Kevin,
Remember - you asked. Here's the complete low-buck
solution.
Easy, mon. Just got some swivel pulleys at Home Depot, some
HD Nylon rope, a worm drive winch, a couple of old seat
belts, and a cleat.
Put a eye in a garage beam just above the back edge of the
side window (center of gravity of top). Make sure there is
enough room up there for the top when the garage door is
open. Use a screw hook and put a pulley next to the eye.
Put a pulley at the ceiling down the length of the garage.
Mount the worm drive directly under the last pulley (power
both ways and no flip latch and watch it drop or hang on.
About $34 at Harbor Freight & Supply). A few more pulleys,
if you need to mount this somewhere else and need to change
direction of the rope.
Run the nylon rope (use the smooth weave outer skin type of
at least a 3/8 diameter. Tie, or rope clamp one end to the
eye. put the rope through a pulley meant to lift the top,
then run it back to the pulley mounted next to the eye.
(You've just cut the effort to half the weight of the hood.)
Run the rope through the pulley at the rear ceiling, then
down to the winch. Put a spring loaded cleat on the hanging
pulley. Make up a LOOONG seat belt you can buy some for
pregnant ladies, or use two. The ends that usually bolt to
the floor have plates with holes (or sister hooks). These
get snapped to the spring loaded cleat. Run the belt around
the top at the rear edge of the window opening and adjust to
snap in center inside to top. Leave enough slack to be
comfortable putting it on, but not so loose as to hang too
low. Cover top with nice blanket (after cleaning and
waxing) and cover the edges where the belt goes around with
split foam tubing for house air conditioner tubes. Put some
rubber hoses (about 3/8) in the rubber window seals to keep
the edges from collapsing.
Start cranking. The top goes up to the ceiling for the
season. If you get tired of all those turns, you can attach
a drill motor (reversible 1/2" chuck) to the winch, or add
some pulleys and a reversible a/c motor (old garage door?).
If your really healthy, you can just pull on the rope or use
a boat winch, and cleat it off.
If you want even less effort, for a manual operation, you'll
need double pulleys to make the force 1/4 instead of 1/2.
I have a design for a aluminum tube metal holder, with "J"
hooks, if the seat belt idea isn't attractive.
Good luck, it is easy enough that even I can do it.
If you've got money, just go Jan's way, but mine is a DIY
method, and just misses the garage lights.
Tying to the latches is a good idea, for hoisting (per Rich
Atherton's comment) but it makes the top hang lower.
Allan's got a good idea with the conduit, through the same
place as my safety belt, but it applies a lot of local
pressure to the rubber. Need to spread that. I wouldn't
worry about Allan's head, it's hard enough. {9->
Steve
--
Steve Laifman < One first kiss, >
B9472289 < one first love, and >
< one first win, is all >
< you get in this life. >
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