New Lange electric hoist for bronco 2/4 door.

[Nc211]

The 4-door hoist does it with the center piece still attached to the rear shell, and is suspended in the air from the front of the center piece, no support from the bar to the joint area of the center piece and rear shell.

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[Nc211]

Installed the Lange hoist today. Pretty simple, but hit a snag with leveling it until I realized the problem - too much cable and spooling differences between the two cables. The winch didn’t want to spool evenly despite pulley placement or how many times I unwound and tried to reload. So one would be overlapping like a mess while the other was ok, and then the other would be a mess while the other was ok. The fix? Cut the cable length to what you need. I set mine to the floor, and cut the rest off (about 12 feet worth. Then it was fine. Also - the manual mentions an 1/2 inch offset for the front pulley (which I purchased at Tractor Supply as the kit only comes with 1). If you do it like mine, pay attention to that offset! Makes the difference between a straight angle or being sideways when storing it.

overall? Pretty slick. The money is in the dual wire winch.

 

[Mlarv]

Installed the Lange hoist today. Pretty simple, but hit a snag with leveling it until I realized the problem - too much cable and spooling differences between the two cables. The winch didn’t want to spool evenly despite pulley placement or how many times I unwound and tried to reload. So one would be overlapping like a mess while the other was ok, and then the other would be a mess while the other was ok. The fix? Cut the cable length to what you need. I set mine to the floor, and cut the rest off (about 12 feet worth. Then it was fine. Also - the manual mentions an 1/2 inch offset for the front pulley (which I purchased at Tractor Supply as the kit only comes with 1). If you do it like mine, pay attention to that offset! Makes the difference between a straight angle or being sideways when storing it.

overall? Pretty slick. The money is in the dual wire winch.

Dang I never thought of doing it like that. It would give me another 14 inches of lift. I have a 2 door so it should be a bit easier.

 

[Mscdman]

Installed the Lange hoist today. Pretty simple, but hit a snag with leveling it until I realized the problem - too much cable and spooling differences between the two cables. The winch didn’t want to spool evenly despite pulley placement or how many times I unwound and tried to reload. So one would be overlapping like a mess while the other was ok, and then the other would be a mess while the other was ok. The fix? Cut the cable length to what you need. I set mine to the floor, and cut the rest off (about 12 feet worth. Then it was fine. Also - the manual mentions an 1/2 inch offset for the front pulley (which I purchased at Tractor Supply as the kit only comes with 1). If you do it like mine, pay attention to that offset! Makes the difference between a straight angle or being sideways when storing it.

overall? Pretty slick. The money is in the dual wire winch.

I thought all you needed to do to level it was make one loop of the Crosby clamps into the eyelet longer than the other.? You had to actually cut the wire in the spool??

@HeliPilot is this what you had to do??

How close is the top to your ceiling when fully raised?

How tall are your ceilings?

 

[Mscdman]

Installed the Lange hoist today. Pretty simple, but hit a snag with leveling it until I realized the problem - too much cable and spooling differences between the two cables. The winch didn’t want to spool evenly despite pulley placement or how many times I unwound and tried to reload. So one would be overlapping like a mess while the other was ok, and then the other would be a mess while the other was ok. The fix? Cut the cable length to what you need. I set mine to the floor, and cut the rest off (about 12 feet worth. Then it was fine. Also - the manual mentions an 1/2 inch offset for the front pulley (which I purchased at Tractor Supply as the kit only comes with 1). If you do it like mine, pay attention to that offset! Makes the difference between a straight angle or being sideways when storing it.

overall? Pretty slick. The money is in the dual wire winch.

Why doesn’t your rig look straight?

PS - if you have tall ceilings you cannot use the safety stop if you have a wall mount unless you wall mount is placed far away from the pulleys. Meaning you can only travel the distance between the power unit and the pulley.

PS - you can order a 2nd pulley from Lange. That’s what I did

 

[HeliPilot]

I thought all you needed to do to level it was make one loop of the Crosby clamps into the eyelet longer than the other.? You had to actually cut the wire in the spool??

@HeliPilot is this what you had to do??

How close is the top to your ceiling when fully raised?

How tall are your ceilings?

No, I did not cut mine. Only needed to adjust with the clamps. And mine definitely does not hang crooked as depicted in the pics.

 

[Mscdman]

@Nc211 if looks like per your photos, the rig does not lift the top straight and does so at an angle. Is that true? I supppse if the two pulleys are off by 1/2 inch it wouldn’t raise straight. @HeliPilot thoguhts?

 

[Mscdman]

No, I did not cut mine. Only needed to adjust with the clamps. And mine definitely does not hang crooked as depicted in the pics.

I wonder why NC211 is saying his two spools unwind at different lengths…

 

[Nc211]

Sorry, let me clarify a couple of points. Mine is straight now. See in the photo that I had two 2x4’s? I ended up needing just one to get the 1/2 inch offset to work. The front pulley dictates the angle for left/right. I initially was trying to line up the pulleys to the center of their wire spools.

When I would raise it, it would either start pulling from the front too much first, or the back, or it would start fine and level but end up nose down by about a foot or nose up by about a foot. No two attempts would be the same. Then I noticed how it the wire was winding in each spool differently. One would be winding it fine, overlapping smoothly left to right and right to left, but the other would want to wind with a left side preference or a right side preference. This was causing mine to lift unevenly. Think of it as having your front right wheel at 16 inches in size as your front left wheel was at 18 inches in size. I noticed I had a lot of extra wire that was never going to be used, so I cut the excess to get each spool much smaller, and that did the trick. Needed bolt cutters to do it, and make sure you wrap where you’re going to cut in duct tape first to keep a smooth ending of the wire.

