I was skeptical when i ordered - was not easy to install due to the stud configuration in my town house garage - but man does it ever work well

I’m generally pleased with the kit provided as it saves you from having to hunt down the hardware separately. That, of course, adds handsomely to the cost. The instructions are much too complicated for what is a fairly straightforward design. Functionally, the block in this kit is made for something much heavier than my rooftop box so it doesn’t descend easily when it release the jamb.

This is an excellent hoist. Considering doing other side of garage ceiling when the need for more storage arises. I built a custom size pallet to store some bulky items up high outta the way. Shopping and planning took a while (and painting). I took my time, to get it the way we wanted, and it took quite a bit of "time." Like others, am suggesting you too take your time for planning. Considered putting the pigtail bolts directly into rafters (and could have), but went with the recommended system structure (I mean, the hoist manufacturer recommends following the directions for a reason, right!!)? Regarding the instructions, IMO, the instructions are a bit choppy (some details were in some areas, but other details, for example, would be in an inset diagram). The information is there, just maybe not succinctly. Just take your time before drilling, and review install manual, then re-read prior to putting holes in wood or ceiling. Hope the pics give you some ideas along the way, as i reviewed others, and found maybe 3% of reviewers provided good images, and recommendations. The best guidance was from some youtube videos I searched long and hard to dig up. Technical Advice on Install: I found the 10 pc neodymium super strong magnets (easy purchase on Amazon) were extremely beneficial locating the rafter lines. The magnets find the nails in the rafters and stick to the ceiling attracted to the nail, so this helps you visualize the rafter line across your ceiling regardless if you have a stud finder or not. I do also recommend a stud finder to verify/confirm the center of the wood - but the magnets kind of get you started and help visually continue planning to bolt the 2x6's to the ceiling. One of my pics has the magnets showing what i'm trying to explain. For your precision lining up your mounting hooks to the ceiling pig tail bolts, recommend getting some string (cord) with a couple heavy washers, and holding that cord against your ceiling (while on your ladder), and seeing exactly where the corners of your object are, so you can precision mount your hookup points. After a week of marveling t my install project, I thought few a couple of *important* (for piece of mind) afterthoughts.... and took action to address them in the garage. This leads to another technical tip on this hoist, like I've seen others mention, once the hoist is in place and your object is overhead, the single welded eye (that the moving tackle and all the ropes attach to in the wall - a single bolt supporting all the weight of your object) does make you really desire (a lingering internal curiosity) to reinforce/beef up the single bolt that bears holding the weight into your wall.... so i have included pic of what i did to assist in securing the welded eye to my setup, and would imagine something similar could be done if coming straight out of your wall plate, with some wire rope eyes bolted to the plate on left/right side, fastened with lag screws and heavy duty washers. (So i took the welded eye 2x6 bolted into wall, took it down temporarily to adopt my support plan). Tensioned down the wire, twisted it once around, and secured it to another adjacent board i installed (see pic). The 2x4 i cut out pre-slots with skillsaw, so the wire rope isn't chaffing on the 2x4. All of this now holds the welded eye nice and tight, now in both directions. Once pallet hoisted in place, suspended in are, as another after thought, and for added piece of mind, i also added a paracord 550 (1/4" thick), with CamJam XT locking tie down tighteners on both sides (center 2 rafters) to ratchet off a little tension of the 4 main hoist lines, simply to take some tension off of the four main lines. This is a quick disconnect setup before we would lower the pallet, anytime we want to lower the pallet, just pull out the rope from the cam (on both sides, a quick snatch), and aweigh we come down. Again this was for extra insurance and piece of mind (see pic). Finally, want to mention your rope management (you'll want to ensure the extra rope is not in the way when your object is up in place), and we installed large cleats to line up a guide to ensure no snares or chafing; and to also both support the load, and to manage the excess rope that will be overflowing when you lift your object). We went with the 200lb capacity (posting the "review" both here, and separately posted on the 200lb hoist link), in the event we wanted to put a few more things up outta the way on the pallet. Again, from most reviewers posting here, i didn't see great images, nor tips to get around some tricky planning - so wanted to share. Pallet weight is 87 lbs, so we have plenty of space and weight to add onto the pallet if/when that should occur. Hope this review helped, and BTW, you'll be very pleased once you get this in place. Really happy with this hoist, and just what freed up lots of walking space in our garage!!! It's easy, but does take clarity of thought and planning - just take your time, and enjoy the project. You're going to go up and down ladder many times, and you'll go to the hardware store more than once - but you'll be thrilled when you hoist up your gear - you'll take pics and send to several of your buddies. Enjoy.

