OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Tech Talk Lifting Lawnmowers - Sore Back

Hi all,
I get a sore back from Lifting mowers on to my bench...... It's 30mm high...
The big ones are a pain after a few days ....................... usually a couple of inverpropane tablets and a few glasses of wine seems to help.
But I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on a lift device to put mowers on my bench...............
I have thought of mini crane like on some utes..... or a ramp......, just need something..

thanks
speedy

What about this? http://www.directindustry.com/prod/i-lift-equipment-ltd/product-114879-1229191.html

You could use a cheap electric boat winch to lift them and then a tag line to move the arm.

Block and tackle are pretty cheap. Mount it on some sort of stand and swing the mower over before releasing the chains/ropes.
Seems a bit extreme but you only have one back. Try one of the auto parts and accessory stores.

G'day Speedy
30mm is just over one inch.

But you have asked a serious question. And I know what you meant.
I urge all folks to take this issue seriously.

I mean, back injury is common! Lifting is commonly exploited by companies, even today.
LRT amd M-F have suggested how this issue is 'tackled'.

Any repetitive lifting of heavy weight could cause long-term injury.

A good topic, in my view.
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Jack

How coincidental that one of my customers today was saying last week he went in for a back operation and he had some serious pain over the last few days recovering.

Anyway i needed to get my 45kg mowers onto my tray top which is around 1100 off the ground and it needed to come off and on 8 times 16 total and i wasn't going to lift it every time.I used 2 timber ramps 2400 long x 25cm wide with 2 bent hooks on the end so they didn't slip off the edge.
Make it 3m long if you got room and you'll be trouble free,just pine it's cheap and easy to handle

Back injuries are no fun and can last a lifetime.

I initially hurt my back when I was in my early twenties moving an IBM Selectric typewriter from one shelf waist high to the next shelf higher. Now that I am older (actually a little over 58) even staying a slightly bent over position can cause to be pain for weeks. I know I recently repair a little light weight 2 cycle edger here and was barely able to even move around for 4 weeks and this thing I could lift and move around one handed. All I got to be in the right position sometimes to cause problems that last for weeks.

Well for me it what ever works for what needs to be done. I am not able lift items much anymore due back problems. I know it looks like over kill but I even use one of those 2 ton engine lifts to remove, repair, and reinstall those v-twins. Rather get some strange looks than go through the pain. I am now considering one of 1 ton gantry type cranes with trolley and electric lifting winch, mainly because the legs of the 2 ton lift gets in the way on larger riding and ZTR mower's wheels.

I don't always need a lift but I have learn to pay attention what I am doing and to my back; it will let know when it is a not a today thing to do. That is why I am found a lot time sitting short foot stool or even sitting on the ground when working on some equipment that just need carburetor work. Just can't stay bent over for long periods at a time.

I hear your pain Speedy and AVB, I too suffer from back pain along with 2 broken hips and a leg broken in several places, but you just have to push through it as best you can. Pain killers don't do that much and all the doctors ever do is say,"take another pill". I am still lifting mowers on to the bench but I also have to consider setting up an electric winch I have here but I have always thought that was going to take too long to get them onto the bench for what sometimes is a minor adjustment that I can't bend over long enough to do. The other thing is how to quickly hook the mower up to lift it. With any of the self propelled mowers I have always used a couple of ramps to get them on the bench, no hope of lifting those.

Good topic, being slightly younger i can lift most movers but the big reel mowers are definately a two man job. 17" scott bonnar i can manage in and out of the ute (700mm high), but the 20" supercut is a different story all together. I think it tips the scales at 60-70kgs!!. I would go for a pulley system. GMC sell a cheapo winch which comes in very handy. All remote control and can lift 400kgs no problems

Thanks for your ideas... a ramp easier than putting a hole on carport ceiling and finding a piece of steelframe to attach it to..
I'd like the block and tackle but.
The bench is standard 930mm high. You can't work on the ground ...................
cheers
speedy

This what I use just depends if you got enough under the bench. It can lift to 89" when set @ 1/2 Ton; of course that is the top of the boom so that does limit the overall size of what your lifting plus the sling. What is nice about it is that I can fold it up when not in use and store away.

That's nice AVB, but I settled for a ramp. I had one for loading rineons onto my trailer so I just made a lighter one for the mowers on bench.
No more straining my back ................

cheers
speedy

If you have enough length, a ramp will do the job with minimal hassle.

Before the vertebrae popped back in place recently which I didn't know was my main problem I couldn't even push one of those walk behinds up such a ramp. I would end up using a rope and pulley system even to do that or I would in pain for few weeks. That's why I got the lift. Now things are improving back wise though I will continue using the ramps and lifts since I got them. No point making my back worse again.

That lift came to good use when I had to a 10 kw portable generator this Fall here to load. The customer brought it to me using a tractor with lifting forks as he couldn't load it either.

I thinking you mean ride-on mowers. For those and zero turn riders I have set of skeleton arched aluminum ramps with a 3000 lbs capacity per pair as the mower decks tend to hang at the trailer end and pickup trucks tailgate. They were twice much as 1500 lbs ones but I deal with various equipment sizes and weights; therefore, I needed the extra capacity. Beside the rungs are closer together than the home owner version and those small 4" and 5" rim diameter front tires on those home owner ZTRs would try to fall through the wider spaced rungs making it hard to load and unload those mowers. Think of these being like a ladder except the rungs are 3" apart.

