Anybody out there with some real world experience using a camper shell hoist? I have a Leer fiberglass camper shell on the back of my pickup and I'd love to easily remove it and store it above the truck in the garage. Any recommendations of good manufacturers and/or brands to avoid? Any experience using one? How solid are they? Can I feel safe dangling my shell above the hood of my truck 10' in the air? Thoughts?????
What I used to do is I put some heavy (1/2") screw eyes in the garage joists and tied some heavy poly rope through two of them spaced about 4 feet apart. I would then unscrew the shell, put a small piece of 2X4 lumber under each side, slide the ropes through, and hook them into the screw eyes on the other side. I had the hooks positioned so it held the shell a few inches above the truck. I forget what kind of hooks they were. Probably something for towing etc. I should probably add the obvious fact that i backed the truck in.
I used to remove/replace my shell by myself and it took about 10-15 minutes.
If you are worried about the ropes breaking perhaps a couple lengths of 800 pound chain just a bit looser than the ropes should provide a good safety factor.
I did it for years and never had any problems. I think I was using water skiing rope.
I've not seen a commercial hoist to do this. Got a web site for one?
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