My A Frame

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Several people have sent me PM's about the pictures I posted of my A frame. I told them I would post better ones and explain how it works.The winch is a Pearce 9000 pound electric. I think it and the 8000 pound Ramseys are the right ones for my work as they have good enough pull and also have good line speed. The 12,000 pound winches are just too slow for me. My control is through an extension cord on a spring driven roll up. It's in the bin with my hood, gloves etc. First picture.From the back you can see the posts on the winch stand and the pivots for the legs are directly over the frame but even across the truck. They are located over the back half of the leaf springs. There is a lot of leverage picking stuff up with gin poles so like it to be not at the back of the truck. Also if you are loading onto the truck there is enough room behind the poles and pulley to do this. Second picture.Third picture you can see that the pulley seems taller than it needs to be. The reason is to get the winch line pull higher than the pivot point of the legs. This allows the winch to lift the poles for you.Forth and fifth picture shows how I rig mine. There is a winch line running through a pully at the top. It changes to a 1/4" Cambell grade 7 chain which runs through a pin on the head ache rack and hooks on a hook that is welded to the head ache rack. This is where you adjust the poles and allows you to adjust both sides at the same time and they are always even because the winch line part is going through the pulley at the top. Attached Images
Reply:To make the poles raise, you just hit the winch control to pull winch line in. First picture.Once it is up and you want to adjust the angle of the poles, you bring the winch line through the poles and hook it to an eye on the head ache rack and take up winch line. It will lift the poles so you have slack in the lines. Second picture.Say you wanted to put a gun safe into a windw on a house and you need it real low. No problem, I did just that. Take the chain out of the hook on the head ache rack and let out on the winch control, lowering the poles as it goes. When it gets where you want it just pull the slack out of the chain and hook it back in the hook on the rack.Third picture.When you want it back up so you can store it, just run the winch line back through the poles to the ring on the rack and take up winch line. When it gets back where you normally have it then pull the slack out of the chain and rehook it. Let off the winch line and hook it back to it's storage eye on the back of the truck. Forth picture.To put it back down just pull down on the chain until the poles break over and let out on the winch control until it's down. Your done.The two things that make this A frame so easy to work with is the chain adjustment and the pulley on the head that lets the cable roll through it so that both sides adjust evenly. You can see the head in the fifth picture.This A frame has been on three trucks for me and has never been a problem. I built it almost thirty years ago and have made improvements until I can't think of any thing else it needs to work easily for me. Hope this helps for any one wanting to make a A frame. Bob Attached Images
Reply:Your elevation trick with the pulley is slick. I'm gonna copy that! My old Holmes 440 boom is missing the adjustment and I don't want to swipe the hardware off my 480. Your solution is perfect for my problem.Thanks very much for posting it.Last edited by farmall; 08-08-2011 at 10:11 PM.
Reply:Bob, thanks for taking the time to post and explain. Much appreciated and helps to uinderstand your set up.GeezerPower Mig 255C185 TIGBlue 175 MIGRanger 8 Kohler 20HP1974 5K Lincoln/Wisconsin Powered (Cherry)Victor/Harris O/AK 487 Spool Gun
Reply:That is a great addition to your already tough working truck.I estimate the A-Frame arms to be 10'. Seem fair?I don't see something though.  Is it possible to pick something up with winch and load it onto the bed also with the winch?  What I mean is say you lower the arms over an engine block or something heavy, then winch it up off the ground, do you use a temporary chain to hold the load and switch the winch to draw the a-frame back up over the truck bed or is there a trick I don't get?I bet you know just how high it is when you stow it so you don't hear a horrible crunching of aluminum and plastic when going through a drive though   Of course you'd carve yourself a nice path for next time .Thanks for taking the time to show how to make your truck do to more work.  Now your avatar makes much more sense to me.Miller Syncrowave 180SDLincoln WeldPak 100 with gasHandheld Milwaukee BandsawO/A Cutting Torch
Reply:Bob nice rig. I had a 1ton with a set up like yours but I made a leg on back side to keep poles from going overbackwards. Truck was just for lifting. Now I have a biger truck I need to figuer a way to keep poles from going over how do you keep this from hapening. No oil field winch truck around me to look at.
Reply:BHere, one of the reasons not to put the poles on the very back is so you can load stuff on the bed with the A frame. I have a 1/4" chain that hooks to the poles and to the hitch that will let the poles go to just forward of straight up. After hooking it up I measure the object I'm picking up, in heigth. I go up the winch line the distance of the lifted object plus what would be the amount above the object if it barely cleared the bed. I put a suspension clamp (from the phone company) on the winch line at that point. Then when I take in the winch line the clamp will hit the A frame head. When it can't go further the poles will start going forward until the chain stops it just past center. Then you let the winch line out and the object sets down on the bed. Way easier to do then to say.
Reply:Doug, if the bed pulley is taller than the pivot point of the pole pivot pins then the winch line itself will keep the poles from going over and you can let the poles down with the winch line.
Reply:Thanks Bob,I read that over 5 or 6 times and I think I get it.  A little planning and it must look like freak'n magic.  No planning and you've got big metal knocking around the back of your truck.I think your truck just rocks - like a good partner that pulls his weight.Take care.Miller Syncrowave 180SDLincoln WeldPak 100 with gasHandheld Milwaukee BandsawO/A Cutting Torch
Reply:Bob my piot points are sameas used by my roller tailboard.Can I mount pully between 5 wheel and roller. Would it be better if my poles were in front of 5wheel?Thier are to schools on poles around here close to cab and end of frame.My truck is a long wheel base single axle no bed. poles are to long to clear power lines laid over backwareds.Thanks for your help.
Reply:I'm not sure about your pulley placement Doug. Both my pole pivots and the pulley are between the axle and the rear hanger on my leaf springs. It gives me about 3' of bed to load stuff if I need to.I was lucky and worked for a company, when I was young, that had several A frames and some really smart old geezers that ran them. I learned a lot about them from those old guys.Another trick that I use a lot is loading some thing onto a trailer with out unhitching the trailer. You just back the trailer along side the object to be loaded and jack knife the truck to end up with the A frame over the object. Lower the poles down quite a bit. Pick up the object, get in the truck and pull up until the whole rig is straight. Then just lower the object into the front of the trailer. It's slick.