The Hoisting Cart project, part 5: The Outriggers

  So far, when the load is on the boom (hoist) and the boom is pointed away from the cart, the whole thing is prevented from turning over by counterweights at the other end of the cart.

With the boom over the cart's deck, the load is inside both sets of casters - the cart is 2X longer than the boom.

 A reasonable nerd might ask, 'why not have outriggers which project toward the load - like a shop crane - instead of counterweights?'

 Forward outriggers on shop cranes really get in the way.  Every time, without exception.  Ask me how I know this.  The outriggers on shop cranes project forward so far that the crane boom cannot approach the work.  Been there, done that, bought the black satin tour jacket.  So counterweights it is.

 Which are fine until we swing the load around, because this cart is narrower than it is long, like most 4-wheeled carts, I suppose.  When the boom is at 90º to the long axis of the cart, the load will pull the whole thing right over.  Well, shoot.  Part of the point of having a 360º rotating boom is to be able to put things on its own cart to move them.  I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I didn't want that.

 So now we need outriggers anyway.  But now, the outriggers can go straight out the sides, directly supporting the weakest overturning direction.  With them, we can have guaranteed stability* in 360º, at least it sounds good.

 The boom swings 24in off centerline, and I would be foolish to assume someone won't carelessly swing a load at an angle, moving it outside that 24in circle.  So it made sense to me that the outriggers need to reach at least 36in from centerline.  Note that when using the electric hoist, the vertical load line will never be at the end of the boom; there is some built-in "fudge factor" there, in my favor.

 What this looks like in practice, I think, will be this:

 Both ends of the outrigger tubes will be closed, and the outboard ends get simple jack screws, made from coupling nuts and threaded rod.  I might have some nice machine feet for the bottom, we'll see.

 These outriggers socket into a larger tube that extends across the full width of the bottom deck for strength - lots of force will appear on these outriggers.  (This tube does not exist yet and must be fabricated from straps.) And the socket openings are probably going to get stout collars to prevent them from tearing out.  Lots of force, etc. and I note these outriggers, much like the boom, are life-safety, cannot-fail items.  Ahem.  There is no sin in over-analyzing, over-engineering, or over-building, these parts.  Some real-world crane builders have found this out the hard way.  I watch YouTube videos.

When not in use, each outrigger will stow beneath the bottom deck, I hope. They will be retained in the sockets by hardware store spring clip pins.

*(ahem, wheel chocks are probably a good idea, despite outrigger feets.  Product not intended for other than ruler-flat, perfectly level floors, cough, wheeze.  There's nothing stopping me from putting jack screws at the other and, which I might do.  That would give a wider "wheel base" for the major counterweight to sit inside of, further discouraging turnover on that end, and partially unloading the outriggers... gee, when I put it that way, I guess I really will have to do that.)