The safety stop is set to the front wire and gives me about a foot of slack to play with from the height of the bronco, but not to the floor. If I ever decide to lower it to the floor again, I will have to loosen up its wire clamp so it can slide freely on the wire. I decided that I doubt I will ever need to bring down to the floor again, as it is not ideal when trying to connect up the center piece of the hardtop. It doesn’t have the support of the car underneath it when putting it together (but a new bag of Costco paper towels underneath works well in a pinch). So when I decide to switch out from my soft top, I’ll remove the soft top first, store it (haven’t figured that part out yet), and then back the Bronco underneath the hard top and lower it down onto it.

 

[Nc211]

Here is a different photo as I was just about done (notice one 2x4 instead of the two I had earlier). You can see my point about duct taping the wire before you cut it (notice the front wire and the back).
I also only used one of the two wire nuts for the stopper. I didn’t see the point in needing the wire nut between the winch and the stopper, just the nut after the stopper to the pulley. When lowering, the stopper flows freely and therefore doesn’t try to force its way past the first pulley. But when raising it, the wire nut I did use eventually grabs the stopper and brings it to the winch.
My ceiings are around 12 feet. I needed this to be as close to the back of the garage as possible while still being able to get the bronco underneath. When I do put it back on, I will have to lower it onto the car, then pull forward to get the tailgate open to bolt it back down. If I had more room to work with, meaning a further away placement from the winch, then I would have had enough distance between the front pulley to the winch to lower it to floor regardless of the stopper location. And probably wouldn’t have needed to cut the wire length down.

Time will tell on the center joints. Making sure the front frame piece location is important for sure. You certainly want the front hook that holds the center piece of the HT to be snug against the front of the center piece to hold it together. If it’s not snug, I could easily see how the center piece joints could slide apart and be a problem.

 

[HeliPilot]

Sorry, let me clarify a couple of points. Mine is straight now. See in the photo that I had two 2x4’s? I ended up needing just one to get the 1/2 inch offset to work. The front pulley dictates the angle for left/right. I initially was trying to line up the pulleys to the center of their wire spools.

When I would raise it, it would either start pulling from the front too much first, or the back, or it would start fine and level but end up nose down by about a foot or nose up by about a foot. No two attempts would be the same. Then I noticed how it the wire was winding in each spool differently. One would be winding it fine, overlapping smoothly left to right and right to left, but the other would want to wind with a left side preference or a right side preference. This was causing mine to lift unevenly. Think of it as having your front right wheel at 16 inches in size as your front left wheel was at 18 inches in size. I noticed I had a lot of extra wire that was never going to be used, so I cut the excess to get each spool much smaller, and that did the trick. Needed bolt cutters to do it, and make sure you wrap where you’re going to cut in duct tape first to keep a smooth ending of the wire.

The safety stop is set to the front wire and gives me about a foot of slack to play with from the height of the bronco, but not to the floor. If I ever decide to lower it to the floor again, I will have to loosen up its wire clamp so it can slide freely on the wire. I decided that I doubt I will ever need to bring down to the floor again, as it is not ideal when trying to connect up the center piece of the hardtop. It doesn’t have the support of the car underneath it when putting it together (but a new bag of Costco paper towels underneath works well in a pinch). So when I decide to switch out from my soft top, I’ll remove the soft top first, store it (haven’t figured that part out yet), and then back the Bronco underneath the hard top and lower it down onto it.

I knew what your issue was as mine did the same thing on my first use. But I raised and lowered mine a few times and adjusted the Crosby clamps each time until it raised and lowered evenly. I did end up with two different length tails at the clamps. I taped and clipped the tails down to the same length once it was raising and lowering evenly.

 

[Nc211]

I think for me, it would have been a lot easier had I done this while the HT was still on the car. I was spooling up probably twice the normal amount realistically by having to go to the floor. Initially, I did the exact same thing as you and had it perfectly level. But the more I moved it up and down, the more uneven it became, which led me to the excess cable length that I had per my setup limitations. I think if I had more distance between the pulleys and the winch, it would have been easier for it to spool better. Overall I am quite happy with it and glad I bought it. Glad to have the HT off the floor and out of harms way too. As you can probably tell, we have kids, who are constantly in the garage.

 

[Mscdman]

I knew what your issue was as mine did the same thing on my first use. But I raised and lowered mine a few times and adjusted the Crosby clamps each time until it raised and lowered evenly. I did end up with two different length tails at the clamps. I taped and clipped the tails down to the same length once it was raising and lowering evenly.

I’m hoping this is how it works for me too. How much did you end up clipping off for one of the tails? Hoping it’s not 12 feet! I don’t think it was designed to have to work like that…

 

[HeliPilot]

I’m hoping this is how it works for me too. How much did you end up clipping off for one of the tails? Hoping it’s not 12 feet! I don’t think it was designed to have to work like that…

No, only a few inches

 

[Nc211]

Kind of hard to see against the garage floor, but here is one of the snipped ends. I’d say that’s roughly 10-12 feet of cable. Honestly, the intended install method of the winch being directly over the top, having that much cable doesn’t really make that much sense to me unless you have a commercial grade garage or an RV garage. But also wouldn’t make much sense for the manufacturer of the winch to offer it in different cable lengths either, just a one fits all instead. Yours may be different, your install skills may be better than mine and therefore it’ll spool correctly. I just had to “McGyver” mine a little to get it to work correctly for my install parameters.

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