Below-the-Hook Lifting Devices

Machining & Welding Buying Guide

What below the hook means, and the code behind it. A below the hook lifting device is any engineered attachment that connects a load to the hoist hook and is a rated piece of gear, separate from the sling and the crane. Two ASME standards govern the category. ASME B30.20 covers the marking, construction, installation, inspection, testing, and operation of below-the-hook devices, and ASME BTH-1 sets the structural and mechanical design criteria they are built to. Every unit here arrives with a stamped working load limit and a data plate, and it belongs in your pre-use inspection routine alongside the slings and shackles. Buy to the working load limit and never above it. The rating assumes the device is loaded the way M&W designed it to be, so off-angle picks, side loads, and improvised rigging points are how a rated device fails below its number.

Pallet lifters, the workhorse of the page. Pallet lifters are the most-searched item in this collection because they let a crane or hoist move a loaded pallet straight up and over without a forklift in the aisle. The frame slides under the pallet with a bale (the lifting eye) at the top for the hook. The fixed bale pallet lifters come rated at 2,000, 4,000, and 6,000 lb from about $4,600, with a single central bale that self-centers over the load. The dual bale pallet lifters add an 8,000 lb option and two lift points from near $2,900, for longer or off-center pallets. Where pallet width varies, the wheeled adjustable pallet lifters near $4,700 set to the load. Lighter work is covered by the pallet lifting bars sold as a pair, about $2,100, while the pallet lifting cage near $5,000 surrounds the pallet so nothing shifts off the edge in transit. Size the working load limit to a full pallet, and confirm the pallet can take an edge lift before you leave the floor.

Material baskets and bins. Material baskets turn the crane into a bulk mover for loose stock, offcuts, scrap, and long material that no sling holds cleanly. The fixed side baskets are the base pattern, rated from 2,500 lb up to a 6,000 lb sloped-end version in 48 by 96 and 48 by 120 inch sizes for long stock. Drop side baskets add a hinged side so a worker loads and unloads from the aisle without reaching over the wall, and they can be ordered with casters to double as a floor cart between lifts. Swing door baskets, offered in a 52 inch and a 172 inch length, open at the end for pipe, bar, and extrusions that feed in lengthwise. Baskets are rated by contents weight, so weigh or estimate a full load before the first pick.

Personnel baskets and the OSHA rule that governs them. Hoisting a worker is the one job on this page with its own federal rule. A crane-suspended personnel basket, the man basket, falls under OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1431, which permits hoisting people only when conventional access such as a lift, ladder, or scaffold would be more hazardous or is infeasible. The rule is strict. The platform and rigging must be proof tested to 125 percent of the basket rated capacity at each jobsite and after any repair, then held suspended at least five minutes with the test load evenly distributed, and every occupant wears a full body harness tied off independent of the crane. M&W personnel baskets run from 500 lb in a 34 by 40 inch size up to 2,000 lb at 48 by 94 inches, with a mid-rail option, roughly $7,400 to $12,800. The round personnel basket near $12,100 suits tank and column entry, and the rescue personnel basket near $18,100 is built to retrieve a downed worker. None of these replace reading 1926.1431 before the lift is planned.

Plate hooks and flat hooks. Steel plate is awkward because it wants to be picked on edge, and a plain hook will not hold it. The Grade 100 plate lifting hooks bite the top edge of a vertical plate and lift it on its side, rated at 4,300, 8,800, 15,000, and 22,600 lb and priced from about $400 to $1,200 as the working load limit climbs. Use them in matched pairs off a spreader or slings so the plate stays balanced. The alloy steel flat hooks, $183 to $329, come in 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 inch sizes rated 3,200 to 6,400 lb, in flat-bottom and round-bottom styles. The oversized clevis lifting hook near $540 and the load hooks sold as a pair cover heavier connections where a standard hook runs out of throat.

Specialty grabs and hooks. The rest of the collection is single-purpose gear for loads that defeat a general rig. The concrete barrier grab, about $8,980 and rated 9,000 lb, clamps a Jersey barrier by its shape. The reel lifter and turner, $656 to $801, picks and rotates cable and wire reels by the arbor, with a 500 lb version that lifts but does not tip. The insulated swivel hooks, $1,012 to $1,195, put a dielectric barrier between the load and the hoist for work near energized lines. Pipe lifting hooks as a pair, $450 to $743, cradle round stock; the manhole toggle key, $172 to $228, toggles through a cover hole to lift it; the bottle lifting device, $4,456 to $9,353, secures compressed gas cylinders for overhead moves; and the cast-in concrete pipe lifting ferrules, from about $62, thread into precast fittings so the pour carries its own lift point. Each carries its own working load limit and belongs in the same inspection cycle as the rest of your rigging.