Davit Crane

Davit Cranes Buying Guide

One crane, many bases: how a davit earns its keep. The point of a davit crane is that the boom and its winch are portable while the base stays put. Buy one crane, drop a base at every spot the lift repeats, and carry the boom from station to station instead of buying a fixed crane for each. Our OZ Lifting and Thern lines are built around that split: the crane ships with a winch and wire rope, and the base is a separate line item you order per location. OZ offers a socket base that sets into a floor or structure, a bolt-down pedestal base, a wall mount base, and a wheel base that rolls the crane on casters where the floor is smooth and level. Thern sells matching bases across its portable and transportable series. Size the number of bases to the job rather than the crane, because a handful of sockets at scattered stations still costs a fraction of a dedicated crane at each one.

Rate the crane to the whole lift, at the reach you actually use. The rated capacity has to cover the load plus the rigging, hook, and any block hanging below the boom, so total the worst case and round up to the next size. The lines here stack neatly by weight. OZ Lifting's steel davit comes in 500, 1,000, and 2,500 lb, and the telescoping Tele-Pro matches that spread. Thern's portable and transportable series run 500 to 3,000 lb, with the stationary 5FT davits reaching 2,000, 2,800, and 5,500 lb. REID's PDQ aluminum davits are rated 1,100 and 1,320 lb. Vestil's truck-mounted unit handles 500 to 1,000 lb. One trap catches first-time buyers: a davit's safe rating often drops as the boom extends, so read the capacity at the reach and boom angle your work needs, not the headline number on the tallest, shortest-reach setting.

Pick the base before you pick the boom. The base decides the install, so choose it first. A socket base sets flush into a floor or welds to a structure, and the crane lifts straight out when the lift is done, which is the setup that makes one crane serve many points. A pedestal base bolts down as a permanent fixed station. A wall mount base hangs the davit off building steel where floor space is tight. A wheel base puts the whole crane on casters for a unit that rolls between bays. Vestil's davit instead drops into a pickup for field service and roadside work. Whatever the base, it carries the full overturning moment of a loaded boom, so the slab, wall, or vehicle has to be sound and, for a fixed install, verified by a qualified engineer before the crane goes up.

Winch: hand crank, 12V DC, or 110V AC. Match the winch to where the lift happens. A manual carbon steel brake winch is the cheapest and needs no power, which suits occasional or remote lifts. A 12V DC winch runs off a truck or battery for mobile and outdoor work with no outlet nearby. A 110V or 115V AC winch is the choice for daily duty within reach of power. OZ Lifting offers all three across its steel, Alumi-LITE, CompOZite, and ELITE davits, and Thern includes a winch and wire rope on every crane. Order spare wire rope and a rope holder with the unit. Winches carry their own safety standard, ASME B30.7, which covers construction, inspection, and maintenance, so keep the winch inspected on the same schedule as the crane and never side-wind or shock-load it. Manual and powered options both live in winches.

Steel, aluminum, composite, and the special-reach models. Material sets the price and the handling. Steel is cheapest for the capacity, with OZ Lifting's steel davit starting under $900, and it takes shop abuse, but it is heavy to move by hand. Aluminum flips that: REID's one-person PDQ, Thern's Commander AL, and OZ's Alumi-LITE weigh a fraction of steel so a single worker sets them up. Composite and carbon fiber solve a different problem: OZ's CompOZite and the carbon fiber CompOZite-ELITE are non-conductive and corrosion-proof, which is why they earn their higher price around marinas, water treatment, and live electrical work. Two models cover special reach. The Tele-Pro telescopes so one crane covers a range of boom heights and reaches, and the XR series is purpose-built for hoisting dinghies and small boats off a dock or seawall.

Standards, and the line between lifting material and lifting people. Everything above is material handling, and those davits and winches follow ASME B30.7 for winches. The moment a person rides the hook, the rules change and the equipment has to change with them. OSHA's permit-required confined space standard, 29 CFR 1910.146, calls for a mechanical retrieval device on vertical permit spaces more than 5 feet deep, and it requires the retrieval gear to be designed and rated for human use, meaning a full-body harness, a retrieval line, and an anchor built for personnel. Rescue-rated davits pair a personnel winch and anchorage built to the ANSI Z359 family: REID's Dual Winched TDavit, for one, is designed for fall protection and confined space entry and is tested to ANSI Z359.18. A material-rated brake or electric winch is never a substitute. If your davit does double duty for entry and rescue, spec the personnel side deliberately and pair it with the harnesses and lifelines in fall protection.