Deck to support a Genie (not the aladdin kind)

[josh88]

Hey everybody,

I'm working on a show at the moment and its the first time I've had to build a deck that needs to support the weight of a genie as thats the only way to hang and focus in the space. We've got a awp 30 so I've been working with a 1000 pound figure (its 777lbs and then capacity is 350, but we don't have any one that will push that limit.) what precautions should I take? My worry is having that weight focused on the feet of the 4 outriggers. I'm not worried about the overall support being an issue since the deck is only 8 inches tall and will be sitting on top of the floor. I did the math and it comes out much higher than the typical 40psf from 16 inch on center. Is 12 inch on center the way to go or does someone have a better solution?

or am I calculating the psf of the genie wrong? since its 1000 distributed to 4 points.

 

[ptero]

Wouldn't the primary load remain on the wheels of the Genie? Not the outrigger pads? We only deploy the pads enough to trigger the safety switch. While it should be able to handle a full load to the pads, the normal loading is on the wheels which is a smaller footprint to consider. Good building...

 

[techieman33]

Wouldn't the primary load remain on the wheels of the Genie? Not the outrigger pads? We only deploy the pads enough to trigger the safety switch. While it should be able to handle a full load to the pads, the normal loading is on the wheels which is a smaller footprint to consider. Good building...

Yeah the load is on the wheels, if the load is primarily on the outriggers then your doing something wrong.

 

[josh88]

Thats part of why I was asking, I realized after the fact that I was thinking wrong. The pads take some of the load but it still mainly focused on a few points rather than evenly spread across the whole square footage of the genie. 1000lbs/11.25 square feet comes ut to 89psf, but 1000 pounds on 4 wheels is 250 pounds per wheel which is just a large person. But a genie has 6 wheels and the outriggers... I should probably wait to do this when I'm not on cold medicine, I feel like I've just overthought myself to confusion.

 

[JD]

One thing to keep in mind; loads are rarely static. If something moves, the dynamic pressure of each contact point goes through the roof. I would look for a way to have the genie on the floor, even if the riser needed to be constructed around it.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

What is deck topping? It's more important than the framing for these concentrated loads.

 

[josh88]

Deck top is up in the air at the moment. There's unfortunately no way around it, its a 25x20 oval and there's no reasonable way to reach the grid above to hang and focus without the genie. I'm open to other options but the design is what it is and I just have to figure out how to make it work.

 

[DuckJordan]

For those of you with these genies double check your manual. Ours specifically states the weight should be entirely on the pads.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I'd want to look at a plan but I suspect I'd calculate a lower psf than 89 based on using the footprint with outriggers, not just the rectangle described by the four casters. None the less, not that hard to design a wood floor deck for 90 psf but probably less would be fine. But its a combination of deck, framing - both spacing and depth, and the support of the framing. You mention dome vslues but i think there are a number of "assumes" behind it - like what the framing is and how frequently supported and, as i noted, decking. Basic home builder design issues with lots of resources.