Bought this for our tiny house to lift our bed up during the day as my office desk is underneath. It works great! Very happy!

Researched many similar products along with reviews and finally settled on this one. I was influenced by Made in America, by known quality brand and the compounding lift effort through the block system. The quality of the product is impressive. While installation was not difficult, it took time. I used two (2) 7-foot 2x4s for the sides so that they would span four (4) ceiling joists on 24 inch center. I used a 4-foot 2x4 at the front for the gathering pulley, but the length will be determined by the spread between the side boards which is dependent upon the width of the item being hoisted. Boards are attached to the 10-foot ceiling with lag screws. Although the setup is simple, locating the ceiling joists was the most time consuming, even with a stud finder. Measuring and locating several times was necessary to avoid missing a ceiling joist. The end results were completely satisfactory with little effort to lift the boat level to the ceiling.

Was easy and simple to set up works like a charm would recommend this to anyone.money well spent!

we have 2 sea kayaks (16+17ft, 60-65lb each) and an 8.5' ceiling in our garage. Because of the much lower cost I tried T-hangers first, but you have to lift the kayak all the way to the ceiling first before you can slide them onto those hangers, then one is on the contraption bends and the clearance on the other side reduces. Additionally you need to leave horizontally a kayak-width space to lift up and slide onto those hangers - that's a total of 100" width and lifting 65lbs 8ft up isn't easy.So I bit the bullet and bought 2 Harken hoists. Unless your rafters are exposed or drywall is right on the rafters, you'll need some 2x4. Hardware is complete and awesome. Took me a few hours to position everything exactly how I wanted it, but once it was up, it's totally awesome and child's play to lift or drop them. Adjusting the rope lengths on the 4 hoist points takes a while, but is quite easy.If you have an even higher garage, you can align your kayaks with your roof carrier and drop them straight onto the carrier (garage door closed). In our case there wasn't enough clearance above the garage door tracks for that.Manual is very comprehensive, detailed and well described. FOLLOW IT.I normally put the kayaks in keel down, then turn them over once they are hoisted half way up, which is really easy when they're hanging in these strapsIssues:- because it's block and tackle, by the time you have the load at the ceiling you'll have a 60 foot pile of rope at your feet, would be nice to have something included to wind up the rope- distance between rope organizer (dual ball bearing) and wall mount needs to be more than hoist height, so ensure you have sufficient wall distance (I originally wanted the pulley at the stern of the boats, but due to too short distance to wall had to move it to the bow side in my garage)- info only shows it's for 12ft ceilings, but doesn't mention lengths of rope pieces and how that affects the spacing between wall, organizer and the 4 hoist points. Even though my garage is only 8.5ft, the 12ft one is just barely long enough to let me drop the kayaks to the floor as I have rather large spacing between front and rear hoist points.Download the installation manual before you get the item to prepare yourself. Get a longer version (12ft vs 10ft) if in doubt. You can swap the ropes quite easily if they should be too short. Once installed it's rock-solid.

best done with two people but works very well to hold two kayaks (stacked) and their trailers

I bought this product for a customer of mine who wanted to store a kayak above his garage door. The directions are pretty straight forward and the quality of the hardware is decent. It wants you to tie the ropes to the straps with a pretty complicated knot detailed in the directions. I gave up on the knot after about 4 attempts, I think you need to be an Eagle Scout to figure it out (which I am knot ... get it? knot? ... puns are funny). Make sure you have enough clearance above your garage door to store your kayak. My customer's fit, but it only had about 2" of clearance. It seems a little overpriced for what it is which is why I gave it 4 stars.