Chain Hoists

Manual Hoists & Trolleys Buying Guide

Hand chain, lever, or air is the first fork. The drive decides most of the buy. A hand chain block is the default for straight vertical lifting: you stand under or beside the load and haul the hand chain, and it does not care whether power reaches the spot. Reach for the manual chain hoists shelf for that work. A lever hoist trades the hand chain for a ratcheting handle so you can pull, tension, and lift at angles a chain block cannot manage, which is why the lever hoists (come-a-longs) live in their own collection. When the job runs hard all shift, or lands in a paint booth or washdown bay, the pneumatic (air) hoists take over. Settle this question before you look at a single capacity, because it changes which whole shelf you are shopping.

Hand chain hoists, and what holds the load. A hand chain hoist multiplies your pull through a gear reduction, then parks the load on a Weston-type screw brake: two friction discs sandwich a ratchet pawl, and the weight itself clamps the discs shut through a coarse-thread screw, so the load holds the instant you stop pulling and lowers only against that friction. That mechanism is why a person can hold tons on a light hand chain. Capacity and lift are the two numbers to set. Our Bison blocks run 1/2 to 10 ton with 10 or 20 ft of chain, starting at $175, and the whole Bison range is gathered under Bison hand chain hoists for a fast value pick. The broader manual chain hoists collection is where the multi-brand ladder lives: the economical Harrington CF and the William Hackett WH-C4 at the entry end, Harrington's CB with its one-piece machined pinion and the CM Hurricane and Cyclone in the middle, and Chester Zephyr, OZ Lifting stainless, and spark-resistant models at the specialist end. Every foot of lift you buy adds hand chain to coil and store, so size the drop to the job and no further.

Lever hoists earn their place off the vertical. A lever hoist advances the load chain a click at a time as you crank the handle back and forth, and that gives it two things a chain block does not have: it works at any angle, and it doubles as a puller for tensioning, dragging, and pulling slack out of a rig. Those are the jobs on the lever hoists (come-a-longs) shelf. Short-handle mini units like the Harrington LX and the CM Mini, from around $313, get into tight spots and travel in a truck box; the Harrington LB, CM 653A, CM Tornado 360, and Coffing LSB step up in capacity and duty for production and rigging, and the OZ Lifting stainless model handles washdown and corrosive settings. A lever hoist and a chain block are not interchangeable: if the pull is straight down and repetitive, buy the block; if it is horizontal, angled, or a tensioning job, buy the lever.

Air hoists for duty cycle and the spark question. Air hoists answer two problems electric and manual units cannot. First, duty cycle: compressed air cools the motor as it runs, so a pneumatic hoist tolerates the near-continuous, start-stop production work that would overheat other drives, and it is infinitely variable from a crawl to full speed. Second, ignition: an air motor has no electrical arc, so spark-resistant and explosion-proof pneumatic hoists are the standard answer for hazardous locations where flammable vapor or dust is present. The pneumatic (air) hoists collection is built almost entirely on Harrington, from the compact AH Mini-Cat and the TCS Cheetah and TCK hook-mount units, which start around $915, up through the TCR series, the lube-free TCL and TWC washdown models for food and pharma, and the TCE EX spark-resistant line, plus the CM Shopair. You pay more up front and you need the air supply to feed them, so air earns its price on hours run and on where the hoist has to live, not on the lift itself.

Getting the hoist onto the beam. A hoist with a top hook hangs from whatever you give it, but most installs want it riding your steel, and that is the suspension points collection: trolleys and beam clamps from Bison, CM, Harrington, OZ Lifting, William Hackett, and Tandemloc. A beam clamp fixes a single lifting point on a flange in seconds with no travel, ideal for a one-spot pick or a temporary anchor, from about $96. A plain or push trolley rolls the hoist along the beam by hand and suits light loads, short spans, and occasional travel, from around $109. A geared trolley adds a hand chain for precise, controlled positioning under heavier loads and in tight clearance, and a motorized trolley powers the travel for production lines. Two rules govern the pick: match the trolley to the beam flange width and to the hoist capacity, and where headroom is scarce, look at the low-headroom and integrated trolley hoists that keep the load tight to the beam.

Size it, then check it against the standards. Rate the hoist for the whole hanging weight, not the bare load: add the hoist, the trolley, and the slings and shackles below the hook, then round up to the next capacity. Set the lift from the actual drop plus the reeving the hoist needs, and confirm the loaded unit still clears your headroom on its trolley. On the rules, hand chain and air-powered chain hoists fall under ASME B30.16, overhead underhung and stationary hoists, while lever hoists have their own volume, ASME B30.21. Both call for a frequent visual check before use and a documented periodic inspection on intervals that tighten as service gets heavier, with the load chain, hooks (watch the throat opening), and brake as the items that take a unit out of service. Keep the rated capacity legible on the hoist, and never load past it.