Building a Canoe Pulley System

[SeldomSeen]

I have two Old Town 169s that I would like to store on the ceiling of a carport via a pulley system so theat they are easy to load and unload. Has anyone built one of these? I looked at some online, but they are kind of expensive, and their maximum weight is pretty close to the weight of a 169. Any ideas/pictures would be appreciated.

[damselfly]

my husband built a pulley system for me to store my kayak....the yak weighs 60 lbs....not sure what your canoes weigh.

it has about 7 pulley's and its secured off to the side with a cleat. there are two pieces of rope that work independently with two pulleys each and are connected to hooks that we put into two studs in the ceiling. the piece of rope that works the back end of the yak has an additional pulley that guides it back 'out of the way' when operating. then both ropes come back through two more pulleys that are above the cleat. i can raise and lower the yak by myself--- pretty cool system, but hard to explain....

[ColdWaterFshr]

I have an Old Town 158 that I store in my garage - hanging from rafters. While I would certainly love a pulley system to raise and lower its substantial heft, I think it might be more trouble than its worth. I just tied some loops with rope tied over the rafters, then I have rope loop handles permanently tied on the handles of my canoe, then S-hooks to connect the loops. If I was using my boat every couple days, I would definitely look into the pulley set-up. But getting down 9-10 times per year just ain't a big deal.

[SeldomSeen]

Thanks for the ideas folks.

Damselfly, I think the plans at the link below might be along the lines of what you're describing. Anyhow, I think I will work from this design. Need to get on it soon too. If I don't get them off the floor of the garage soon, my wife is going to strangle me!

http://www.gourmetcampers.com/html/canoe_storage_hoist.html

[damselfly]

Yes, that's very similar......actually that diagram looks to be a little simpler that what we did.............we had to complicate ours--- but it works!!!