Mounting/moving heavy wall-mounted batteries

[weirded]

I am in the middle of removing and replacing some very heavy (220lb/ea) wall-mounted LifePo4 batteries. When I installed them initially, it was a 3-person effort (two people with ropes/pulleys, one navigating the things into place).

Now, I'm trying to do this on my own. I bought some 1-ton ratched straps at THD and mounted some heavy-duty anchors into studs above, but it's been incredibly tedious and time-consuming to do it this way, and in some instances I've not been able to get the batteries back into the mounting bracket at all this way.

I've considered picking up a motorized hoist from Harbor Freight and building some sort of unistrut rack on the ceiling, but that seems like overkill, since I'll only have to do this once (hopefully).

Wondering what else people have done successfully to maneuver these beasta around.

 

[JoeHam]

I used one of these for a smaller battery :

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099N9P9W4/

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

Invite the guys over for beer and pizza.

 

[weirded]

Invite the guys over for beer and pizza.

They were electricians I paid a non-trivial hourly rate

 

[marionw]

an 4x4 across the bottom of the handles (at least for the bottom battery) and an automobile floor jack. Keep the ratchet straps in place, jack the battery a couple of inches and then take the slack out of the straps. Do this until the battery is in place. You may have to stack some 2x4 or 4x4 pieces up between the floor jack and the 4x4 under the handles to the get the height you need. Take it slow and easy

 

[pvdude]

We did this to install a 120lb inverter on the wall.
Made a lifting frame for the inverter, used the engine hoist, worked great!

 

[Brett V]

I lifted the Growatt on to the wall with an engine hoist.

 

[marionw]

The other way is a 4x4 across the handles and use a fulcrum and something like a 4x4 as a prybar. If I was doing this myself I would hang some weight (couple of bags of quikrete) on the end of the prybar. This would ease the load you are trying to lift with the ratchet straps. Slow and easy, a couple of inches at a time.

 

[Brett V]

We did this to install a 120lb inverter on the wall.
Made a lifting frame for the inverter, used the engine hoist, worked great!
View attachment 202094

You beat me to it! Some sweet vintage test gear in that rack to the right.

 

[Q-Dog]

The lower one I could do with my automotive floor jack. I wouldn't have mounted the other one that high.

 

[weirded]

We did this to install a 120lb inverter on the wall.
Made a lifting frame for the inverter, used the engine hoist, worked great!
View attachment 202094

Nice, yeah, that's a good solution (Andy of Off-Grid-Garage Australia does that, as well, to maneuver batteries). I don't have a jack nor do I know anybody nearby to borrow one (and I don't want to have to find space to store one if I buy one). That would definitely be a nice solution, though.

An adjacent problem is that I need to load 3 of these onto the bed of a pickup sooner or later to take them to a recycling place... The engine hoist would make that part easy, as well...

 

[pvdude]

I moved the 12, 267lb batteries using a cheap harbor freight hoist.
Believe it was designed for a pick-up truck bed, but worked OK for my small trailer.

 

[S Davis]

I have to mount equipment by myself all the time, best way is mount an eye above and use a block and tackle. This way you can easily adjust height and tie off the rope and then muscle it into position.

Here is a 200+ pound heat pump boiler I mounted by myself. I carry lengths of unistrut and spring nuts with a threaded eye if I need to span rafters or 3/8” Sammy’s to go directly into the framing.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

We did this to install a 120lb inverter on the wall.
Made a lifting frame for the inverter, used the engine hoist, worked great!
View attachment 202094

you cheated! you used one of the balance adapters for tilting a v-8 to get it level....

 

[zanydroid]

What all are the ways to do this for exterior walls where you would rather not poke holes to fill later? Or am I being too precious?

And what do installers (vs DIYers) usually do?

 

[Q-Dog]

What all are the ways to do this for exterior walls where you would rather not poke holes to fill later? Or am I being too precious?

And what do installers (vs DIYers) usually do?

One could use a raceway or conduit to get up to the soffit or down to the basement.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Wondering what else people have done successfully to maneuver these beasta around.

I put all the solar gear in the work shop, which has a concrete floor and the Fork Lift takes care of the heavy lifting! LOL.
When we needed to move a piano down a flight of stairs, we used planks and an ATV winch to safely control and lower the load.

Maybe you could attach an ATV winch to a floor joist/rafter above to lift your load.

it's been incredibly tedious and time-consuming to do it this way,

I'll only have to do this once (hopefully).

There is this point, only have to do it once, let it be tedious I guess.

 

[weirded]

Just following up here - after much iteration and deliberation, I found a decent solution for this. I grabbed a chain hoist ($50), sling ($13) ( and D-rings ($6/ea) from Harbor Freight and engineered an eye-bolt I can put enough weight on (using a 4x4 and threaded 1/2" rod). Had to crawl around the attic to put in the 4x4 but now I can move these safely and easily. And once I'm done, all that remains visible is the 1/2" thread sticking out of the ceiling (unless I want to remove it at some point).



Note: I secured both sides of the 4x4 with L brackets, but forgot to take a pic once I was done with all of it.

 

[zanydroid]

One could use a raceway or conduit to get up to the soffit or down to the basement.

I mean to lift the battery.

 

[OffGridForGood]

I can move these safely and easily. And once I'm done, all that remains visible is the 1/2" thread sticking out of the ceiling (unless I want to remove it at some point).

When you go back into the attic to add insulation you can remove the bolt and patch the hole!

Glad to hear you came up with a safe cost effective solution.
I hope you post how these replacement batteries do, after the issues with the originals. It would be good to know if these are better.