Roof Raise - hat channel slider

[ewo1]

I just helped raise a roof for a friend this weekend and after many months of planning on how to do it safely and effectively, we used what I will call a "Hat channel slider".

I do not take credit for this technique as I saw it performed on a you tube video.
What impressed me with the video and this technique was on the video, the roof was raised by just one person!

IF I find a link to the video I will post it.

Basically we used a 1" square tube cut to 42" in length. We planned to have the square tube sit below the bottom of the window sill for strength and stability reasons.

We first drilled 1/2 hole on both top and bottom of our cut, approx. 6" on each side of the cut.

We used these holes to weld the square tubing on the top side of the cut, to hold the tubing in place. We also ran two small cords on the outside, top half of the main cut so as to also hold the square tube in place.

To get the 42" square tube down into the hat channel you will have to bang it in with a hammer so make sure you have no screws or rivets on the bottom half of the hat channel. Also make sure to move or reroute any wires in your way.

On a 13 row bus we used 4 tubes on each side.

For the lift we used "Yardarm" boat jacks and 4x4 posts. The yard arm jacks can extend approx. 12 inches but can lift 10k lbs. each.

Once the roof was free the lift was quite easy and surprisingly very stable.

The 1" square tubes we installed acted as sliders allowing us to lift and support the roof from sliding or kicking out on us.

Once we found the height we liked, 18" in this case, we did our final adjustments looking for a square lift and secured the bottom half of the square tube with C-clamps. Once secured we welded them in place.

Once those tubes are fully welded in, you can install the others one by one just make sure you constantly check your measurements, you don't want a lopsided roof!

[ewo1]

Ok, as promised I am posting the link to the video where one person safely performed a roof raise on his bus using the hat channel "Slider" technique I posted earlier.
I used the same method on a friends bus last weekend and it worked great.


This method works very well, watch the video.

https://youtu.be/GXWlk4AZOdQ?list=PL...0lMTILWvcmU-Ae

[Truffles]

Originally Posted by ewo1

I just helped raise a roof for a friend this weekend and after many months of planning on how to do it safely and effectively, we used what I will call a "Hat channel slider".

I do not take credit for this technique as I saw it performed on a you tube video.
What impressed me with the video and this technique was on the video, the roof was raised by just one person!

IF I find a link to the video I will post it.

Basically we used a 1" square tube cut to 42" in length. We planned to have the square tube sit below the bottom of the window sill for strength and stability reasons.

We first drilled 1/2 hole on both top and bottom of our cut, approx. 6" on each side of the cut.

We used these holes to weld the square tubing on the top side of the cut, to hold the tubing in place. We also ran two small cords on the outside, top half of the main cut so as to also hold the square tube in place.

To get the 42" square tube down into the hat channel you will have to bang it in with a hammer so make sure you have no screws or rivets on the bottom half of the hat channel. Also make sure to move or reroute any wires in your way.

On a 13 row bus we used 4 tubes on each side.

For the lift we used "Yardarm" boat jacks and 4x4 posts. The yard arm jacks can extend approx. 12 inches but can lift 10k lbs. each.

Once the roof was free the lift was quite easy and surprisingly very stable.

The 1" square tubes we installed acted as sliders allowing us to lift and support the roof from sliding or kicking out on us.

Once we found the height we liked, 18" in this case, we did our final adjustments looking for a square lift and secured the bottom half of the square tube with C-clamps. Once secured we welded them in place.

Once those tubes are fully welded in, you can install the others one by one just make sure you constantly check your measurements, you don't want a lopsided roof!

Thank you for this. We are planning out our roof raise tonight, and remembered seeing this video but couldn't remember how to search for it.

It really stood out because of how much safer this is than the wobbly all-thread lifts.

[mmoore6856]

before welding the bottoms i used a piece of 2x2 angle iron 3/8 thick with c clamps to keep the channels inline with each other. i also staggered my cuts on the channels so not to have a seam.