Getting Engine Out of Crate
 

So I have the IO 390 from Lycoming sitting in the garage and I would like a creative idea as to how to get the engine off of the crate/box it came in. I have a cherry picker but that is useless since the legs won't straddle the pallet the engine is currently on. I went to a local rental place and they don't have anything that will work. The pallet is 40" wide.

I am trying to figure out how to jack up the pallet one side at a time and slowly raise the engine off the ground so that I can get the cherry picker under the engine.

My one thought would be to completely take the box off from around the engine and assemble the cherry picker around the engine (if possible) off the ground (above the pallet, then lift the engine and remove the rest of the crate and the pallet, and then put the engine onto something.

Am I just missing something simple? Am I being a complete idiot? Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
ken

Leave it be until you want to mount it.

2 ways

Either fit onto the engine mount vertically, then put the assembly onto the firewall or...

Put the mount on the firewall, then fit the engine onto the mount.

Either way, use the cherry picker with a good sling under the arms.

I raised the pallet off of the ground onto, I think, 4x4 inch blocks. Whatever will accommodate the legs of your engine hoist. I used a lever (actually, a mattock) to lift one side of the pallet at a time onto the blocks. Then, it was easy to position the hoist directly over the engine. :D

I did leave it be. Now it is time to mount. After I asked the question, I figured out the solution. I am also not sure I worded the question correctly. I literally had not way to lift the engine with a cherry picker.

Solution: A couple of 2 by 4s and a couple of car jacks did the trick. I will raise the engine up, pull out the pallet, and then put the original box for the engine on cinder blocks. This will allow me to get the cherry picker under the engine to lift it off the Lycoming crate.

I will then probably build something out of wood to hold the engine so to put on all the suggested hardware before mounting the engine.

Serious confusion here until I realized that you were actually talking about an engine hoist/crane. A cherry picker is something completely different.

Cherry Picker

Now that you have it sorted, how about a few photos of the arrangement that worked? My engine should be here by the end of the month (unless Lycoming delays it for the fourth time...).

I had the same predicament and was trying to figure it out until my 14 yr old son went and got a 2x4 and used it as a lever. Put a few pieces of wood under the pallet and it was solved. I felt stupid and proud at the same time.

An A&P I know called an engine hoist a cherry picker. I was confused as well at the time and thought that it was a common term for it. Apparently not.

I have hear the same reference to an engine hoist as a cherry picker in the auto world.

I work in the industry, and have never seen a manufacturer call that boom lift a cherry picker. Perhaps it's a regional thing. (i.e. Coke/pop/soda) My entire life I've known engine hoists by the term"cherry picker".

yeah, it's pretty common vernacular in the automotive world to call an engine hoist a cherry picker too.