These ramps which you can make wooden ones are base on an "I" beam design except the metal ones don't have a solid panel. For a wooden you use a thinner lighter weight plywood stretcher plus two side rails with a shallow dado into them to accept the plywood panel. Of course you glue and nail these on. Placement of the dado can centered or offfset depending the deck clearances you need. Plywood when use in such an "I" design can be a lot stronger than you expect; therefore, you might get by as thin as a quarter inch think ones but I prefer to stick with half inch. Three quarter inch plywood is just over kill for light weight walk behinds plus it makes the ramps heavier to move around. And when not in use at your shop you can hang them horizontally on a side wall out of the way.

AVB you have for me curious after reading your detailed description, but with terms I am not familiar with.
Any chance of a pic or two showing these plywood ramps with this "dado"? I'd like to see what it is you are describing.

Sorry about that. It is groove or slot cut into board or other material to accept another on edge running either across or along the length on the material as opposed to rabbet joint which is along the edge.
Dado

When finish it will be similar to this except with the side boards on edge it be stronger with the dado.
I Beam

Less confused but still confused where the dado applies in the instance of these ramps. We're getting there lol.

I recall seeing a farmer back in the 1970s lifting 44 gallon oil drums off a truck up on to a deck about 5 feet off the ground. He did this all by himself for days at a time. He never suffered from a sore back a day in his life. He was a very strong man and every thing he built was big and strong. If he put in a corner post he had to find the biggest, broadest tree in the paddock to fell.

I tried to lift a Rover mower up on to my workbench once. I got around like a lame duck for a week after. I suffered severe back spasms, leg cramps, pins and needles in feet and hands, stiff neck, the works. I also managed to pull the muscles in my chest and shoulders.

Lifting a mower into the boot of the car is not so bad, but lifting up on to a bench is just TOO high.

I owned a ride-on mower for a short time. I say "short time", because it was forever breaking down and my back would go out every time I had to lift the ruddy great lump of a thing up to repair a tyre or make an adjustment. I bought it to make my life easier. It didn't. It made life a lot harder. I then purchased a newfangled belt-drive self-propelled mower, again thinking it would make life easier. It didn't. The belt kept running off as soon as I went through a patch of damp grass. Then it was a major operation to get the belt back on. So I have gone back to using a small utility push mower and life has actually been easier! Bigger is not always better!

You should have gone with a Victa 24 with a 2 stroke on it, never have a problem with it again

Good luck finding one in good order at a decent price.

Yes, well... I injured mine (back) a very long time ago before there was WH&S.
Being bent over old fashioned card punch machines (computer cards kiddies) then the old disc drives that were as big as a washing machine. Only way to do the fine adjustments was to bend your back so you are reaching over the beast and the fine adjustments took about 15 to 20 minutes each. Couldn't straighten up after those episodes!
I was then in my early 20's.
Many years of back abuse later, after many doctors and pain killers, physio, chiro etc (even tried self-hypnosis!) I happened to find a sports Physiotherapist. He actually took the time to tell me how to lift stuff! After 20+years of doing it wrong. Nobody back then told you how!
After that my back was still bad - historic, but at least I could lift stuff, and refuse to do the work that stuffed my back in the first place.
Many years later, after still more incidents, I got to know a physiotherapist that not only agreed with the other bloke, but taught me how to relieve the spasms. Now that was a miracle. I have some bad discs in my back. When I get stressed and tired, and I overuse my back, to protect me from pain, the muscles around my spine go into spasm. (which hurts a lot more than the actual back pain!). But now I can deliberately relax those muscles. Two Nurofen and relax. Next day take it easy but exercise my back. Do the stretches etc and within a week its all good (well as good as it can be).
For those who may be interested, because I only worked for one company all my working life, and they really should have known better than to put me in those situations, I sued them. I had all the facts and evidence. And I won.
Didn't get much, but it did make me feel a lot better!

Just an example of some of the situations I was in: I had worked at a major supermarket with a critical server down. I worked on it for about 18 hours without a break. I knew the fault but we didn't have the right parts, so I had to try other ways. No joy so I had to order a whole server from interstate. That was late that night. Went home for some rest. Replacement server arrived next morning so I was there to swap it (or parts from it) out. A courier bought it in (to a cramped office/server room) in a shopping trolley (long story why). And left me to it. I couldn't dismantle it in the trolley so I lifted it out onto the floor (40 kilos by the way). That hurt my back big time, but the store was down. They were hand scanning everything. The replacement was a different model, so I couldn't swap out the faulty part. But it was compatible. But it, too was faulty. So I had to fix that one so the store could trade. Now I am in agony, but there is no alternative. Got it working (late that evening). THEN I had to load the faulty server into the trolley take it out to my car and load it into the boot of my car. No help available. My team were all deployed elsewhere.

I had some time off work after that, but it was by no means an isolated incident. Another example was unloading 500+ servers over 3 Saturday mornings. Each weighing 38 kilos, then stacking them up to head height ready for later deployment. Again no room for bad back or injuries, just get it done.

Hence I felt good when my case was proven.
If it helps anyone, the key is to lift with a straight back (duh!). Get your back in position and dont use the back muscles to lift, Just to hold it steady.
Stick your bum out as far as you can. Then lift with your arms and legs. Back straight - or partly concave if you can. Watch how the weightlifters do it.
Trouble is with a mower you have to lean over it to get it on the centre of gravity. They are a bad thing to lift. And most of us at our age dont have knees strong enough to use our legs to lift!

Use a motorcycle jack if you can, or a transmission jack. Have a browse through ebay. Some wonderful devices on there for lifting cars etc, so even the poor quality ones would easily lift a mower.

I am lucky, I have a retaining wall in my yard that I use as an outdoor workshop. At the back of the retaining wall is a ramp. So its up the ramp and work from the low side of the wall.