bueller
Moderator
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.