Abstract: Portable hoist or winch apparatus comprises such mechanism having a frame carrying a drum for a cable or other flexible member, and load-carrying means which includes first and second pulley block assemblies. A hook-bearing first assembly, in normal use, depends from a loop of cable extending from the drum back into securement with the winch frame; a second assembly is disposed in the cable rigging intermediate the drum and the first assembly. The first pulley block assembly has at least two pulleys; the second pulley block assembly has at least one pulley. The cable extends serially from the drum to a pulley of the first assembly, thence to the pulley of the second, back to the second pulley of the first assembly, and thence to the frame.

Abstract: A handle apparatus, for use in driving the pawl-actuating lever of a winch-hoist, comprising a pair of telescopically-arranged tubes, means for frictionally securing said tubes in selected positions of telescopic adjustment, and an over-load relieving member for linking said handle apparatus with the lever, and comprising: a rod having one end portion mounted within one of said tube members and an opposite end portion adapted to lie within said lever, when the handle is in use, said latter portion being of reduced cross section in two annular zones spaced along its length, at least a portion of one of said zones lying outside and adjacent said lever when the handle is in use, and the material of which said rod is made, and the cross sectional area of said portion of the last-mentioned annular zone, being so chosen that said portion serves as a protecting link bendable in response to application to said handle of force in excess of a predetermined limit; and further wherein the handle has means for housing a s

Abstract: A load-handling gantry having a single, unitary, bridging beam, and leg, brace and mounting components supporting the beam with provision for adjustment of gantry span, height, and spread, while maintaining gantry mobility. The mounting components are adjustable to enable use of the gantry in a number of configurations including inboard, outboard, and combination leg bracing, and with freedom for use under cantilever conditions. In the preferred embodiment, a predetermined camber, or longitudinal splay angle, of the plane of each pair of legs is provided, to decrease movement between the gantry legs and the beam, in the direction lengthwise of the beam, when the gantry is under load, thereby stabilizing the gantry in that sense. The selected splay angle is maintained by apparatus which couples the leg bracing struts to the beam and to the legs.

Abstract: A portable winch-hoist comprises a main supporting frame, with an anchor hook, and carrying a ratchet-driven cable drum and an actuating frame, or lever, which may in practice be generally U-shaped and may span the main frame and which is pivoted for swinging movements about the axis of the cable drum. Pawls carried by the main frame and by the lever are selectively cooperable with the drum ratchet to rotate, to hold, and to release, the drum, so as to reel, and to control the unreeling of, cable carried by the drum, in response to pivotal swinging of the lever.The cable is releasably retained on the drum, being wrapped thereon and passing through portions of the drum at two axially-spaced points, whereby sufficient turns of cable are retained on the drum to assure a capstan or snubbing effect, under all normal operating conditions, with an end portion of the cable arranged for set-screw securement to the drum, whereby cable replacement is simplified.