Lift 2 New Movers

[jonemery99]

Hello,

Brand new on here and looking for just a bit of general advice, I look after a newly built school theater and have purchased two 2 movers and excitedly got them out the flight case, only to find the weigh over 10kg! I have lifted all the other lights by hand, the heavier ones using rope over the bars.

How would people suggest I lift these two lights?

Many Thanks

 

[llburg]

Head over to the gym?

No, but seriously, find a buddy. Step out into the hall and grab the closest person, it doesn't take any technical knowledge to lift something. It'll be the safest thing for your new investment. I've heard lights dislike meeting the floor.

 

[Footer]

Are you hanging on dead hung pipes? Do you have a genie lift or you working on ladders? There should be a safety cable point on the fixture, use that to tie a rope to and use a sheave and rope to position it, then hang it. Don't lift it by the handles, those are not meant for that.

 

[jonemery99]

Are you hanging on dead hung pipes? Do you have a genie lift or you working on ladders? There should be a safety cable point on the fixture, use that to tie a rope to and use a sheave and rope to position it, then hang it. Don't lift it by the handles, those are not meant for that.

Yes just dead pipes, no lift unfortunately, i have a tallescope not ladders, there is a safety point that i can thread through, so I might give that a try tomorrow.

 

[SteveB]

Are you hanging on dead hung pipes? Do you have a genie lift or you working on ladders? There should be a safety cable point on the fixture, use that to tie a rope to and use a sheave and rope to position it, then hang it. Don't lift it by the handles, those are not meant for that.

I would re-phrase this to state it's OK to lift a mover using the built in handles, as that's how you get them into and out of road cases and onto truss or pipe.

I think what Footer means is do not use the built in handles as rigging attachment points so as to lift the fixture to a dead hung pipe or hang position, instead use the safety attachment with appropriate hardware and precautions,.

 

[jonemery99]

I would re-phrase this to state it's OK to lift a mover using the built in handles, as that's how you get them into and out of road cases and onto truss or pipe.

I think what Footer means is do not use the built in handles as rigging attachment points so as to lift the fixture to a dead hung pipe or hang position, instead use the safety attachment with appropriate hardware and precautions,.

I assumed that he meant not to run the rope through them?

 

[SteveB]

The handles are designed to support the weight of the fixture while lifting. So, Yes, you could tie off rope to the handles and lift to position.

The more secure method is looping the safety cables thru the safety cable attachment points, with the carabiner clip getting tied to 2 ropes. I'd then tie pullys to the rigging pipe for the 2 hauling ropes and haul away. The b _ _ch then is the person on the tallscope (which I wouldn't be using in any event, scaffolding with outriggers being safer) then has to man-handle the fixture onto the pipe. If it's a 22 lbs fixture, the person on the tallscope might be able to handle it. Scaffold would be much safer as you can have two people on top.

The rope attached to the safety cable method, with 2 people hauling, 2 on the scaffold, is how we hung 2 MAC 2k's a few years back on a dead hung pipe in our small theater. Those fixtures weigh 95 lbs each, so all those people were needed.

 

[RonaldBeal]

While a little late, I'll respond for future reference.
For most fixtures, best practice is to run a rope from the top, through one handle, through the yoke, up through the opposite handle, and then knot on top, center of the fixture. The knot should be as close to the fixture as you can get it, so the "up" person doesn't have to lift the light quite as high. Many people use a bowline as the knot. Just make sure the bowline is tied correctly. I personally prefer to use a "figure eight on a bight" knot, with a carabiener, and a daisy chain webbing for faster and safer operation. Tie any excess rope tail as a backup knot.


This method puts less stress on handles, and the yoke acts as a backup if a handle should fail. I recommend against using the safety points for lifting for several reasons: best practice is to safety the fixture to the pipe/truss/structure before you untie the rope. Often that is not practical when the safety point is used for lifting. Additionally, the safety point often is just a hole in a piece of metal, which presents sharp cutting edges to the rope.

My exception to the above is for small moving LED fixtures that don't have handles (such as impression x4's)... since going through the yoke ends up flipping the light over, the safety point is about the only place that can lift the light and keep the clamp facing up.

If a fixture weighs more than 50 pounds, I usually rig my rope as a double purchase system.

To rig the rope for lifting, use a shiv/pulley above where you want to hang it.... higher is better. Just remember that you will be putting well over twice the fixtures weight on the anchor point (a 50 pound fixture, needs 50 pounds of pull on the other side of the rope just to keep the light in one place, so that is 100 pounds of force on the anchor for a 50 pound light. Pulling the fixture up puts even more force on the system.

My regular lifting kit includes:
1 rope bag (aka pumpkin)
1 150' 5/8" cotton static rope (this allows a 70 straight pull, or 45' double purchase pull)
2 split shiv pulleys (only one needed for straight pull)
2 daisy chain webbings (one for the anchor, one for the fixture)
4 self closing, self locking, steel carabieners (2 for single purchase, the extra 2 make double purchase easier, but aren't required)
1 "bear paw" rigging plate. (optional, but makes the double purchase setup nicer)

Hope this helps.
Rig safe

Ronald Beal
20 year touring veteran, who has roped in over 1000 moving lights.