RTV900 Bed Crane

For that price I'd try it. Personally, I'd add a 1/4" plate under the bed the size or larger than the base of the lift for strength. If the bed still flexed then you could add a support from the top of the lift to the bed side or rail.

Should work with a little effort.
 
I haven't done it much but it does work. I've done it to hoist deer into the bed of the RTV. This also assumes you have a winch on the front of your RTV, preferably with Amsteel blue rope instead of metal cable.


Spool out the rope from your winch and route it up and over the roof of your RTV and out the back to behind the RTV. I tilted the bed up so I could hoist into the bed. Connect your winch cable/rope to whatever you want to pull or lift. Start pulling your winch cable in until your load is right where you want it. I'm assuming you only want the front of you logs off the ground so they don't dig in when driving.

If this is an option for you, you may want to use something to protect your grill guard and roof so the rope doesn't mark them up.
 
My purpose for the bed crane is to skid and lift tree debris onto the chipper feed table.
Its not needed for loading material onto the RTV bed.

I was thinking of parking the RTV aside of the chipper to help with that.

A winch or crane mounted to the chipper would be ideal but there is no convenient mount location for that.
 
The foundation is your weak point. Nothing on the 900 is strong enough to take the stress of skidding. Such rigs that bolt in the bed of 3/4 tons pickups are cheap. You must have one big chipper
 
v10rick said:
My purpose for the bed crane is to skid and lift tree debris onto the chipper feed table.
Its not needed for loading material onto the RTV bed.

I was thinking of parking the RTV aside of the chipper to help with that.

A winch or crane mounted to the chipper would be ideal but there is no convenient mount location for that.
Click to expand...

could you adapt to the receiver hitch? and maybe two stabilizer ropes chain or cable attached to the front corner bed tie downs???
 
Lee1935 said:
The foundation is your weak point. Nothing on the 900 is strong enough to take the stress of skidding. Such rigs that bolt in the bed of 3/4 tons pickups are cheap. You must have one big chipper
Click to expand...

A 12" turbo diesel machine but I seldom chip trees over 6".

Mostly ash on the property, which is easy enough to load manually. Gum, oak, elm can be a struggle.
 
aurthuritis said:
could you adapt to the receiver hitch? and maybe two stabilizer ropes chain or cable attached to the front corner bed tie downs???
Click to expand...

Yes I have considered that.Too bad I don't have welding equipment/experience to fabricate something.

Was looking for an off the shelf solution. If its not a mega $$ job local welders cannot be bothered.
 
Keep in mind, any type of boom mounted in the bed will cause the bed to tip up, being held in place only by the hydraulics. Stack a few hundred pounds on the tailgate when it's down, you'll quickly see my point. The bed pivot location is barely aft of center. I want to be able to handle drums of heating fuel and thinking of some type of A-frame on the front of my machine. 50 gallons of #2 is about 350 lbs. Any ideas? I'm sure I'll need some way to lock the front suspension from bottoming out while in use.
 
foxalaska said:
Keep in mind, any type of boom mounted in the bed will cause the bed to tip up, being held in place only by the hydraulics. Stack a few hundred pounds on the tailgate when it's down, you'll quickly see my point. The bed pivot location is barely aft of center. I want to be able to handle drums of heating fuel and thinking of some type of A-frame on the front of my machine. 50 gallons of #2 is about 350 lbs. Any ideas? I'm sure I'll need some way to lock the front suspension from bottoming out while in use.
Click to expand...


While hauling logs weighing several hundred pounds I noticed the bed wanting to tilt up, but only a few inches. The logs extended a few inches past the flat tailgate.

If the dump bed lever is in the lock position, with the engine running, it can still tilt up?
 
In an "over center" state, the bed is held in place by oil trapped on the upper side of the hoist cylinder piston, running or not. If the piston seals and ram seals are in excellent condition the bleed over may be minimal, but it will get progressively worse as the seal wears. There's also bleed over in the spool valve(which holds the pressure in the "lock" position which is nothing more than the valve in a position not open to a return port. The ram seal is also getting subjected to pressure higher than normal as that side of the ram piston is for lowering the bed. Locking the front of the bed to the frame would be one way of getting around this.
 
Mine bled since the day I bought it, sitting on the tailgate it lifted. If I set a couple 100-200lb bee boxes on the tailgate it will raise... not good ;-)
 
Alaskanassasin said:
Mine bled since the day I bought it, sitting on the tailgate it lifted. If I set a couple 100-200lb bee boxes on the tailgate it will raise... not good ;-)
Click to expand...


Yep, from day one. I think its the spool valve. Tolerances are a little sloppy. It really hasn't been a problem for me because I keep my loads forward, but I'm thinking of getting a slip-in water tank and the cg may be aft of the bed pivot. I'll probably devise some mechanism to lock the bed to the frame, similar to an end gate latch on a dump truck.
 
foxalaska said:
I'm thinking of getting a slip-in water tank and the cg may be aft of the bed pivot.
Click to expand...
I hauled a tote with water and never had any bed tilting issues. I'd only fill it 1/2 full to keep the weight under 1000 pounds. I will say the water sloshing around that high off the ground did make the RTV a lot more tippy.
To lock it down, could you use the bed handles and strap it to the frame?
 

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