the screws if you plan to leave it like this. I would recommend washer / lag screws or equivalent. That is something you don't want to fail. An expensive fix but lifetime fix would be placing angle iron on the corners and lag screwing it in place. A cheaper solution is 2x4s on multiple sides with lag screws. But I would make sure I have several lag screws on each side of the broken section.

 

[mglenn005]

wiscwhip has a good suggestion too.

 

[wiscwhip]

Through bolts will require the whole brace or leg to fail, not just the area around the threads to rot out and pull loose.

 

[bueller]

If we keep the leg it's going to get through bolted. It won't be that difficult to jack up and support that corner to drop that 4' x 4' and slide a new one up into it's place. I will have this rectified before installing the plywood floor and blind on top. Thanks guys.

 

[chickenlittle]

In addition to bolting, I would probably use a liquid nails or similar outdoor construction adhesive.

 

[browndog]

That platform is huge!! I built a 5.5' x 6.5' platform few years ago that has 22' legs. I didn't use elevator brackets. The legs are three 2×6's bolted together(almost like a laminated beam). Everything on that platform is drilled and bolted(nuts and washers)together. Pulled it over with my tractor( strap attached to the platform side farthest from tractor) I had my 4 wheeler cable/strap attached to the platform side closest to the tractor. The wheeler was on the opposite side of the tractor so once the platform got past the tipping point it wouldn't come crashing down hard. Everything worked really well until we noticed the 4 wheeler and tractor cable/straps hooked to the platform 20' plus above the ground:D

 

[Bill]

I've used them twice and didn't know about the orientation. Guess we got lucky.

Glad no one got hurt. Wood is replaceable.