twofer: lifts and hauling

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In AD9-420 Danny asks about cargo haulers: "I have a question regarding SUVs
(yes, I need to carry stuff). I have a 164 that I can carry people in, but
it's really awful to carry bricks, lumber, painting material, and lawnmowers
around in. What do you all suggest to be a good vehicle to carry construction
material in? I live in the city and don't quite trust an open bed truck. Turn
around and someone's scooped your tools out of the bed! So what do you
suggest? A hatch, station wagon, or SUV?"

Two other options are a van (non-'S') and a rental trailer, which may or may
not be suitable depending on frequency of use. I've owned a couple of
Volksvans and a current (1989) Mazda MPV, plus a couple of roofracks (on a
Giulia Super, Berlina and GT Veloce) and a few trailer hitches, (on an MG TD,
MG 1100, Volksbeetle, Giulia, Berlina, and the three vans) but no SUV yet, nor
expected. If you carry construction tools every day, a utility van is
justified, but for more varied and more occasional use (e.g., a parts-car on a
tow dolly, or picking up a four-post lift at the freight yard) a proper hitch
and an appropriate U-Haul rental are hard to beat, with a good roofrack for
anything it will handle - ladders, lumber, furniture (e.g., hauled an oversize
Stickley Morris chair 300 miles on a light Italian 'portatutti' on the GT
Veloce).

Tom Callahan and Ralph Fetsch both mentioned Stinger lifts, which is the brand
I bought (in '97) and carted home on a $6 rental trailer. Don't know what is
currently available - shop around - but at that time most of the home-market
lifts seemed to be fairly crude assemblies of standard structural shapes from
the steelyard, and the Stinger had nicely thought-out brake-formed sections,
the platforms out of diamond treadplate, and a good selection of options -
lengths, widths, heights, accessories. The icing on the cake was that it was
powder-coated (the competition were painted) with black posts and the
platforms a red close enough to AR 514. There were also overdone graphics, but
all peel-off. Aesthetics may not be the first consideration, but if there is
no cost penalty or operational detriment one might as well have neat detailing
and attractive finish even in a simple utilitarian garage convenience.

There may be better options now, but that was then. Shop around, and enjoy
yours.

John H.
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