Help! Roof fell during raise

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Alcoholics that drink coffee and smoke cigarette's make the best welder's?
Cause they already have a natural weave/shake coming out of there hand/body?

[Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

Alcoholics that drink coffee and smoke cigarette's make the best welder's?
Cause they already have a natural weave/shake coming out of there hand/body?

Have to say the best welder I knew always chain smoked camels, and was an alcoholic. As a kid I picked dandy lions for him. As I got older I found out he made dandy lion wine. I did try a sip of it and it was good. Other then that I do not have a taste for alcohol.

[trx]

You can ignore this post, I see you got it back on...

Do you have access to a pole building the bus can fit in? If so you could use a couple come-a-long's and straps to lift it.

[blissout]

Originally Posted by trx

You can ignore this post, I see you got it back on...

Do you have access to a pole building the bus can fit in? If so you could use a couple come-a-long's and straps to lift it.

Interesting, but no I didn't have a building available.

[ThemadTurk]

just a thought, couple sections of scaffolding on each end on both sides.
run a 6 x 6's or maybe 4 x 4's through the windows resting on the scaffolding
bottle jacks under the 6 x 6 or 4 x 4
invite 3 friends over to help man the jacks
once its high enough ,
invite more friends over to slide it back centered over the bottom section
but i know its not quite that simple but you get the idea lol

[Dave]

Hello,

You could use 6-8 large roll around floor jacks. Space them evenly inside the bus, then use 4X4 's wedged in between the jack plate and the underside of the roof. Work them up slowly a pump or two at a time. Its best to have 2-4 people taking turns while working together. We've used this method several times in the past to raise/level out floor joist and also roof trusses in older homes. Hard hats and multiple people are a must!

[Dave]

I really like the horizontal 4X4 through the window idea. Use could them attached vertical 4X4's using L brackets. Place the floor jacks on the ground under the vertical 4X4's and then raise slowly. Much better than being inside, but would still say hard hats and multiply people a must.

[Dave]

Sorry, You could then attached vertical 4X4's...

[Gnasher]

take as many as needed lengths of 6" x 6" timbers probably 3' to 4' in length to build a ,"Birdcage", that is , timbers arranged in a box , with each layer set at right angles to each other.... one at each end of the roof inside the bus.....then another birdcage or two, to put the jack onto which you can do one end at a time until the required height is attained. I have been a Rigger in the UK for 50 years and I have used this method to lift a load of over 250 tons ...Using more timber obviously but to this general principle

[JocelynDavis]

Hopefully this has been resolved otherwise, call up your local welding companies. They probably have a crane of some sort.
Cheers!

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Originally Posted by trx

You can ignore this post, I see you got it back on...

Do you have access to a pole building the bus can fit in? If so you could use a couple come-a-long's and straps to lift it.

hey TRX hope your doing well.
i have a few questions if you dont mind?
how well does your 8.2 turbo move your bus?
did you boost it up any from factory?
i have the 8.2 n/a at 175 and want to do something with it and no i know i just cant throw a turbo on it cause it doesnt have enough head bolts.
Besides a governor spring change do you have any ideas or knowledge of your 8.2 that might help?
thanks for any advice and sorry for the thread hijack blissout but i am glad you got your roof back up safely'

[Pusher]

Those angle brackets look like the problem with the attempted raise

[HamSkoolie]

All the roof raises I've seen using allthread and brackets (and I watched hundreds of hours of videos before we started our bus search) ONLY used the allthread and brackets to stabilize, and support, not to lift.
Lifting was done by hydraulic bottle jacks.
A 4x4 timber was placed laterally from window to window.
Another 4x4 was placed vertically on top of the jack at the center of the lateral 4x4.
Each end was then raised to the max height of the bottle jacks, the allthread being constantly adjusted to take up all slack.
The allthread then supported the lifted structure at one end as the jack was lowered and cribbing placed under it.
The process was repeated until the desired height was met.


I've seen other methods.....

The most memorable one used 4 farm jacks........ OMG these boys kept reaching through from inside the bus to manipulate the farm jacks on the outside of the bus. The jacks were horribly attached and every time they reached through to the jacks I could see an arm being severed.

[EastCoastCB]

We raised using just the all-thread. No need for jacks. CaddillacKid and a couple other folks were there- we all had a wrench and even my wife helped. took about maybe 10 minutes to actually raise.

[Elliot Naess]

Farm jacks worked well for me, but they are overkill. Two or three guys can lift one end of the roof.
The important part is having sturdy guides.

[HamSkoolie]

I haven't seen a vid where the allthread was the lift mechanism but I'll keep my eye out. That it works is just another option out there....and yes.....GOOD SUPPORTS AND GUIDES are important.


Farm jacks on the INSIDE..... now why didn't the guys I watched do it like that? LOL

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

I haven't seen a vid where the allthread was the lift mechanism but I'll keep my eye out. That it works is just another option out there....and yes.....GOOD SUPPORTS AND GUIDES are important.


Farm jacks on the INSIDE..... now why didn't the guys I watched do it like that? LOL

In this pic IC08 posted, you can see the nuts on each end. Crank the bottom nut down, roof goes up, crank the top nut up, roof goes up. Simple, crank to desired height, add C and Hat and start welding.

I might not do this in a windy area, but level calm, no problem.

[HamSkoolie]

I'm a bit more safety minded considering my background where a miscalculation would kill me or others....... Explosives, SCUBA diving, pilot, Quality Assurance inspector, HazMat storage, Armory and Range officer, and probably a couple other "inputs" to my thought processes.
Looks that would work but I'd certainly want more, and more sturdy, support. My concern would be ANY side load causing failure.

[Bus'n it]

I put three supports on each side and two 4x4 blocks on each end to do the actual lifting then using the nuts to hold in position.