An easier way to “feather” when lowering an engine

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Righty Tighty

Blame it on the dog
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Hey FABO! Please forgive me if this is either common knowledge or has been shared here before, but my pops taught me a pretty ingenious way to feather the cherry picker when lowering a load.

I seem to have trouble with that first release, since the hoist is under load and the handle is such a small thing to be twisting with finesse. What usually ends up happening is I’ll start with a little force, in an attempt to gently initiate the descent, but since it’s difficult to sort of micro-adjust the handle, it’s all or nothing. And then the load lowers quickly until I can adjust and slow it down.

So here’s what my dad does. He attaches a vise grip to the cherry picker handle, so that it’s perpendicular to the handle. He then uses the vise grip to twist the handle. The added leverage allows the user to “feather” a heavy load much easier.
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Such a simple solution for such a critical operation. I hope this helps someone, because it sure helped me!
 
Yes good idea! But go one further. Just put the vice grips right on the turn screw for lowering and leave them there. Forever. No more moving the handle to go up/down.

I saw an old engine hoist from the 70’s and it had a handle on there like a water faucet and it had good Feathering control.
 
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I have a cheap wrench on mine that just fits the tang.

Simple physics- you can control the valve's position in a much finer way with a larger arc.
 
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