This is a good read about life in a failed nation state. A lot of info to glean but notice what is the biggest trend for trading on the black market
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Recently The Girls have been impressed with my ability to pick shit up. Not like back when I was healthy and pulling 7hondo plus but with some rather simple tools. Any rate got me to thinking….. dangerous past time I know….. that I don’t recall any posts about mechincaly lifting heavy stuff. Really we are talking about dirt simple tools, tools practicality every farmer and general mechanic knows about, tools so common a lot of us never think twice about them, tools which would make a huge difference in your ability to eat the shit sandwich of life when things are at their semi worst.
In no real order…..
Block and tackle. Huge fan, I am pretty sucky with explaining it and mehcinal advantage but here is a decent video on the topic. Remember these are the basic lifting tools/ technology men used to build all that old school ancient shit that’s still around and impressing us in the here and now
Come alongs and hand lever chain hoists. Damn near interchangeable but not completely. I tend to see come alongs/ cable pullers as linear pulling tools, like winches and hand lever hoists as over head lifting tools. Either can do either but it’s easier to pull with a come along and it’s easier to lift and lower loads with a lever hoist….. and I don’t really like lever hoists. I prefer chain falls, or chain hoists. Same same just depends on what they call them in your area. If I was on a tight budget, I would get the hand lever hoist because of its slight advantage in lifting . If I had a better budget I would buy a come along and a chain fall. Thats just me. You wont fuck yourself if you only get a come along, and really 3, 3 ton come alongs and some basic rigging skills/ tools and you can move some heavy fucking shit. Tldr; get what fits your budget, get at least 2 lifting/ pulling devices. And the shit to go with them like snatch blocks and lifting straps, chains, wire ropes etc etc. What ever you get, get 3 ton or better. Problem with better is, then it becomes hard to find chains, lifting straps, snatch blocks etc etc to fit your lifting/ pulling capacity….. yeah recap of an older post. You get what you pay for you cheap fuckers but 3 tons seems to be a very workable working range
Don’t know this guy but I thought this video was an excellent introduction. Video quality sucks but the dude seems to know what he is doing. Knows more then me at any rate
If you play around on the YouTube you will find guys using come alongs for all sorts of clever work short cuts. Watch them and keep in mind how versatile they are.
A bed mounted cherry picker on your truck. Get one. Mine is a 1/2 ton. This is what got all of this started. Most of the time The Girls humor me as some kind of sex machine/ adorable crazy ass redneck. Then they act semi dumbfounded when I actually use whatever bit of redneckery effectively. In this case I picked up a rather hefty chunk of petrified wood with one of these and set it down on my trailer. I could have used the winch too but I will leave that for another day when I feel like toying with them some more. The Girls thought the cherry picker was stupid when we left the house and 40 mintues later they were changing their minds. Loved it. Couldn’t find any decent videos of one in use but there are a lot of them for sale.
I have a wheeled gantry crane at the farm. Something like the video bellow but mine is more robust and a bit less mobile. Always a trade off. The one at the farm is rated for 3 tons and is from fastenal, it has a 3 ton chain fail hoist with a trolley so you can move the hoist to any position on the rail. It’s a fairly useful tool. Hand chain hoists are slow going, as you will see in the video, but they don’t really break and the whole damn thing is fairly mobile. I don’t use it very often but it is damn handy to have a round and I could use it for a lot more things if I didn’t have more modern tools available… tools that rely on gas, diesel and or electricity…….
Remember 2 things. #1) I ain’t endorsing any products on this post. I picked the videos because I thought they were good demonstrations of how these work. #2) zombie apocalypse or no, work has to be done and heavy shit has to be moved. These are the tools you can use to move all sorts of heavy shit when you don’t have a forklift, help or electricity.