Some years back I was thinking of buying the Easyloader. As it turned out, I
made a similar model myself instead. The reason for this was that the Billet
loader didn't reach far enough for my needs. It reaches twice the width of the
truck deck it's mounted on. For a small pickup it would not be enough for me. So
I made a model that reach 5 meters and rest lengthways on the truck instead. It
doesn't lift so much due to the longer reach but will handle a hive of 75 kg.

http://www.algonet.se/~beeman/material/hivelift-nf.htm

It's mounted on the pickup in 5 min, so I don't keep it on when not used. And I
honestly don't use it very much. Only for moving hives when I'm alone and can't
lift them by myself. It's so much faster to manually move hives with 2 persons
instead of using the lifter. When I made it I wanted to find out if it would be
possible to use it for more than just moving hives. If it would save lifting
when taking off honey and requeening etc. But I don't have the time to use it
the way I work my bees.

 From my experience, a big truck is needed to use a loader. And a hive
management system adopted to the use of a lifter. Anyone buying this type of
lifter is into commercial beekeeping and thus wants the most efficient material
and methods to make a living from it. Now I'm talking honey production,
pollination is a different thing that I haven't got experience of. Where I am on
lat 60 the summer is too short and the loss of time using it will not make sense.

--
Regards

P-O Gustafsson, Sweden
[log in to unmask]  http://www.algonet.se/~beeman/

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