How to use Pulleys to lift Heavy Objects

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Welcome back to the OSM channel. Task at hand today, I need to remove this 200-lb stainless steel sap tank out of the back of my truck and I want to move that into a utility trailer.

[00:00:09]We will have to find a permanent mounting location for this tank at some point in the future, but for right now I got to get that out of the back of the truck. Only trouble is I don't have a crane, I don't have a tractor, I don't have a bunch of guys to help me out, so how am I going to get this out of the back of the truck? Well, mechanical advantage.

[00:00:25]I'm going to try pulling this out of the back of the truck with a couple of pulleys, maybe a 4:1 or 5:1 system. So, I have the truck parked underneath a tree branch that is definitely strong enough to hold 200 lb. So, first thing we have to do is rig a rope up into the notch. So, to get our rigging line up into that notch, I'm going to be using an arborist throw line. This is a special, very strong line in conjunction with a 16-oz throw weight. I do have a slingshot, but I'm not going to use that. I'm simply going to use this triangular swing between your legs method. So, the idea is, you know, let some slack out, maybe 2 ft. And then when you're ready to launch, you bend your knees, lift up, and you launch the weight and throw line up over that branch. And then from there we should be able to pull over our rigging line. Now, it's probably a smart idea to move the truck, so let's do that.

[00:01:22]Missed my first shot. We'll try it again.

[00:01:28]There it is.

[00:01:30]That's beautiful.

[00:01:32]One target.

[00:01:41]If it seems like I'm rushing, well, I kind of am.

[00:01:44]We got a thunderstorm on the way and daughter's currently taking a nap. I'm on baby duty today, so got to try and knock this out within the next hour. Once she wakes up, then all bets off.

[00:02:03]All right, so our shot line is over our intended branch.

[00:02:07]Now, in order to attach the throw line or shot line to the rope, I'm going to tie a clove hitch. Clove hitch pretty simple to tie. Easiest way to do it.

[00:02:18]Overhand.

[00:02:20]Overhand.

[00:02:21]And you take the right loop, put it underneath the left loop.

[00:02:25]That's your clove hitch right there.

[00:02:27]Put the rope through the hitch.

[00:02:30]Tighten it up.

[00:02:32]And now we should be able to pull this rope right over that notch. Clouds are getting darker.

[00:02:45]So, I have my rigging line up over that notch. In order to attach this line to my pulleys, simply going to tie a bowline.

[00:02:53]Nice thing about a bowline, it's easy to tie and you can put a tremendous amount of weight on this knot and not have to worry about it cinching up on you.

[00:03:05]All right, I have my second pulley and my pulley rope and I've attached pulley rope to this second double pulley by way of a quick link and another bowline.

[00:03:30]This is actually got to be flipped.

[00:03:33]That's not a big deal.

[00:03:43]So, what we have now is a 5:1 pulley system. A mechanical advantage device. Now, the great thing about this, in theory, for every pound of downward pull, we should get a about 5 lb in theory, but you have to deduct a little bit for friction loss and other factors. So, we'll say for every pound of downward pull, we should get about 4 and 1/2 to 5 lb of upward pull. So, for me to lift this 250-lb tank, should only require about 49-ish 50 lb of downward pull.

[00:04:25]So, this is the other end of the rigging line. Goes up over that notch to the pulleys. We do have to anchor the end of this rope. Figure we will wrap it around the base of this tree with clove hitch.

[00:04:41]There's our clove hitch with a safety knot.

[00:04:44]Now, this will stretch slightly, but for 200 lb, it's going to be fine.

[00:04:49]Final thing we have to do is set up our rigging on the tank, which when I was at Bascom Maple, the guy that lowered this in the back of the truck, just put a sling around around side around edge of this tank. So, we're just going to do the same with these 1-in tubular webbing.

[00:05:11]So, I have my webbing around the tank.

[00:05:13]I tied a water knot, which not the best, but water knot is the only approved knot for webbing.

[00:05:20]We have our rigging line set. Our pulley line is set.

[00:05:25]Make sure this pulls up in the center of this webbing.

[00:05:30]Webbing looks like it's about in the center of the tank.

[00:05:36]Let's see what happens here.

[00:05:46]Rigging line's got to go just a higher.

[00:05:49]Just a touch higher and then we'll be all right.

[00:06:00]So the plan is pull down on this line, lift the tank up, and then I'm going to drive the truck out. The question is, how do I prevent the tank from falling?

[00:06:07]How do we hold it in position?

[00:06:09]Well, I thought of that and what I'm going to use is Prusik's knot in conjunction with this loop of rope.

[00:06:16]Two double fisherman's overlapped.

[00:06:19]And this is probably, I don't know, this might be 5 or 6 mil rope. So we're going to tie a Prusik here. Now the cool thing about a Prusik knot, I'll show you in a second here, is when you apply pressure to the Prusik knot, it will actually grip down and hold tension on the larger diameter rope that it's tied around. So one hand, I can slide this Prusik knot up or down, but when I apply tension to that loop, it bites, grips onto the rope. And that's how we're going to hold this tank upright. I'm just going to clip this loop into a carabiner on the base of this tree over here.

[00:06:53]All right, let's give this a try.

[00:06:56]Hopefully everything is centered and pretty balanced.

[00:07:05]All right, tank's starting to come up.

[00:07:09]Double checking that things are balanced.

[00:07:14]Going to adjust my rigging a little bit.

[00:07:17]And I'm liking that a little bit better.

[00:07:39]That looks pretty good right there.

[00:07:43]Clip off my prusik on this carabiner.

[00:07:54]I do have to take the ratchet strap off the tank here.

[00:08:04]All right, that looks good. Now we'll try driving the truck out.

[00:08:28]That looks good.

[00:08:31]Baby still sleeping. I'm going to park the truck in the garage, grab the lawn mower, lawn mower trailer, and we'll try and lower this tank down on the lawn mower trailer.

[00:08:59]All right.

[00:09:01]And yes, I do have a winch crane attached to this trailer, but it just didn't have the height to get the tank out of the truck.

[00:09:09]So, should be able to drop this right in the trailer now.

[00:09:13]I actually can lower this by just sliding the prusik down the pulley line.

[00:09:21]And then if I let go, prusik still captures progress we've made.

[00:09:48]>> And I call that a success.

[00:09:52]There you go, folks. It just goes to show you with some basic equipment, knowledge of knots, basic understanding of gravity, and simple machines, you too can achieve great things when you set your mind to it. I'd like to thank you for watching. If you're interested in a set of pulleys or ropes like I have in today's video, I'll leave links in the description down below. Affiliate links. Got to try and make a few dollars somewhere.

[00:10:17]Thanks for watching.

[00:10:19]I'll catch you on the next one.

[00:10:21]The baby's still sleeping.

[00:10:23]And I think we beat the storm. Today is a good day.